We sort content, you sort waste

Addressing such a widely differentiated target market is a challenge for EKO-KOM. The communications mix is structured so that appropriate channels reach the correct audience. Most activities take place in a digital environment, but TV commercials and other formats, also have a role to play. Havas Digital delivers all collateral for online and TV – from creative ideas and long-term strategy, through media planning to content creation and campaign implementation.

Havas Digital is responsible for the entire digital ecosystem – web pages and social networks, PPC and SEO support and technical development of web sites. A novelty for 2021 will be a mobile application with an interactive map to help with sorting. Thanks to intensive cooperation on a daily basis with the EKO-KOM team, the Agency has created an effective hub for EKO-KOM, which helps maintain consistent communication across activities. And most importantly: Czechs are sorting more and more.

A web of activities

The centre of events in the online space is the web magazine Samosebou.cz, which in 2020 was visited by more than 1.87 million users. Since 2017, when 350,000 visitors have visited the website, while the market share in search has been growing significantly and continuously thanks to a change in media strategy and streamlining communication. In 2019, we performed a thorough audit of the website and, based on the results, its facelift in the second half of 2020. The changes were more than merely cosmetic.

The goals of the website have changed over the years. The audience has aged. It was necessary to adjust its basic purpose. And this, the lifestyle platform with predominant video content became a magazine focused on delivering current information on waste sorting and recycling in the Czech Republic. We have also included more professional topics to satisfy readers from the ranks of interested experts. Readers visit the articles mainly from a mobile phone (up to 70%), to which the content is adapted. In addition to visual changes, we have better sorted topics and improved navigation to make them more intuitive, added new tools such as a glossary, a “what belongs where?” section that explains where to properly dispose of different types of waste, and included interviews with interesting personalities.

Every year, we publish around 120 articles here, which we carefully tailor to various groups through consistent segmentation, and cross promote on social networks. In 2020, we managed to improve the interconnection between these channels, as evidenced by the growing interactions on social networks.

Narrowly focused social networks

The Facebook page, It makes sense, I sort waste!, has a base of 110,000 fans and a stable audience that actively comments on and shares content. In terms of knowledge and skills about sorting ,the community is a highly experienced and informed one. We rely on content that educates in a digestible and simple way, such as statistics, infographics and illustrative visual contributions. User reach increased by 37% to 940,000 in 2020 and almost doubled compared to 2018. Impressions of paid content increased by one million year-on-year, even though the budget was only 5% higher.

A second Facebook page, Samosebou.cz, also recorded great growth, maintaining a predominantly lifestyle format educating in a non-pushy way. With 22,000 fans in the 18-35 age group, the reach doubled from 800,000 to 1.6 million in two years, and the number of impressions increased almost fourfold – from 3.5 to 12 million. Another important metric for us is, of course, clicks, where we lead users to read articles on the Samosebou website. These increased by 46% year-on-year compared to 2019. Comparing 2018 and 2019, the increase was even more dramatic – by almost 200%.

The numbers confirm the viability of the chosen media strategy and the division of channels enabling a better focus on specific target groups. Our quick response to the covid-19 pandemic and the adaptation of the content to be more relevant to social events also contributed to the good results. Our chatbot also reacts to the current situation and thus does not lose its users, of which there are more than 10,000. We also achieve higher engagement through regular innovations and the inclusion of new content formats. For example, we regularly bring information in the Instant Experience format and thanks to that we interact with users for up to 44 seconds (although the usual time spent over one post is 2 seconds according to Facebook).

The instagram profile of Samosebou tridim also recorded a huge year-on-year increase in organic interactions, by more than 500% on average. To illustrate, compared to June 2019/2020, their number increased from 106,000 to 674,000. The number of fans has increased by 73% from 11,000 to 20,000 over the last year (over 31,000 in February 2021). The involvement of instastories, reels and the emphasis on engagement formats, such as competitions, surveys, voting or various calls for sharing and creative involvement, significantly contribute to this. An example are the branded gifs of sorting containers, which have become very popular among users.

The audit of the website also showed us that the series of articles “I sort like a Diva” works very well, and the do-it-yourself series “We create without waste” has also proved its worth for women. This was an impulse for us to reach women aged 25-44 with an interest in home decorations and crafts in their next natural environment, on Pinterestu. We opened the account in January 2020 and received 125,000 impressions without paid support by the end of the year. Thanks to the change in Pinterest’s conditions, we can also start monetizing selected contributions in 2021, which will contribute to the further development of this channel.

How to inspire people to sort anywhere?

For the third year in a row, we have been attracting the inhabitants of the Czech Republic to nature, and with the help of the “Pure Nature” campaign, we are teaching them how to treat it with consideration. On the year-round accessible microsite (in the main menu Samosebou.cz), those interested can find interesting tourist routes and every year we add more. In addition to leading through beautiful nooks and crannies, they also show where the waste you create on the trip can be sorted along the way. In 2020, ten new routes were added, and we sent them to the world through a campaign led by a new video spot, followed by new formats of posts on social networks and dynamic banners. A separate microsite has also undergone an innovation, which now allows you to filter routes according to the difficulty and type of trail. We are now preparing more news.

A newly established cooperation with influencers was also very successful, specifically representatives of the Czech Skateboarding Association, with whom we prepared a summer campaign “Ride with heart, sort with brain”. Despite the government’s restrictions, we implemented this in the period from May to September in order to get the attention of young people. The campaign was successful mainly due to its authenticity. Young skaters really care about sorting waste, which fans were convinced of in video interviews and the skaters also promoted them on their own profiles. The campaign included a landing page, an advertising video, a skateboard competition and other prizes. We plan to continue with this format in an expanded form in 2021.

We include interactive competitions and quizzes on average once every 2-3 months, they form an integral and popular part of all campaigns. Last year, they attracted an average of 3,300 entrants out of their average attendance of 36,000, with the exception of the skater competition, which was doubled. Two-phase mechanics with the use of a chatboat on Facebook Samosebou proved to be successful for us. Of the total number of those who visited the competition on a chatboat, more than half took part, which is well above the average of other channels.