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For Fish’s Sake Putney I M PAC T R E P O R T A U G U S T- N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 8
W W W. H U B B U B . O R G . U K
FFS Putney INTRODUCTION
Hubbub has been exploring ways to tackle the rising amount of litter in the river Thames. For Fish’s Sake (#FFSLDN) was first launched in 2017 in the London Bridge area and reduced riverside litter by 32%. The campaign returned in 2018 to stem the flow of litter in Putney. For Fish’s Sake was created by Hubbub and was funded in Putney by Wandsworth Council, Positively Putney BID and Port of London Authority.
FFS Putney 2018 AMBITION
1. To make visitors and residents of Putney aware of the link between city litter and marine pollution. 2. To further raise awareness of ‘tidy litter’, i.e. neatly placing litter in places that aren’t the bin. 3. Refine the 2017 campaign by bringing last year’s most successful elements to Putney and test them in a residential environment with a less transient audience. 4. Test new approaches through engagement with local businesses, rowing clubs and organisations with links to the river.
INTRODUCING T H E C A M PA I G N
I N T R O D U C I N G T H E C A M PA I G N
LOCAL LAUNCH A soft launch took place on 10th August when local media were alerted of the installations put in place and a photo opportunity took place with representatives from the partnering organisations.
I N T R O D U C I N G T H E C A M PA I G N
N AT I O N A L L A U N C H On the 8th September the campaign was launched to national media, featuring a pop-up ‘fishmonger’ at Positively Putney’s Summer Party. Combining the most effective parts of two events from 2017 we displayed litter collected from the Putney foreshore on ice in a faux fishmonger stall. Two actors dressed up as a fishmonger and a scuba diver brought the stall to life, and we handed out fish and chip sweets. This attracted significant media coverage including an extensive interview on BBC Radio London. This stunt was repeated during the campaign, first at Tideway’s Foreshore Festival and then the stall was lent to the organisers of Barnes Tidy Towpath who dressed up as a fishmonger and brought it to two further locations along the river path.
KEY INTERVENTIONS
KEY INTERVENTIONS
LAMPPOST WRAPS At Putney Wharf we put up a series of lamppost wraps – an intervention that was featured in our anti-flytipping campaign in Tooting – to trial its impact in the context of riverside littering. In a survey we carried out with local people we found that lamppost wraps were the most highly recollected intervention. There were 15 of these in a concentrated area making them very visible and on lampposts they were in people’s line of sight.
KEY INTERVENTIONS
BANNERS
A series of banners displayed educational messaging about tidy litter, the amount of litter that gets cleared from the Thames, and to raise awareness about the effect of litter on wildlife. The banners were in the top three memorable interventions. Like the lamppost wraps they were brightly coloured and in multiple locations along the river, making it likely for people to notice them.
KEY INTERVENTIONS
VOTING BINS Voting bins were placed in three riverside locations featuring topical questions related to Putney or South East London. On several occasions the bins along the embankment were observed to not have been used as much as the one at Putney Wharf. This could be due to where they were placed and not having suitable questions for the audience. Voting bins were in the middle grouping for being memorable, possibly partly due to there only being two in place for the majority of the campaign. The Putney Wharf voting bin had to be removed after about a week as it broke and overfilled, causing a risk of litter entering the river. We are looking into a new voting bin design that is more effective.
KEY INTERVENTIONS
FLOOR VINYLS Vinyl floor stickers were applied across the campaign area. Some were replications of our original ‘grate art’ from 2017 with fish with litter in their mouth, and we also trialled new floor vinyls that were giant pieces of litter, to visualise the scale of the problem and the unsightliness of litter. The vinyl stickers were also in the middle grouping of memorable interventions. They were only in place for about a week before they started to come off the pavement, after a few days of flooding along the Embankment. This was something we hadn’t foreseen as the London Bridge vinyls remained in tact for the whole campaign as it’s not an area that floods. In the future floor vinyls will only be applied in areas that don’t experience flooding.
KEY INTERVENTIONS
COMMUNITY GALLERY A Community Gallery was displayed along Putney Embankment to encourage people not to litter by showcasing the different ways people use and care for the Thames. As well as using some images from the previous year we also photographed three new local people with connections to the river to keep the intervention as locally focussed as possible. The Community Gallery was one of the least memorable interventions according to our survey. This could be due to them being smaller and less brightly coloured compared to other more memorable elements of the campaign.
KEY INTERVENTIONS
BALLOT BIN
A Ballot Bin ashtray was installed opposite a riverside pub. We trialled two questions, the first was a vote about the best video game console, aimed at young men (the demographic that is statistically more likely to litter). The second question was a vote to decide the best fishy name (Nicola Sturgeon or Rosamund Pike), which was aimed at the more nautically interested audience. The Ballot Bin was in the group of the least memorable interventions and also experienced a lack of use. We suspect this is due to the questions not being suited to the audience, the placement of the bin not being directly outside the pub, and there only being one in place throughout the campaign.
KEY INTERVENTIONS
I N S TA L L AT I O N A cube was installed at Putney Wharf showing the history of the Thames, how Londoners connect with the river, statistics about river litter and the connection to wildlife, showcasing the great work that organisations and groups do to clear it up, and what individuals can do to help. The cube was in the top three most memorable installations. This could be due to it being physically large, brightly coloured, and containing engaging material. The cube’s next destination is the Royal Borough of Greenwich where it will tour riverside locations throughout 2019.
