Challenge:

Plastic had taken a bit of a public pounding. But the businesses and organizations that comprise the American Chemistry Council (ACC), were determined to demonstrate their collective commitment to developing products that are not only eco-friendly but also integral to the advancement of medicine, fashion, sports, cooking, packaging, toys, and many other fields and disciplines.

Strategy:

Plastics Make It Possible was a great campaign created by agency partners. The ads featured people whose lives were improved by the unique characteristics of plastics.

We wanted to leverage and extend the campaign to unexpected but everyday spaces where consumers might have taken plastic’s integral role for granted.

My Role In The Solution:

We developed a content-driven online campaign that leveraged bloggers and other social media influencers in key verticals–food and wine, fashion, and sports–and centered on popular events.

We chose the Aspen Food & Wine festival as our food and wine event. The annual event draws thousands of food and wine lovers from around the country to enjoy gourmet food made by celebrity chefs and wine from the world’s best wineries.

I developed criteria to identify and qualify the top 100 foodie bloggers, twitterers, and facebookers.

My criteria included the number of followers or subscribers, the percentage of followers or subscribers who were active participants (commenting, sharing, retweeting, entering contests), and their site’s  search engine rank.

I also identified local culture bloggers based in and around Aspen, CO.

I developed an outreach plan and an editorial calendar of content to offer and co-author with the bloggers in the days leading up to the event.

Content included brief articles on plastic cooking products and on the ACC’s participation in the upcoming event.

We also worked with the ACC to develop a giveaway. We offered participating bloggers the opportunity to give free silicone cookware and a chance to win a pair of free tickets to the Aspen Food & Wine Festival to their followers/subscribers.

The ACC secured a prime location in the tasting pavilion where they offered plastic flatware and recycling containers for all to use.

Results:

Nearly half of the influencers participated. Most took advantage of the giveaways. Some shared the articles we developed, and others attended the event and covered the ACC’s cameo at the event.

We also garnered significant social mentions.