Campaign Update - December 2010 to February 2011 This report summarises the return statistics and promotional initiatives undertaken by Planet Ark between 1 December 2010 and 28 February 2011. In this report Cartridge Returns... 2 Retail Promotions... 3 Media... 4 Workplace Promotions... 5 Information Services... 6 Participating Manufacturers - taking responsibility for the cartridges we produce 1
Cartridge Returns Monthly Cartridge Returns As expected, cartridge returns fell in December 2010, January 2011 and February 2011 (the summer holiday period) compared to cartridge returns during the rest of the year. However, monthly returns between December 2010 and February 2011 were higher than the equivalent monthly returns between December 2009 and February 2010. These return figures are a very positive result in light of the floods in Queensland (during late December 2010 and early January 2011 with three quarters of the state declared a disaster zone) and Cyclone Yasi in Queensland (in early February 2011). Figure 1: C4PA Cartridge Returns Per Month Number of cartridges returned (items) MobileMuster Returns MobileMuster returns (consisting of mobile phones and accessories) rose throughout this reporting period after a fall in returns in the last quarter (September to November 2010). The monthly returns are shown in Figure 2. Please note: the large spike in August was due to an error in handling by one of the retail stores. The MobileMuster trial has now run for one full year in Melbourne, where it began in March 2010. Figure 2: Monthly MobileMuster Returns (Kg) Weight of mobile phones/accessories returned (kg) 2
Campaign Update Dec 2010 - Feb 2011 Retail Promotions The Good Guys Point of Sale Resources In the week beginning 10 January 2011, one store poster, one staff-room poster and two tear-off leaflet pads were dispatched to all The Good Guys stores. The leaflet pads were linked to an online competition. Customers of The Good Guys could go to a hidden webpage on the campaign website, answer a question about cartridge disposal/ recycling and submit an entry for the chance to win $500. The competition was designed to measure the effectiveness of the leaflet pads as a point of sale resource. Figure 4: Store poster Unfortunately, a visit to three The Good Guys stores in Sydney in January showed a disappointing level of take-up of the leaflet pads by the stores. None of the three stores had displayed the leaflet pads. There were no entries to the competition by the time the competition closed on 28 February 2011. One store had displayed the in-store poster near their cartridge section (see Figure 4, above) and another store had displayed the staffroom poster at the store entrance (visible on the sliding glass door as shoppers left the store see Figure 5, below). The third store visited had not displayed their poster. Figure 3: Front and back sides of the leaflets 3 Figure 5: Staffroom poster spotted on the back of the entrance door
Officeworks Certificates During February 2011, Planet Ark designed and printed certificates for each Officeworks store, intended for public display on the Community Noticeboard at the entrance to each store. The certificates gave the quantity of cartridges that each store had collected during 2010 as well as the grand total since joining the program (see Figure 6). The certificates were distributed to stores in early March 2011. Media 2010 Festive Recycling Promotions In December 2010, Planet Ark conducted a promotional campaign on recycling with a focus on the upcoming festive season. The strategy had the support of Planet Ark ambassador Costa Georgiadis, and involved new educational resources and media releases and interviews. Cartridge recycling was one topic that was promoted in every media release and therefore was included in most media articles. As a result of the festive season recycling promotional push, cartridge recycling and/or recycling through the Cartridges 4 Planet Ark program was mentioned in 13 newspapers and 2 magazines, including Australian House and Garden (February) and New Idea (24 January). Figure 6: Example of an Officeworks store certificate Queensland Flood Response To facilitate easier returns of flood-damaged cartridges from Queensland, a special cartridge collection arrangement was put in place during February 2011. Under this arrangement, 19 Officeworks stores in affected areas of Queensland accepted bulk deliveries of cartridges so that businesses, in particular, could drop off damaged printer cartridge supplies. These stores were then able to send the cartridges to Close the Loop in bulka bags. To let businesses know of this special arrangement, Planet Ark issued a media release to relevant metro and regional newspapers in Queensland. The information was also available on the home page of the campaign website. The response to both the media release and the special collection arrangements was muted. 4
