Australia is home to some of the deadliest predators in the world. But nothing has posed a greater threat to our environment and marine life than single-use plastic.

A new report by HP and Planet Ark released last week found that Aussies rate marine plastic pollution as their top concern when it comes to environmental sustainability.

Still, despite each one of us producing or using 130kg of plastic each year, less than 12 per cent of it is recycled, leaving up to 130,000 tonnes of plastic finding its way into our oceans.

To bring this scary fact to life, HP Australia via Wunderman Bienalto launched a campaign that brings together the idea of a foreign monster that has entered the ocean, with references to marine life.

Wunderman Bienalto creative director Frank Martelli said: “Sustainability is something we are passionate about, so it was great to work with HP and bring this story to life.

“We set out to create an idea that would take a new approach on sustainability and bring the size of the plastic problem to life.

“Australia is known for having some of the world’s deadliest creatures and by positioning plastic as our ocean’s biggest predator we were able to personify the problem.”

The campaign ran in two stages:

1. Teaser: executed across DOOH and sponsored social content that showed marine life swimming amongst plastic and set up a story around an unknown monster that is killing our marine life
2. Launch:
   1. Research: HP and Planet Ark commissioned PHD Research to carry out the HP Australia Environmental Sustainability Study 2018 – a comprehensive survey designed to uncover how Aussie Gen Ys, Gen Xs and businesses really think and act when it comes to protecting the environment
   2. PR: HP Australia and Edelman carried out a media outreach strategy focused on the findings of the Study and implications for consumers, businesses and brands in the current climate, targeting general news, tech and environmental media across print, broadcast and online
   3. Activation (DOOH, projections, social media, in-store floor decals and wobblers, CRM): HP Australia, in conjunction with Wunderman Bienalto and Traffik Group, created an almost 4-metre tall monster at the iconic harbourside location of Circular Quay in Sydney. This physical monster has been matched with an online interactive beast.

1. Taking a dedicated team of engineers and builders four weeks to build, this 200kg Beast was designed specifically to help the public connect with the activation and the environmental cause it represents. Deliberately placing the Beast’s large yellow eye at human eye-level is one example of this. Following this installation, the Beast will be recycled via Close the Loop with zero waste to landfill.
2. Alongside the Beast, a team of ambassadors have been deployed to help educate the public on the extent of the plastic pollution issue and offer simple actions they can take every day to help tackle this growing problem.

• Through the Beast, Aussies and businesses will be encouraged to Break Down The Beast by recycling their used ink and toner cartridges through the Cartridges 4 Planet Ark (C4PA) program, as well as to think carefully about the ink and toner cartridges they’re buying in the first place.

HP is proud to launch the Break Down The Beast campaign with Planet Ark, with whom HP Australia has been working closely since 2003 as a founding member of C4PA.

Traffik Group Melbourne business director Jake Ford said: “Bringing our ocean’s biggest predator to life experientially was a creative challenge, which our team loved taking on.

“We focused on ensuring our impression of the plastic beast was enough to grab the attention of the Australian public, as well as businesses, to further encourage evaluating our total plastic footprint.”

The Beast represents the millions of kilograms of plastic bottles HP diverts from our oceans and landfill every year by breaking them down and using them in the manufacture of Original HP ink and toner cartridges.

These cartridges in turn enter a closed loop recycling process when customers return them into programs like C4PA.

HP has recycled 8.3 million plastic bottles into print ink and toner cartridges and counting. In Australia alone, HP has recycled over 11 million cartridges via C4P4 (as of August 2018).

HP South Pacific head of print marketing Ruben Ahmed said: “We needed a pulse on how Aussies were feeling about environmental sustainability and our research found that over 90 per cent of respondents were concerned and that they look to brands to guide them.

“HP has been in this space for a long time, but there was an opportunity for further awareness.

“We also wanted a very different creative approach, one that called out single-use plastic for what it is – a major threat to our ocean creatures.”