FROM LANDFILLS
TO LEAD GENERATION
South Africa’s longest-standing Producer Responsibility Organisation (PRO), Petco, oversees collection and recycling efforts of post-consumer packaging throughout the country on behalf of its members. It financially supports recycling activities along the waste value chain, assisting reclaimers at grassroots level while representing some of South Africa’s biggest brands. Petco also fulfils the government-mandated Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) role for its members when it comes to post-consumer packaging.Β
The Task
Petco and its members and partners needed to communicate their message to stakeholders and consumers alike,Β but in a manner that appealed to (and was understood by) each of these vastly different audiences. Despite an abundance of success stories, the brand was relatively unknown outside its membership circle.
Because of its niche and sometimes complex message, Petco’s public relations efforts were stalling. Outside of its social media channels, it lacked a way to talk directly to sustainably-minded consumers and stakeholders (key to garnering support for its sustainability efforts).
OUR STRATEGY
Having been introduced to Petco in 2017 for once-off regional public relations work, GNL subsequently landed the organisation’s full PR portfolio because of our successful campaign execution.
In 2019, GNL began providing a more targeted and data-driven communication solution in the form of email marketing, which would supplement our public relations work. GNL also began assisting with Petco’s stakeholder communications campaigns.
OUR SOLUTION
Direct-to-consumer email offered Petco an uninterrupted communications channel to its members, partners and sustainably-minded consumers without the interruptions (and sometimes inaccuracies) of having to rely on newsrooms or the social media algorithms to get its message conveyed to the public.
The first step was to grow Petco’s (then non-existent) consumer email database, using a carefully tailored online lead generation campaign. GNL launched the lead generation campaign on social media in early 2019, targeting a particular consumer in South Africa β one interested in Petco and its message: recycling and sustainability.
Because social media users react differently to the same message, GNL set up a series of lead generation campaigns to ensure maximum efficacy (the highest possible subscription rate among environmentally conscious consumers). Each of the campaigns had a different touch-point targeting consumers countrywide who would want to receive national sustainability and recycling news.
Garnering these consumer email addresses was not enough, though. Petco’s stories needed to reach these email recipients who were wanting to hear recycling and sustainability news from around the country. This was rolled out in the form of a regular email marketing campaign produced and executed by GNL.
The campaigns needed to strike a delicate balance of being useful to the recipients (so they continued to subscribe to the newsletters and engaged with the organisation), as well as distributing news about Petco and its members.
THE OUTCOME
While GNL achieved an average return-on-investment for Petco’s public relations campaigns of over 2 500% (*based on the value of the earned media exposure), our lead generation campaign for Petco saw its list of email subscribers grow to over 40 000 nationwide.
The average CPL (cost per lead) of growing the database equated to R3 β a fraction of the global industry average cost per lead for a non-profit organisation of over US$30.
This direct and “uninterrupted” straight-to-subscriber messaging meant Petco’s clearest message could reach its desired audience at the click of a button. The email database contained purely opt-in consumers eager to hear about collection and recycling news and who wanted to get more involved in recycling and sustainability in their communities. It was alsoΒ POPI Act compliant.
The email newsletters also received a high βreadβ or “open” rate, averaging up to 40% of all recipients per month β well above the 28% industry average.
An added benefit was that the stories crafted for the monthly newsletters by GNL were housed on Petco’s website (pushing more unique visitors to the site) and subsequently profiled on its LinkedIn channel (growing that channel organically by over 20% within 12 months).
Thanks to GNL’s effective digital solution, Petco continues to enjoy a growing public profile while its members benefit from their purest messages reaching an engaged and PET-conscious consumer audience nationwide.