Campaign Update Dec 2010 - Feb 2011 Workplace Promotions Phone Survey on Low Returning Workplaces In early August 2010, Planet Ark commenced a phone survey of C4PA-registered workplaces that had been classified as low returners because they had not returned any cartridges in the last six months. The aim of the survey was to identify the reasons why some workplaces may have lower than average rates of cartridge returns, to identify barriers to workplace participation in Cartridges 4 Planet Ark, and to improve our general understanding of cartridge recycling behaviour in workplaces. Telephone calling of workplaces for participation in the survey began in August 2010 and continued throughout December 2010 and January 2011. Calling of workplaces finished on 27 January 2011, with 141 workplaces participating in the survey. A report on the survey results will be provided separately. New Corporate Registrations There were 226, 231 and 193 new corporate registrations with Cartridges 4 Planet Ark in December, January and February respectively. Monthly registrations for the last year are shown in Figure 6. Figure 6: Number of new corporate registrations per month Number of new corporate registrations 5
Information Services Visits to the Cartridges 4 Planet Ark Website The trend in visits to the Cartridges 4 Planet Ark website (Cartridges.PlanetArk.org) continued to grow gradually between December 2010 and February 2011, as shown in Figure 7. A total of 44,719 visits to the website were recorded during this period. Figure 7: Monthly visits to Cartridges.PlanetArk.org Number of visits DIVERT DIVERT DIVERT Visits/Enquiries to Other Planet Ark Sites That Promote C4PA The Planet Ark website (www.planetark.org) features a Cartridges 4 Planet Ark page (www.planetark.org/campaigns/cartridges.cfm) that includes the OEM logos. The Planet Ark website also describes the program on its Current Campaigns page (PlanetArk.org/about/current-campaigns.cfm). These were visited a total of 2,347 times between 1 December 2010 and 28 February 2011. Planet Ark s National Recycling Week website also features an About Cartridges 4 Planet Ark page which was visited 586 times during this same period. A summary of visitor numbers to C4PA-related webpages is given in Table 1 (next page). 6
Campaign Update Sept - Oct - Nov 2010 Table 1: Summary of visitor numbers between 1 Dec 2010-28 February 2011 Website Page Visits C4PA website Visits to C4PA website in total 44,719 Planet Ark home website NRW website Downloads of promo. resources (Posters, Flyers, Emails, Banner Ads, CSA plays) Visits to pages on www.planetark.org that feature C4PA information Visits to About C4PA page on National Recycling Week website 1,418 2,347 586 The number of visits to each individual C4PA partner About page on the campaign website are shown below in Table 2. Table 2: Number of visits to C4PA partner pages within C4PA website, 1 December 2010-28 February 2011 Pages in C4PA Website Visits Total for OEM About pages 634 About Brother 102 About Canon 97 About Epson 177 About Konica Minolta 78 About Lexmark 95 General Participating Manufacturers index page 85 About Retailers page 166 About Close the Loop 101 Process at Close the Loop s factory 726 Referrals to OEM websites Between 1 December 2010 and 28 February 2011 there were 1,404 referrals from the Cartridges 4 Planet Ark to the sponsoring OEM websites (see Table 3 for a breakdown to individual websites). There were 324 referrals from the National Recycling Week website to the sponsoring OEM websites. Participating Manufacturers - taking responsibility for the cartridges we produce 7
Campaign Update Dec 2010 - Feb 2011 Table 3: Number of referrals to partner websites from the C4PA website, 1 December 2010 28 February 2011 Website Enquiry Type Total C4PA Website Referrals to Brother s website 173 Referrals to Canon s website 223 Referrals to Epson s website 197 Referrals to Konica Minolta s website 172 Referrals to Lexmark s website 639 Referrals to Close the Loop website 391 NRW website Referrals to OEM homepages 324 Referrals to Cartridges 4 Planet Ark Website Of the 44,719 visits between 1 December 2010 and 28 February 2011, 33,793 were non-referred (ie viewers came directly to the website after clicking on a link, typing in the URL or using a bookmark). The top referring group of websites consisted of search engines such as Google and Bing. The group of PlanetArk websites was responsible for 1,480 referrals. The quantity of referrals from Close the Loop, OEMs and Retailer partners is given in Table 4. Table 4: Referrals from C4PA partner websites, 1 Dec 2010-28 February 2011 Referrals Planet Ark websites 1,480 Close the Loop 180 Brother 0 Canon 16 Epson 0 Konica Minolta 15 Lexmark 28 Australia Post 56 Officeworks 36 JB Hi-Fi 22 Dick Smith/Tandy 0 The Good Guys 0 Harvey Norman 0 8