Best Marketing Campaign

W. D. Boyce Council

2004 Scouts CAN—Save a Can, Build a Home
Council Classification: 600
Contact: SuZan Severson

Objectives

This year, the W. D. Boyce Council, BSA, teamed up with local Habitat for Humanity organizations in an effort to collect 3.5 million aluminum cans, which is enough to build one Habitat for Humanity home. There are several objectives of the campaign. First, help reduce poverty housing and homelessness. Second, prevent aluminum cans from being disposed of in landfills. Third, contain the growth of landfills and reduce adverse environmental and economic impacts. Last, educate the community on the benefits of recycling and volunteering.

Planning Process

The volunteer marketing committee's goal was to create a comprehensive marketing campaign that would provide several multimedia invitations to help create community awareness of the Scouts CAN campaign. Their strategy included a mailer, posters, recycling boxes and bags, banners, Kroger-sponsored sites for collection, Peoria Rivermen hockey jerseys and auction, a progress chart, a house made out of aluminum cans, and Web site marketing. The public relations component included a press conference, several update press releases, television interviews, and newspaper pictures/articles.

The committee worked in conjunction with a local marketing agency, Simantel, to develop the Scouts CAN logo and Anheuser-Busch Recycling Corporation to create the promotional material.

Scouts CAN mailers were sent to every Boy Scout and Cub Scout family as well as distributed throughout the community. Four hundred were handed out at the Peoria Women's Lifestyle show, and others have been handed out in local communities. Recycling boxes and posters were distributed throughout each district and then from there many were taken to local businesses. We were given 12 banners that were 10' x 3' to be placed on the trailers that sit at the Kroger sites. These trailers were donated by I. Erlichman's Co., Inc. and Anheuser-Busch Recycling Corporation to sit on the Kroger site for one year as a dropoff point for the cans.

The planning process took about six months to create and prepare the necessary support. The W. D. Boyce Council sponsored a Scouts CAN kickoff day at our eight Kroger locations throughout central Illinois, where Scouts took in cans from the community as well as created awareness for the campaign, recycling, and Habitat for Humanity. The night of the Scouts CAN kickoff, the Peoria Rivermen wore Scouts CAN jerseys with our logo on the front of the uniform. After the game, the uniforms were signed and auctioned off.

In the box office lobby of the Peoria Civic Center, where 850,000 people pass through in a year, there is a house made out of aluminum cans available to drop your aluminum can into the chimney. Also placed in the lobby of the Peoria Civic Center is a 15-foot banner that serves as a progress chart. With a goal of 3.5 million aluminum cans, or approximately $50,000, with cans we will continue to build upon the progress chart until we have reached our goal.

We have set a minimum goal for every Scout to collect 350 aluminum cans. The second level is 3,500 and the top level is 7,500. As of the end of December, we have had three Scouts achieve the top level, 11 Scouts reached the platinum level, and close to 400 Scouts reached the 350-can level.

Impact

In the six months it took to prepare this campaign, Scouts had already collected and recycled $7,200 worth of aluminum up until our kickoff day on November 20, 2004. One Cub Scout, Tayler McGillis, collected over $1,000 on his own, going to local businesses and asking for their support, rummaging through dumpsters, and walking the country roads collecting out of the ditches. He collected over 2,500 pounds of aluminum and has not stopped there. The impact has been great. Companies that have no affiliation with Scouting have called and requested recycling boxes in their offices. We then match a Scout up with a company to ensure that the cans are being collected and recycled. Since the kickoff day, Scouts have collected over $3,500 to add to the total.

The impact on the community has made people aware of the benefits of recycling and how something as simple as recycling aluminum cans can help build a house and create a home for a deserving family. With four districts in the W. D. Boyce Council, we hope to build a Habitat home in every district.

What Was Learned


The Merits of Marketing (marketing.scouting.org) is a resource for local councils, developed by the Marketing & Communications Division of the National Council, Boy Scouts of America.