Edward Hsieh, MassRecycle, describes the multimedia outreach Keep Mercury from Rising outreach campaign and the lessons learned. Social media, traditional media and more. Plus, important survey results.

1. MassRecycle’s Keep Mercury
from Rising Campaign
Running Traditional and Social Media Outreach
Plus Important Survey Results

2. Keep Mercury From Rising
• Massachusetts Waste-to-Energy facilities are required to
run Mercury Separation Plans (MSP) to prevent mercury-
containing products from entering the municipal solid
waste stream
• Covanta SEMASS approached MassRecycle to
administer its MSP for 2013, 2014 and 2015
• MSP is a great project for MassRecycle
• Diverting products, especially hazardous ones, from the solid
waste stream matches with MassRecycle’s mission
• MassRecycle is trying to move to stable, programmatic funding

3. Re-envisioning the Campaign
• MSP campaign as run by ERC (original vendor)
• Traditional media
• Training
• Survey
• MSP campaign re-envisioned by MassRecycle
• More cost-effective traditional media with fresh content
• Training redesigned around community-based social marketing
(CBSM)
• More comprehensive survey
• Social media

4. Traditional Media Outreach
• Negotiated May and September flights (budget $17,000)
• Prime times of the year
• Narrowed the media outlet line-up to maximize budget and target
certain demographics such as contractors and homeowners:
• Comcast Spotlight cable television
• WEEI Greater Boston radio
• WXTK Cape Cod local radio
• WGBH underwriting
• Created new content
• Video producer contracted by Covanta
• Developed in-house new radio content and cable PSA’s
• Radio stations very willing to provide recording studio time and talent at no
or low cost

5. The New Content: TV PSA

6. The New Content: Radio

7. Traditional Media Results
• 560 ads per week run on Comcast television alongside
high profile shows, like NBA games, Sportscenter,
Bridezillas, even the US Open
• Radio ads on WEEI and WXTK ran at a frequency
between 1.0 and 2.0
• WGBH flight was underwhelming – 1 week prior to NPR,
with sub-1.0 frequency

8. Traditional Media Lessons
• Need a 3.0 frequency or higher to influence behavior change
• Bell-curve of human behavior – the bulk of the population needs an
ad in their face to react
• Need a decent budget to be successful at traditional media
• $5,000 was not enough to hit 3.0 frequency with cable television
• Cable television was surprisingly more cost effective than radio
• 2014 MSP will focus almost all traditional media money into cable
television
• Don’t overlook Public Service Announcements

9. Social Media Outreach
• Focused on FaceBook sidebar and newsfeed (timeline) ads
• Many apps exist to run FaceBook advertisement campaigns, but
most act like middle men and add costs
• FaceBook has its own FaceBook-based app
• Bid on priority placement
• Bids are placed per ad, either per click or per impression
• Targeted by zip code
• Targeted demographics including age, sex, even profession
• Bids can be adjusted on the fly
• Developed new FaceBook ad content from scratch
• Facebook ads consist of limited text and one small picture
• Tracked ongoing metrics

10. Social Media Content

11. Social Media Results

12. Social Media Results
• Over 60,000 impressions each month
• 180,000 unique views in less than 5 months
• Over 1,800 clicks, indicating a response
• Over 500 click through to the website responses
• Cost stayed under $1.00 per click, averaged between
$0.57 and $0.72
• Average frequency of 3.22

13. Social Media Lessons
• Social Media Outreach is extremely cost-effective
• Frequency over 3.0 reached bidding below average
• Be careful not to bid per impression unless you have a
large budget
• Research shows that average user has “banner
blindness” and only looks at a given spot on a website for
19 seconds (even less for younger generations)
• MSP results show banner blindness – newsfeed ad received a
much higher frequency than sidebar
• Plan on improving ad picture in 2014 to catch users within
those 19 seconds

14. MSP Survey
• Survey designed to measure the impact of MSP
• Partnered with UMass Dartmouth to run a cost-effective
survey
• Randomized calls within the SEMASS area codes
• Over 400 completed surveys at 95% confidence level
• Refined the questions and added new questions, while
keeping the survey 8 minutes long
• MassRecycle given the discretion to ask general waste
diversion questions on top of the requisite MSP questions

15. MSP Survey Results
• Mercury Questions
• General Mercury awareness
• Based on the survey, most are aware of the dangers of mercury (over
50%) and recognize common mercury-containing products (over 70%)
• Most (over 60%) know not to dispose of mercury in the trash
• However, less than 20% knew the proper disposal method
• Almost 1/3 were familiar with the Keep Mercury from Rising
campaign
• Respondents split responsibility for proper disposal of mercury
fairly evenly between individuals, manufacturers and municipal
government

16. MSP Survey Results
• Recycling Questions
• Most respondents had access to recycling (over 90%)
• When given false positives, respondents failed to demonstrate
understanding of waste bans
• Respondents (77%) misidentified paint as waste banned in MA
• Respondents (35%) misidentified textiles as waste banned in MA
• Most respondents turn to either their municipal DPW or the
Internet to find out how to properly dispose of a given material
• Older respondents are more likely to check with the municipal DPW
• Younger respondents rely more on the Internet
• Few think of MassDEP or MassRecycle (less than 3% each)

17. MSP Survey Lessons
• Survey Design
• Surveys must remain short to be cost effective
• Going over 8 minutes could have necessitated farming out the calls to
a data mining firm
• Questions must be carefully crafted to retain statistical
significance
• However, questions designed to prove a point do not damage
statistical significance if worded properly and without bias
• Repeating the same question in different ways is not required for
statistical significance

18. MSP Survey Lessons
• Important Takeaways
• Waste Bans and the complexities of proper disposal are not
common knowledge
• Don’t forget the Bell Curve!
• The data emphasizing the confusion around Waste Bans and disposal
held true to findings of behavioral psychology
• The average citizen does not know, does not have the time, does not
care
• Outreach and our approaches to problems need to take this into
account and be tailored to combat human behavior

19. Questions
• Edward Hsieh
617-338-0244 | director@massrecycle.org
MassRecycle
50 Franklin Street
Boston, MA 02110