Dog mess campaign could scoop up national award

Thursday 11 February 2016

A campaign that hounded dog owners to clean up their mutt’s poo has been shortlisted for a national award.

The ‘Proud of you for picking up my poo’ campaign launched last summer saw an 88% reduction in dog mess in the Island’s hotspots and has made it to the finals of the National CIM Marketing Excellence Awards 2016.

Freedom Media who came up with ‘Eric’ the doggy face of the campaign, in partnership with Eco Active, have been shortlisted in the category of Sustainability and CSR and have put together this two-minute case study video about it.

Freedom Media’s Creative Director Hannah Shellswell said: “It is fantastic that the campaign has been recognised at a national level and we are delighted to be shortlisted in the category of CSR & Sustainability alongside such high calibre campaigns.

“Our team really enjoyed tackling such a challenging and emotive issue and the strategic creative approach that we took achieved outstanding results. We are looking forward to being part of the CIM Marketing Excellence Awards 2016 final in London in April.”

Dog poo makes all of us a bit barking mad, especially if we have the misfortune to step in it, but picking it all up is also a costly job for the States - their parks and gardens teams were picking up around 15 piles of poo and day and handing out 1,000 emergency dog poo bags every month before the campaign started.

But they didn't have such a messy job during the ten week campaign - wardens recorded not just a reduction but less poo than the previous week meaning that people had picked up and removed poo that was not their dog’s and that had previously been sprayed and recorded.

Queens Valley Reservoir went from 37 to zero incidents of dog mess, which was praised by walkers and Jersey Water who own the site and two urban hotspots with 12 incidents of dog poo decreased to zero.

Lots got behind the campaign - 100 people got out of bed for the 'Big Poo Pick Up' at the worst hotspot and filled almost 300 bags with mess that is dangerous to humans and other animals too, full of diseases and parasites and can cause abortion in cattle.

Eco Active Manager Jane Burns said: “I’m thrilled that the eco active ‘Proud of You’ campaign was such a success and that our positive message and approach had such a significant impact.

“Poo is the top complaint about dogs. It is dangerous and it is damaging our cattle industry. We saw an 88% reduction in the amount of dogs’ mess in our hotspots during the campaign and we are still seeing a difference now.

“We are really proud to have been shortlisted for a national marketing award and we hope that this nomination will bring more profile and attention to this important issue.”

The winners of this year's awards will be announced on 14 April in London.

Acting Chief Executive of the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) said: “It’s a pleasure to announce the finalists of the Marketing Excellence Awards.

“We’ve seen some fantastic entries this year and it is already clear that this will be a great representation of our industry’s hard work over the past 12 months. The finalists are varied, innovative and showcase a range of high quality campaigns.

“The point in these Awards is to remind us why we do what we do, and to demonstrate the impact that creative and well- delivered marketing can have across businesses.”