Food Campaign Creative

Award outcome

Description

1. Overview This is an invitation to submit a proposal to ReLondon and its partners to develop campaign creative and production for the new pan-London food campaign. The campaign, which will launch in June 2026 and run for one year, is being managed by ReLondon on behalf of the London boroughs. Extensive strategic and insight work has already been done which can be used to develop creative executions. The work will be awarded as a fixed term, fixed cost. 2. Background This is an evolution of the existing pan-London behavioural change campaign, Eat like a Londoner, which was managed by ReLondon with the input and support of the majority of London's boroughs and waste disposal authorities. It was initially prompted by work both by ReLondon via the Food Flagship Initiative and by London's boroughs, via the One World Living (OWL) programme, to identify the waste and carbon hotspots associated with London's food. There is now a timely opportunity to shift focus toward inspiring people to waste less food and recycle what they can't eat - with the focus being on food waste recycling for year one of the campaign, in line with the introduction of the Simpler Recycling policy. The original Eat Like a Londoner campaign ended in April 2025, having achieved year-on-year improvements in engagement and claimed behaviour change. A refreshed campaign will centre on food waste recycling (and eventually food waste prevention), aligning with the Simpler Recycling legislation and practical shifts in how boroughs manage waste. The Simpler Recycling requirements include weekly household food waste collections by March 2026. A cross-London campaign could tap into the motivations of 21-44 year old Londoners and parents with children under 11 (identified by WRAP as those who waste most food), as many establish a new food recycling routine. The campaign would empower Londoners to see the value in food, connect action with impact and feel part of a collective movement. A refreshed awareness campaign aimed at boosting citizen motivation as boroughs implement the Simpler Recycling policy will support several strategic aims, including: • Creating a compelling reason why people should reduce household food waste and recycle it properly. • Enabling a consistent messaging approach across the boroughs signed up to the campaign. • Providing boroughs with a campaign toolkit to continue to engage residents in new food recycling routines. The campaign would be distinct to London's huge population that fall within the target demographic - tapping into cultural pride, practical everyday challenges and diverse food cultures. 3. The brief Design and deliver the creative and production for a high impact, engaging and focussed pan-London food campaign to shape food waste prevention and recycling. The campaign needs to increase motivation, knowledge and make clear how easy recycling and preventing food waste is for 21-44 year olds and parents with children under 11 years old at home (see audience segments in creative strategy). The campaign should be centred on emotion, identity and shared values to tap into why people should care, not just how to do it, at a time when there is an opportunity to start a new normal and establish new habits. The campaign should motivate individuals to reduce their household food waste and, where waste cannot be prevented, recycle it correctly - with the focus of the messaging for year one being on food waste recycling. The campaign should use inspiring messages and visuals, and practical advice to build on the success of the Eat like a Londoner campaign; as well as build on learnings from TRiFOCAL's 'Small Change, Big Difference' campaign and the more recent EU-funded 'Food Wave' project. There is an existing campaign brand identity with the Eat like a Londoner campaign which can be adapted for this new campaign. The campaign would need to be renamed to focus on something less related to eating, but the brand colours, tone of voice guidelines and overall identity can continue to be used (along with website and social channels). An example of a new campaign name is included in the creative strategy, but we are open to hearing alternative names if you think there is a better one which we should consider. Please include testing of a new campaign name in your response. This motivational campaign should play a critical part in motivating residents to recycle unavoidable food waste and adopt new bin routines at home, with clear, relevant messaging tied to upcoming changes. While the 'Love Food Hate Waste' campaign managed by WRAP (Waste & Resources Action Programme) offers broad, national-level resources that are educational, a London campaign should be grounded in London-specific research, including ReLondon's 'London's food footprint' report, the insights that underpinned Eat like a Londoner, and borough-level data on waste behaviours, emissions, and barriers, available in the creative strategy. It should recognise the diversity of the city and different housing types (including flats and flats above shops), tailored to a fast-moving food economy, as well as representing the scale and mix of London's food cultures. This is incredibly important to land the messaging with the target audience, as there is evidence to show that people want to see themselves reflected in the marketing they receive. 3.1 Campaign requirements The campaign is to be delivered over a one-year period, starting in January 2026. The planning phase will start immediately on appointment with a full briefing on progress to date. Our goal is a June 2026 campaign launch. More detailed timings can be found in the creative strategy. While the campaign may create a wide range of assets on both main topics (food waste prevention and food waste recycling) over the year, some boroughs and waste disposal authorities may choose to focus more on one set of messaging, so the campaign must work and be adaptable on several levels, including potentially: • Regional - awareness-raising activity across the capital, including outer as well as inner London boroughs; • Sub-regional - awareness-raising and engagement activity across clusters of boroughs (waste authorities); • Localised - targeted activity tailored to residents of one or more London boroughs. 3.2 Channels/media The campaign will launch in June 2026 and media bursts will continue for the duration of the one-year campaign, at which point the campaign assets will need to be handed over to the London boroughs in a toolkit so they can continue the campaign for subsequent years. We would like to hear recommendations on channel mix, but they are likely to include: • Out-of-home advertising - depending on budgets and media availability, including TFL network (buses, tube, etc), plus owned or price-capped media channels via boroughs (e.g. JCDecaux sites, libraries, community spaces, leisure centres, etc) • Digital advertising - via social media channels (Instagram and Facebook) and influencers. Additional digital channels (e.g. programmatic) may be explored if relevant and recommended in the media plan • Audio - such as local radio and podcasts if recommended in the media plan We are also keen to explore brand partnerships with likeminded individuals, influencers and organisations to help land and scale the messaging. Recommendations for this should be included in the proposal. Owned channels include a website and organic social media channels which are updated several times a week. The website would be updated to include a section dedicated to food waste recycling. It's important that this campaign builds trust with citizens in order to encourage them to reduce and recycle household food waste, so all campaign imagery should reflect the reality of different diets that people have in the capital, including (but not limited to) meat-based, vegetarian, plant-based and flexitarian diets. 3.3 Campaign KPIs and evaluation While the ultimate goal of the campaign is to change people's behaviours at home, it is primarily an awareness-raising campaign to help Londoners draw the link between food and climate, and understand how their food behaviours can both reduce their climate impact and save them money at home. Evaluation will take place at the end of year one and will therefore focus on whether people have seen, engaged with and taken an action against the messaging. KPIs will likely include: • Engagement - how many people have engaged with our ads • Awareness - how many people recall seeing our ads • Consideration - Has this impacted claimed behaviour 4. Objectives The objective of the campaign is to: • Get: Younger Londoners, aged 21-44 and those with children under 11 years old at home (the highest food wasters) • To: Reduce household food waste and recycle what they can't eat • By: Connecting with them emotionally and using normative messaging to engage, motivate and empower them to reduce their "food footprint" (the carbon impact of their household food consumption) This objective will be achieved by fulfilling the following sub-objectives: • Build on Londoner's belief that wasting food is morally wrong and increase awareness of the relationship between food and climate (for citizens already engaged in the topic of sustainability) • Increase motivation to reduce household food waste and recycle food that can't be eaten using behavioural nudges • Build understanding of how to reduce both household costs and impact on the climate through changed food behaviours at home • Drive traffic from the London-wide campaign (on the 'why') through to borough-level service comms (on the 'how') The budget allocation for this activity is £60,000 incl. VAT.

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