Sustainability

Credits & Description:

Type of Entry: Product & Service
Category: Retail And E-Commerce, including Restaurants
Title: SUSTAINABILITY
Advertiser/Client: WALMART
Product/Service: RETAIL STORE
Entrant Company: MEDIAVEST USA New York, USA
Media Agency: MEDIAVEST USA New York, USA
Creative Credits
Name Company Position
Megan Riley Mediavest VP/Connections Director
Eleni Bardis Mediavest Connections Associate Director
Erin Monaco Mediavest Connections Manager
Susan Cho Mediavest Digital Associate Director
Erica Barrett Mediavest Print Director
Samantha Birns Mediavest Activation Manager
Jeff Stallings Walmart Senior Media Manager
Rex Conklin Walmart Senior Media Director
Greg Chandler Walmart Director/Reputation Marketing
David Guenthner Walmart Senior Director/Insights/Customer Strategy
Caroline Denton The Martin Agency Senior Account Executive
Details
Results and Effectiveness:
We doubled our sales goal of compact florescent light bulbs, and the energy saved was the equivalent of taking 3 power plants off the electrical grid. Media support drove a +16% lift in Wal-Mart’s association as “the place to buy sustainable products.” Our social network widgets drove 12 million page-views and over 400,000 users. Moms planted 470,000 virtual trees, so Walmart planted 40,000 real trees. Our rate of participation and viral pass-along was 50% above industry benchmarks. Print achieved an average recall of 78% (vs. 58% norm) and our ad ranked in top 5-10% of ads recalled across all publications.
Creative Execution:
Online, we created 2 custom widgets on mom-targeted social networks. The “Make the Pledge” widget publicly committed moms to change and quantified the impact of all the moms pledging together. The “Plant a Tree” widget planted a virtual tree on moms’ profiles and we planted a real tree for every 10 virtual trees. We produced original content - tips, polls, articles - that linked back to Wal-Mart brands. We recruited 25 moms to blog about the changes they made, what they learned, and how their families reacted. Our creative demonstrated that the impact of all 200MM Walmart shoppers changing together, would be the equivalent of taking 111MM cars off the road, or eliminating 130MM pounds of chemical waste. On TV, we partnered with NBC Universal to extend the campaign with celebrity PSAs. In print, we created a recyclable custom 16-page insert showcasing green brands.
Insights, Strategy and the Idea:
Walmart’s agency partners were tasked to elevate its green image and help drive sales of sustainable products, including 100MM compact florescent light bulbs – the equivalent of one bulb for every two of Wal-Mart’s 200MM shoppers. The Wal-Mart Mom wants to make a difference in the environment to protect her family’s future, but she views green options as too expensive for too small an impact. We needed to demonstrate that choosing greener options can be easy, accessible and affordable – not a radical change in lifestyle. Saving the world is too overwhelming to do alone. Our strategy was to quantify the environmental impact of 200MM Wal-Mart shoppers working together to make small, everyday changes. We aimed to put every change she made into context while showcasing quality sustainable brands to increase “green” credibility for Wal-Mart.