Posted on 21 Oct 2021
How lovely is it to see the world slowly get back to normal after a unique 18 months?!
As part of our Covid-19 communications support to Fylde Council, ICG were on hand to assist with the promotion of the safe return to Fylde’s high streets and surrounding areas and, with this, the launch of the ‘Take It, Don’t Leave It’ campaign.
Creating awareness of the harmful affects of litter to wildlife and protecting the beauty of the Fylde’s coast and rural beauty spots, ICG worked alongside stakeholders to support all elements of the campaign, from creating an eye-catching brand to overseeing the roll our across digital channels as well as taking the message out and about in the community in a variety of ways.
Our approach was to use the voices of local people to get the message across - creating shareable video and stills content that appealed to people’s values and everyone ‘doing their bit’ as well as demonstrating the incredible work by local volunteers.
We also wanted to inspire people and commissioned a sand artist and drone video footage to bring our messages to life. Spectacular giant footprints to coincide with the ‘leave nothing but your footprints’ tagline and a magnificent dolphin, which was chosen to highlight the dangers that litter poses to the stunning coastal wildlife, were hand-raked in the sand by St Annes Pier.
The video footage of the incredible sand art was sent far and wide, creating coverage in Lytham St Annes Express, The Blackpool Gazette and BBC Radio Lancashire.
While the PR team were busy with the press, the social team spread the key messages and video footage even further through organic and paid more content reaching over 95,000 Facebook and Instagram users across the North West with nearly 700 engagements and comment from Fylde visitors and residents.
The campaign which ran from July into September was hailed a huge success with a noticeable reduction in litter across Fylde.
Cllr Roger Small, Deputy Leader and Chairman of Operational Management at Fylde Council, said: “We are absolutely delighted with the results of the Take It, Don’t Leave It initiative which has gone a long way to making people think twice before leaving their litter behind.
“The incredible work carried out by our amazing volunteers, along with our teams from the council, has meant that Fylde has been clean and tidy throughout the summer.
“We wanted to support all our local volunteers with a campaign that would amplify the fantastic work they do all year round and we have had a lot of positive feedback from residents, businesses and visitors.”
Coastal Conservationist and Marine Medic, Tracey Hope, led the volunteers and supported the campaign throughout summer.
She added: “During the May half term holiday this year we were inundated with visitors and we saw more litter than ever before, which was heart-breaking to see.
“With more people holidaying in the UK this year we were expecting the same during the summer but we think the campaign has made a real difference to the amount of rubbish left behind.
“We saw a significant reduction in litter and a really promising increase in the number of people stepping forward to volunteer – including lots of young people and children – which is fantastic.
“I think that highlighting the plight of marine wildlife really helped and we had lots of people telling us that they didn’t know that we had so many dolphins and seals in our waters.”
You can view the amazing footage of the sand art shot by North Film below…