KEY INTERVENTIONS
ROWER’S GUIDE Putney is home to a thriving rowing community, but some litter is caused by rowers or the events connected to water sports. To engage with these groups we interviewed rowers to understand the problem and created a guide for them to display in their clubs to inform them of the best ways to make sure they aren’t contributing to river litter. 15 posters were distributed in person to 5 rowing clubs. They each agreed to put up 3 posters in their club. The rest of the posters were given to the Crew Room rowing-wear shop who offered to add them to some packs of items they were giving to the clubs. These were distributed to every rowing club in Putney.
Remember your reusable bottle
Don’t leave bottles
Bring a bag for empty snack wrappers and put
Don’t stuff packets under the boat seats,
Go to the toilet before you leave
You could get disqualified from the race if you pee
Check the boat for rubbish
When you tip it, rubbish could blow into the river
any litter inside the hatch-cover
the boathouse
when you get back to dry land
W W W. H U B B U B . O R G . U K
REGISTERED CHARITY NO. 1158700
on the bank
they could blow into the river
in bottles or from the boat!
COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
RIVER LITTER NETWORK One issue that was raised at the Stakeholder Launch is that there are lots of groups and organisations doing things to clean up the river and to prevent further litter pollution, and that it would be useful to have a streamlined channel for them to connect, collaborate, and inform supporting organisations of their activities. We first set up an email chain for this to take place on and then a Facebook group, neither of which got off the ground. This is due to there being a too wide range of stakeholders in the groups for it to have a core purpose. There are still active community groups continuing to work on river litter in Putney and are organising meetings to collaborate.
COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
TA L K S & W O R K S H O P S Primary School For Fish’s Sake was promoted in talks at a local primary school and at the Friends of Wandsworth Park AGM. Workshop for businesses A workshop has been designed for local businesses to find out more about plastic pollution and come up with some solutions in their workplace. This will be taking place in early 2019.
REACH
Approx. 432* made a connection through direct engagement at the stakeholder launch, talks in the school and Friends of Wandsworth Park, and at the fishmonger events Hubbub hosted
35
9,602,009
supporting organisations
48,753
social media reach
media coverage reach
2864
social media interactions
*This number is likely to be higher in reality as the fishmonger reach only counts those who picked up a treat we were offering, not those who took in campaign messages without directly interacting. We also didn’t count those who stopped by the stalls that Barnes Tidy Towpath hosted.
MEDIA HIGHLIGHTS
Wandsworth Guardian
Ealing and Acton Gazette
SURVEY A survey was carried out with 26 residents and visitors of Putney to test their knowledge of the campaign messaging, to see which interventions they had noticed, and to find out if their perception of litter in the area had changed since the campaign had been implemented.
The most memorable interventions were the railing banners, cube installation, and lamppost wraps, showing that messaging that was either very bright and large (cube) or repeated in lots of places (banners and wraps) were most effective in making people notice the campaign.
Ÿ respondents were able to accurately recall specific information from campaign messaging. On average these people remembered 3 of the campaign elements. Those who didn’t answer the questions correctly, remembered less than 2 of the campaign installations, demonstrating a correlation between having seen the installations and knowledge of campaign messaging.
The majority of people surveyed had not noticed a change in the amount of litter since the campaign had been implemented.
FEEDBACK
LOCAL COMMUNITY GROUP ‘The Hubbub campaign certainly caught the eye of passers-by through its colourful and imaginative approach which appealed to a broad spectrum of people. We particularly liked how it made one assess London’s relationship with the Thames throughout history and now. And the fishmonger stall was brilliant!! Barnes Tidy Towpath has received comments from its volunteers that it has led to a significant reduction in litter along Putney’s Embankment. Well done and thank you Hubbub!!’
FEEDBACK
SURVEY RESPONDENTS “It was engaging clever and amusing.” “Brilliant! The real zeitgeist!” “I think the campaign is an excellent idea and other areas along the Thames should copy this.”
KEY LEARNINGS • Tapping into the ‘Blue Planet Effect’ by showing how litter effects wildlife and contributes to marine plastic pollution is a message which resonates with people. • Multiple interventions in a small space meant high chances of people noticing the campaign. In our evaluation survey the most memorable interventions were lamppost wraps, banners, and the cube installation. • It’s important to consider any unintended consequences of our installations: problems with a voting bin and vinyl floor stickers risked causing river litter. • While voting bins and Ballot Bins have been proved to be very effective on other campaigns, there was a lack of use in Putney. We suspect this is caused by the questions not suiting the audience and the placement of the Ballot Bin.
• Public perception of litter is an unreliable way of measuring impact. Future campaigns will prioritise baseline data collection within the budget so that we can properly measure any changes in the riverside litter. • Setting up a forum for local people to discuss an issue is very effective in some settings, however both email and Facebook group weren’t suitable for linking together local organisations. • Putney Embankment doesn’t have anywhere near as high footfall as central London areas such as London Bridge so we were able to take a much more community-focussed approach and tap into local pride. Collaboration with local community groups and organisations was the key to spreading the message and gaining local support. • Visitors to Putney Embankment are often regulars who live nearby, in comparison to in the busy city centre. A more regular audience meant the campaign messages were understood and recollected by a high proportion of the people we surveyed.
HUBBUB RECOMMENDS
• Continue to raise the visibility of the issue using messaging such as banners, bin wraps, lamppost wraps, installations etc. • Continue to engage with active local community groups. • Continue using the For Fish’s Sake campaign name and #FFSLDN hashtag as this resonates with people.
W I T H T H A N K S T O O U R PA R T N E R S
TH A NK YOU RHIANNON@HUBBUB.ORG.UK R E G I S T E R E D C H A R I T Y N U M B E R 11 5 8 7 0 0