Stormwater Pollution Educational Awareness Campaign
You were introduced to the exciting new Stormwater Pollution Educational Awareness Campaign (SPEAC for short) against home car washing in the ACWA Autumn newsletter.
While you may have liked the idea, I think many of you were left feeling unsure about exactly how you might go about making it work for you.
Let's go through it slowly, bit by bit, so that you feel confident that you really can change your local car owners' habits and have them come to your car wash instead of washing their cars at home.
It's all about making your business more profitable. Currently about 40% of car owners regularly use commercial car washes; if you can increase that to 50% in your area by using this promotion, that is a 25% increase in turnover. Doesn't that make it worth giving it a go......
First of all, go to www.thedirtytruth.com.au and look at the two videos that we have made. See which organisations are supporting us under Useful Links and read the Presenters' Guidelines
So this is what you have to use - and there are several ways in which you can use it to reach your target audience.
WORKING WITH YOUR LOCAL COUNCIL
It's not essential to involve your local Council in the campaign but it will make your marketing so much easier if you have the Council behind you from the start (as well as the EPA, Stormwater Australia and the RACV).
Because the videos talk about all sorts of stormwater pollution from home activities, the local Councils that have seen the videos have mostly been very enthusiastic and keen to be part of the educational awareness process. They tell us that they have wanted simple message materials like this for a long time but have never been able to afford to create them for themselves.
Look at what happened when ACWA Director, Rhys Lyster put a message on his Facebook page.
He had a meeting with the Wangaratta Council the next day. They are getting the Wodonga and Benalla Councils to come and join in - and they gave Rhys a list of names of the Environment teachers at all the local schools for him to contact. They also invited him to attend an upcoming business forum on business sustainability.
If you have a website and/or a Facebook page use them to promote this new campaign against stormwater pollution. If you havn't, go straight to the tried and true way of writing a letter to the Environmental section of your local Council asking if you can come to see them to explain about SPEAC. I have attached a link (below) to a draft Council Invitation letter that you can use and personalise to suit your needs.
If need be, follow up the letter after a few days with a phone call to arrange a discussion meeting between you and the relevant people at the Council. I had a meeting today with my local Council which included their Education officer and a couple from the Public Health sections as well as the Environment people. They want to use the campaign in different ways.
It doesn't matter if they use the videos to promote food health issues or lawn clippings being dumped in the gutter or whatever - in the process the nasty consequences of washing a car on the driveway will seep through.
Hopefully at this stage your Council decides it would like to really engage with the campaign and agrees to sign up as an Active Participant. Their contribution is a one-off payment which will keep them "in the loop" as the campaign develops and give them access to all the marketing materials (so that they can personalise the animation characters with their own messages for instance). It also gives them up to 10,000 personalised flyers (which they can take over time) to use for different events and promotions. I have attached a link (below) to the Council Order Form for you to use, if they are keen to show leadership in the community for SPEAC.
Even if your Council does not come in as an Active Participant they are at least aware - and hopefully supportive - of this new campaign happening in their area.