Bostadsbolaget is a municipal housing company in Gothenburg that currently manages approximately 25,000 rental apartments throughout the city. The company has ambitious sustainability goals and carries out regular activities that aim to influence tenants' attitudes and behaviors. Our assignment was to develop a campaign with the aim of measurably reducing tap water use during the three-month campaign period. The long-term goal was to highlight water consumption as a sustainability issue and influence behaviors to achieve a permanent reduction.
We saw two main challenges for the creative process. To begin with, we needed to communicate a solution to a perceived non-problem. It is common knowledge that Gothenburg has good access to excellent drinking water and no history of water shortages. This left us with only principled sustainability arguments without any greater sense of urgency. So we needed to find ways to strengthen our argumentation. In addition: Bostadsbolaget’s tenants come from different backgrounds, live in different areas and face different challenges in their lives. With a limited budget, we needed to find a message and a medium that allowed us to still reach as many of them as possible.
We immediately realized that social media would give us the best bang for our buck. We chose to focus on creating entertainment and engagement by linking to the phenomenon of “lifehacks”, i.e. smart and fun ways to make everyday life a little easier. Under the heading #Waterhack, we went out and asked the client’s tenants to contribute their own entertaining and inventive ways to use less tap water in their everyday lives. We used influencers on TikTok and Instagram and set up the activity as a competition with simple prizes each week plus a big prize at the end of the activity. We strengthened our argument by connecting to current events. The campaign was set to start in January 2023, and concerns about energy access and prices were very strong and widespread in society. Since tap water production costs considerable amounts of energy, we added that angle to the overall sustainability argument and were able to increase the sense of urgency in our messages.
The target for the campaign period was set at a five percent reduction in water consumption in Bostadsbolaget’s properties compared to the same period the previous year. This target was achieved and exceeded, with a result of 5,1%. The total amount of water saved was over 42 million liters, or approximately 17 Olympic-standard swimming pools. The campaign also resulted in over 400 #Waterhack contributions from the public. The final grand prize went to a family that competed against each other in quick showers, with 40 seconds of water use as the family record. The campaign generated great interest, both in the media and among other companies in the property industry, including privately owned ones.