Reimagine Phoenix Campaign

Last Thursday, I attended a meeting with staff from Solid Waste and the consultants that are helping the City with its "Reimagine Phoenix" campaign. Their job was to come up with ideas for communicating this campaign to the public. It was pretty interesting for me to see the marketing side of city government.

Reimagine Phoenix is all about reducing, reusing, recycling, reconsidering, and reimagining. The consultants had some very visually appealing ideas for print ads and billboards using the pinwheel pictured above. The ads featured 2 items: one that can be recycled into the other, like tires into colorful sneakers.

The consultants also had ideas for radio, TV, and a website for Reimagine Phoenix, encouraging residents to think of trash as something that can be reused or recycled rather than thrown out. I really liked the website design, and I liked how they connected to social networks, especially Pinterest. I am a big Pinterest fan, and people post so many crafts and ideas on how to reuse items on that site.

One of the issues we discussed at the meeting was the magnets. In the past, Phoenix gave out magnetized laminates that describe the items that residents can recycle. However, the magnets are expensive to mail out to everyone. We were trying to think of new ideas of how to encourage people to recycle and also to recycle correctly. Some thought the magnets were still the best, and other ideas included a printable pdf, or a decal on the bottom of the recycling bin lid.

I am currently working on communications and messaging for Phoenix's pay-as-you-throw garbage program, which will roll out next year, so this meeting was very useful to me. I am excited to see the Reimagine Phoenix campaign roll out.