Social media campaign of the year
Buckinghamshire Council’s bold ‘For Bucks’ Sake!’ campaign has won the Golden Ele Award. Tackling littering with clever messaging and community engagement, the campaign raised awareness, empowered residents to report offenders, and achieved impressive results, saving taxpayer money and protecting the local environment.
The challenge: The cost to taxpayers of littering
It costs a Buckinghamshire Council taxpayer an estimated £3.5 million to clean and dispose of littered waste safely. The team at Buckinghamshire knew that just a reduction of 5% would result in hundreds of thousands of pounds saved and help them on their way to a greener Buckinghamshire.
For example, it costs £25,000 for each clearance of litter from the A404, Marlow By-pass. Residents are further inconvenienced by the Council slowing (and occasionally closing) roads in order to collect litter.
To help protect the environment, Buckinghamshire Council adopted new powers from the Government to increase the Fixed Penalty Notice (FPN) charge for littering offences to £500 from 23 July 2024 – with no discount for early payment.
The team needed to create a new narrative about the social responsibility of maintaining clean, attractive neighbourhoods, backed up by the sanctions of littering enforcement.
The solution
Buckinghamshire Council’s comms team came up with an eye-catching Facebook campaign, leading with the provocative slogan: ‘For Bucks Sake!’ It aimed to reduce littering (including littering from vehicles), by highlighting that it’s a criminal offence and that £500 penalties would be issued for this crime. The campaign was also designed to invite community members to send in their dashcam footage to report littering offenders.
In order to reach a large audience, the team delivered organic posts and paid for adverts on Facebook and Instagram, as well as organic posts on X, utilising both the main Buckinghamshire Council pages and Buckinghamshire Highways pages. The team measured impressions and engagements, reactions and sentiment, and regularly shared feedback internally with Council staff.
The thinking behind ‘For Bucks’ Sake’
The ‘For Bucks’ Sake’ messaging worked on a number of levels. It echoed the frustration amongst communities regarding those who litter, but also sent a positive message of cleaning up for the ‘sake’ of our county and local environment. Of course, the phrase was also amusingly clever – it was totally unique to Buckinghamshire and a provocative play on words.
The results
The campaign certainly achieved its purpose in grabbing the community’s attention. It divided opinion and got local people talking, thus raising awareness of the campaign’s core message. For every person who contributed to the negative sentiment around the campaign, there was another adding a positive comment about how effective the messaging has been.
During its eight-week campaign on Facebook, Instagram and X, the team at Buckinghamshire Council delivered the following impressive results:
173,896 impressions
18,000+ engagements
2,000+ likes
900+ comments
380+ shares
Crucially, the team at Buckinghamshire Council received dashcam footage capturing others littering and have started to issue £500 FPNs on this basis. As early adopters of the government’s new initiative, Buckinghamshire Council has also led the way in delivering an effective campaign to clean up the environment and save costs.
On winning Social Media Campaign of the Year, Alexandra Gates, Social Media and Digital Content Lead, Deputy Chief Executive Directorate for Buckinghamshire Council said:
“We were delighted to receive this industry recognition of our ‘For Bucks Sake’ social media campaign…
We knew it was a risky approach to take and that it was going to generate mixed feedback and sentiment from residents. However, most importantly, it raised the profile of our zero tolerance policy to littering in Buckinghamshire and got local people engaging with the subject.”
Alexandra Gates | Buckinghamshire Council
The judging panel for Orlo’s Golden Ele Awards said:
“We loved this social media campaign to stop littering… It was clever, engaging, fun and daring!”
Congratulations to the team at Buckinghamshire Council.
ON DEMAND
Orlo’s BIG Social 2024
At BIG Social 2024, we explored the essential building blocks for successful community engagement and looked at how collaboration across the public sector can foster stronger, more resilient communities through brilliant conversations.
We were joined by fantastic speakers from right across the public sector and by some of our incredible Orlo Partners including Luan Wise, Nextdoor, LGcomms and Participation People.
