Coca-Cola calls on creatives to help clean up Britain's streets and encourage people to recycle more

Recognising that soft drinks packaging is too often part of the litter found on the street, the drinks giant wants to create an execution that will inspire consumers into adopting a more environmentally friendly approach.

On November 10, Do it Day will see some of the world's biggest advertisers enlist creative and tech talent from the UK, US and beyond to solve real-world problems in just 24 hours. The ambitious initiative will be preceded by Plan It Day tomorrow (29 September), when creative teams will pitch their ideas to the brands involved and they will in turn decide which concept to attempt in one day at Do it Day.

Liz Lowe, corporate responsibility and sustainability manager at ‎Coca-Cola Great Britain, says the winning project will need to "get consumers to reduce the carbon footprint of the drink they have in their hand and then recycle the packaging afterwards," adding that the group has always been mindful that it has a "big responsibility," around the issue.

"Everyone hates it, it is an absolute blight on the landscape and everyone agrees with that. We want to do our bit to be part getting government, civil society, offices, cities, ordinary people to try and tackle it because I don’t think it’s any one part of society’s issue alone, I think it’s everybody’s issue."

As part of its Do it Day push, the beverage maker will be looking for creatives to come up with an execution which is engaging, fun and avoids being "finger-wagging" in order to help tidy up the UK’s streets.

A multi-pronged approach

The challenge the brand has set falls in line with Coke's commitment to the development of a 'circular economy', which explores how product materials and packaging can be cycled back into supply chains. A "crucial" part of this, according to Coca-Cola, is improving its recycling rates and encouraging positive behaviour change among its consumers.

Litter has many well-publicised environmental, economic and social costs, and Coca-Cola has noted that some estimates place the price of clearing it up at around £750m per-year to UK taxpayers.

Over the past few years the brand has worked with local authorities, shopping centres, airports and football clubs to introduce recycling facilities. It's also established a presence at big events like the Royal Highland Show, The Rugby World Cup and Hyde Park's British Summer Time to bring an element of "gamification" to the process.

Coca-Cola's 'Happiness Recycled' push at the 2015 Rugby World Cup

Additionally, the firm collaborates with a range of national groups including Keep Scotland Beautiful and Keep Britain Tidy, of whom it has been an official partner for decades. Thanks to a survey conducted with the former, it found that littering isn't down to a narrowly defined demographic in society, noting that 62 per cent of 45 to 54-year-olds in the north admitted to dropping rubbish. Meanwhile, in partnership with Keep Britain Tidy, it carried out supporting research around trying to understand why younger people litter and found four influencing factors that impacted their decision to drop litter including: personal influence, objects influence, social influence and environmental influence.

So, in order to get consumers to change their ways, Lowe believes that the company will need "a really multifaceted and multi pronged approach."

"It is a really tough brief because I don’t think anyone has really cracked how can we change people’s behaviour. You need to address it on many, many levels from education and schooling right through people’s lives."

Great ideas

Another group Coke works closely with is The Hubbub Foundation, which creates quirky sustainability campaigns in order to spark change among consumers.

Lowe points to the organisation's 'Neat Streets' drive as a notable example of how creatives can disrupt and emotionally engage people to alter their behaviour – from placing talking burping and sneezing bins in small neighbourhoods to encouraging individuals to use their chewing gum to create art that reveals messages about the impact of litter.

Hubub's 'Peppermint Pointillist' chewing gum display

"We want really fun stuff to engage and disrupt people’s chemistry, I think that’s the direction we would love to see the guys at Plan it Day getting really exited about," Lowe says.

When quizzed on how the unique format of the event will differ from Coca-Cola's usual creative processes, she asserts: "I think the whole idea of Plan It Day and Do it Day means you just get so many brains in one room and so many different perspectives. You don’t know who you’re getting, you don’t know what experience they’ve had and they’ll be coming from entirely different viewpoints within the industry.

"I think that’s really refreshing, just to get people who’ve not worked in our business before coming with a very fresh set of eyes.

"A great idea can come from anywhere."

Think you've got what it takes to help Coca-Cola devise a behaviour-changing campaign to encourage people to litter less and recycle more? Then sign up for Plan It Day here and help The Drum prove that marketing can change the world.