The Work

In our 10-year partnership with Keep Arkansas Beautiful, we've created some memorable advertising for their tenets of litter prevention, recycling and beautification in Arkansas. But, we needed to create one comprehensive message that would inspire action. Coupling the research findings with a growing interest in the Green Movement, the marketing path became clear.

Our solution? "Shine: Keep Arkansas Clean & Green™" This campaign debuted on Earth Day 2008 and used everything from TV to billboards to persuade Arkansans to "Keep Arkansas Clean & Green." The campaign seeks to educate Arkansans about the individual actions – such as not littering, reporting litter or recycling household items like newspaper and plastic bottles – that make a larger impact on the state's environmental quality of life.

Keep Arkansas Beautiful's litter-education effort needed a fresh face to reveal litter's devastating environmental impact in Arkansas. Leave it to us to turn to the Fouke Monster, Arkansas' own Bigfoot, to help educate the "active litterer" demographic (men ages 18-34). In the spot, the Fouke Monster is outraged with litterers and the negative effects they have on wildlife and the environment. We uploaded the spot to the KAB website and YouTube, and the PSA and a news release were distributed statewide. The results were monstrous:

• 6,330 page views of the PSA on the KAB website in the first three months
• 4,483 views of the extended-length posting on YouTube (9/23/09)
• 50,275 impressions for the news release

To promote the Great American Cleanup in Arkansas, Keep Arkansas Beautiful needed a message that would inspire Arkansans to volunteer their time. A little creative thinking made their limited budget go a long way, and we came up with an ideal solution: retrofitting an existing TV spot for the Great American Cleanup.

The "Beauty" TV spot was the perfect fit. Created by Mangan Holcomb in the late 1990s, it addressed all three tenets of the KAB mission – litter prevention, recycling and beautification. To keep it beautiful, the spot was given new graphics, a fresh voiceover and a call to action.

That year, more than 590 Great American Cleanup events were held in Arkansas, and more than 16,000 volunteers gave nearly 42,000 hours of their time to enhance their communities by picking up more than 1.9 million pounds of litter, sprucing up 832 acres of parks and restoring 63 playgrounds.

In 2004, the Arkansas State Highway and Transportation Department (AHTD) activated a toll-free hotline to make reporting litter quick, simple and anonymous for citizens. AHTD approached KAB to develop the marketing strategy for this hotline.

Mangan Holcomb conceived an animated TV spot featuring a "Schoolhouse Rock"-esque original jingle that incorporates the Litter Hotline number. Throughout 2005, the spot aired statewide as a TV PSA. Illustrations from the spot were also recreated on donated billboards. The campaign also included point-of-contact materials at state parks and rest stops statewide.

In the first two years, more than 5,000 reports of littering were made, and in 2006, the number nearly doubled – to 9,666. To date, the hotline has received more than 30,000 reports of littering. The campaign has also won numerous Arkansas PRSA and Arkansas IABC awards, as well as two national Rogers Awards from Keep America Beautiful.

Keep Arkansas Beautiful had been using a different campaign every year to promote its Great Arkansas Cleanup (GAC), a statewide volunteer litter-pickup event. In 2005, we suggested simplifying things a bit by developing a "recyclable" campaign to be used year after year to create a consistent GAC brand. "Litterman," a stick figure holding a litter-pickup tool, was created, along with the strong and simple call to action: "Do Something. Volunteer in the Great Arkansas Cleanup."

With help from an animator and original choreography, Litterman came to life. In the TV PSA, he picks up litter, landscapes with a hoe, and uses other tools of the GAC "trade," such as a paintbrush and rake. At the end of the spot, Litterman steps into a yellow circle and sticks his litter-pickup stick into the ground as the "Do Something" message reverberates on the screen. Litterman brought huge results in the first year:

• 18,944 Arkansans volunteered for 183 GAC events statewide
• 3.6 million pounds of litter were picked up
• 2.5 million media impressions appeared in newspaper, TV and radio

Even though some may not think of them as trash, cigarette butts are the most common form of litter in Arkansas.

To remind people of this, Mangan Holcomb conceived the "Cigarette Fairy," a full-grown man tasked with picking up cigarette butts on Arkansas roadways. In these ADDY and IABC award-winning spots, the Cigarette Fairy begs the public not to litter cigarette butts, or he'll never move up the fairy corporate ladder.

In 2002, KAB wanted to expand its advertising messages beyond the litter-focused "Fight Dirty" campaign to include recycling and beautification.

Mangan Holcomb's Chip Culpepper found the inspiration to write "Take it Back," a catchy (we still have it stuck in our heads) lyric that refers to the need for Arkansans to do something proactive to take back our state's natural beauty.

The "Take it Back" campaign debuted in style at a public event in downtown Little Rock, where a local rock band, backed by Arkansas R&B and gospel vocalists and more than 60 fifth-grade choir students, performed the song live. The jingle was then produced into a karaoke-style sing-along and made available to schools across the state.

Research has shown that when it comes to positively influencing littering behaviors, women have the power. Thus, Mangan Holcomb conceptualized "Rewind" as an emotional appeal to stop littering.

In the spot, a child is playing in a stream as a broken bottle drifts towards her, creating an intense scenario in which a child could be harmed by litter.

Focus group participants reported feeling emotionally involved after watching the spot. Tracking research found that recall of the "Rewind" message was surprisingly high. The spot also earned a first-place national Rogers Award from Keep America Beautiful.

Research showed that in regard to active littering, males in their early 20s are the biggest offenders. Another study showed that 75% of all deliberate littering in rural areas occurred among persons 10-29 years of age, peaking at age 20-24.

With this information, we developed "Trash Magnet," the short story of a hip young man whose constant littering comes back to him in a very embarrassing way. The idea behind the concept was to target this specific demographic (the "Active Litterer") by following a likable, comic character through his day as he deliberately litters everywhere he goes.

This spot made viewers laugh out loud during screenings, and Active Litterer compulsive channel-surfers actually watched the entire 30 seconds. Recall of this spot was also high across all demographics.