Boosting social engagement at every opportunity

Challenge

The Return-It Gang puppets have been encouraging British Columbians to recycle for years. As a result, Return-It has become one of BC’s most recognizable brands. Despite this success, each year presents the same challenge on social: from “Happy New Year” to “Happy Holidays” how do you grow engagement with the same message and the same characters post after post after post?

Approach

The first step was to utilize the illustrated versions of the Return-It Gang. These were created to breathe new life into the brand and gave us the freedom to show off more of our characters’ personalities. Next, we utilized more formats and channels on social, exploring more ways to bring the Gang, and their message, to life. Finally, we made sure each post, (no matter how many times we said “Happy Mother’s Day”), was different, giving our audience a new way to engage with the brand at every opportunity.

Results

The endeavour to boost social engagement and increase recycling in BC is ongoing. However, success from our new approach continues to grow. Between January and March this year, new sign-ups for Return-It’s Express program increased to 13,000, up from 8,000 during the same period in 2020.