Plastic Banega Fantastic (Making Plastic Fantastic)
Hindustan Unilever
Issue 57 | December 2020
Agency
Geometry Encompass
Creative Team
Executive Creative Director: Arpan Jain Sr. Creative Director: Meenal Brahmane Associate Creative Director: Sandeep Gaur Creative Directors: Alison Valles, Shravan Mairale Senior Copywriter: Ingrid Dsouza Creative Group Head: Madhurya Alankaar
Production Team
Ashish Shrivastava, Ajay Mishra, Farhan Hussain, Pravin Devgan
Other Credits
Managing Partner: Shankar Shinde Business Director: Siddharth Agarwal
Date
February 2020
Background
It’s known that brands like Unilever are some of the biggest contributors to plastic waste in the world. While Hindustan Unilever is already taking measures like introducing 100% eco-friendly packaging and refill solutions, implementing such measures across the market could take years. So, how could HUL take a more immediate step that would genuinely make a difference and overcome the impact of plastic pollution? To create meaningful impact, it was necessary to stand apart from the myriad of existing plastic initiatives.
Idea
Numerous initiatives have been taken to protect aquatic life and the environment from plastic pollution, but we’ve turned a blind eye to its grave effect on the communities closest to us. A report by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation predicts that plastic in the oceans will outweigh fish by 2050. India’s 14.5 million fisherfolk are directly impacted by the plastic pollution in our seas. Every piece of plastic instead of fishes in their nets, affects their livelihoods. Through its various initiatives, HUL has always helped India’s communities thrive. Hence, the idea was to shift focus towards helping these fishing communities. Simply removing plastic out of the equation for the fisherfolk would be a great start, but it wouldn’t undo the existing damage caused to them. A one-of-a-kind recycling initiative was devised that collected problem-causing plastic and it was transformed into a problem-solving enabler. Plastic that clogged their livelihoods was collected from the coastal areas, recycled and returned as boats and nets that helped rebuild the communities. Championing its cause from day one, the campaign was launched at ground zero of plastic pollution – a fishing community. Harnessing the power of social media, celebrities brought alive the objective of ‘Plastic Banega Fantastic’ through fun thumb-stoppers. Messages from online influencers and their radio partner drove participation. Diverse volunteers joined forces to clean up beaches across the country. They branched out to other communities, so that plastic that stole recreation from parks and schools would help recreate them with benches and planters. People witnessed the remarkable results of a good plastic recycling initiative, first-hand.
Results
- Over 4350 volunteers started a little good. - More than 40,000 kgs of plastic was collected. This was only enough to create 30 boats,100 fishing nets, 500 planters and 100 benches.
- The campaign caused a 27%* increase in brand affinity and a 35%* increase in the perception of HUL as a brand that does good for society.
- It earned PR worth $102,530*.
*Source: Nielsen Data