Small business recycling

ARL Marketplace

CONTEXT

Helping Australian small businesses improve their packaging sustainability. The ARL Marketplace is an initiative of the Australian Packaging Covenant Organisation (APCO) that’s designed to help Australian SMEs improve their packaging sustainability.

Context

The Australian government is working with industry to get the Australasian Recycling Label (ARL) on 80% of supermarket products. The ARL is an award-winning packaging label that helps Aussies recycle right and supports businesses to create recyclable packaging. While over 800 businesses have made the switch to the ARL, research shows that small businesses are struggling to get started. To address this challenge, in January 2024, the Australian Packaging Covenant Organisation (the organisation that manages the ARL) will launch a new online platform that streamlines the ARL uptake pathway for SMEs. For the platform to succeed, getting the ARL on the radar for small businesses was essential! In June 2022, APCO engaged Horizon to develop and execute a 12-month communications campaign to build SME awareness and understanding of the ARL as a critical tool for business success.

OUR WORK

Our Work

Horizon built an integrated content and communication strategy to help reach and educate Australian small businesses. We worked with APCO’s campaign partners – the Australian Food and Grocery Council, Australian Institute of Packaging and the National Retail Association – to build a suite of bespoke SME-friendly content, a dedicated education portal, and a program of paid, earned and owned engagement.

Highlights Included:

  • Digital strategy: We developed a hyper-targeted social advertising campaign on LinkedIn and Teads, which leveraged the campaign’s bespoke content and distributed it directly to SME decision makers.
  • Media partnership: Coordinated a media partnership with leading SME-magazine, SmartCompany, to amplify the ARL’s credibility. The cross-platform partnership included an educational article series which unpacked the key pain points identified in the research.
  • Events/Webinars: We developed a program of events, industry conferences, weekly drop-in sessions and webinars for the APCO spokespeople and the campaign partners to attend. While this tactic was time intensive, it helped to establish strong and authentic relationships with the SME participants. A highlight was our highly successful, ‘Meet the experts’ webinar attended by over 300 SMEs.

RESULTS

Results

The campaign exceeded all expectations and SMART goals, including:

  • SmartCompany partnership: article series generated 5,000 unique page views.
  • Digital strategy: Teads and LinkedIn delivered a combined 3,843,258 impressions and 17,553 advertising clicks. In terms of cost efficiency, the campaign demonstrated exceptional value. The LinkedIn campaign achieved an average cost per thousand impressions (CPM) of $21.53, and Teads recorded an average CPM of $5.51, both below industry averages, underscoring the program’s impactful content.
  • Stakeholder outreach: Conducted outreach to 121 stakeholders, with 40 organisations re-sharing content.
  • Media: Secured 46 pieces of trade coverage in target publications.

However, the true success of this campaign goes beyond just commercial success. It has successfully and dramatically raised awareness of the ARL – a proven method to improving packaging sustainability and recycling rates in Australia.  

By providing a compelling and accessible commercial narrative – the campaign has laid the foundations for small businesses to label correctly and help their customers to recycle right. 

AWARDS

Awards

Winner

2023 PRIA Golden
Target Awards

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