nav1 nav3 nav10 poll
How long have you worked in the promotional products industry?





  
menufoot
Article Tools: Print | Email

Promoting Sustainability
By: Audrey Sellers, Associate Editor
Issue: April 2010

A nonprofit turned to eco-friendly products to spread a green message.



When the National Conference on Volunteering and Service kicked off last summer, KaBOOM!, a nonprofit organization that empowers communities to build playgrounds, wanted to stand apart from all the other convention exhibitors. It had a message for the
3,000 volunteer and service leaders in attendance: Go green.

Jamie Cohen, director of outside sales for Gaithersburg, Maryland-based distributor Sonic Promos (UPIC: sonicpro), took the lead on the project and knew that if sustainability was the message, the giveaways better be eco-friendly.

“Our strategy was to use green to promote green,” Cohen says. “In a typical tradeshow environment, so many of the handouts become trash. Our challenge was to select branded merchandise that was appropriate to and supported the client’s message of
sustainability.”

KaBOOM!, with support from a funder, had recently created guidelines for environmentally friendly sites and building plans and hoped to drive people to the website to download these guidelines. Plus, it wanted to attract attendees to its booth to learn more and sign a sustainability pledge.

Since water bottles often litter project sites and one of KaBOOM!’s green building guidelines is to provide water for volunteers, Cohen sourced bright orange aluminum water bottles. Attendees received one after signing a sustainability pledge card.

“Not only did this bright orange reflect the funder’s brand, but it also created an effective visual display,” says Cohen. “When the water bottles were gone, people were still signing pledges based on the buzz.”

Visitors also received a seeded paper bookmark with the hope they might plant it. But if not, “at least it was biodegradable and not just another piece of paper in their convention packets,” Cohen says.

More than 17 percent of attendees signed sustainability pledges on-site and almost 10 percent checked out KaBOOM!’s website, numbers that thrilled the client. “This event was a huge success for us,” says Laura Toscano of KaBOOM! “Our traffic, our end result and
the recognition we shared with our funding partner left absolutely nothing to be desired.”