Rackspace Recycles Campaign

Client Profile
Date: 2014
Reach: San Antonio Main Office
Focus: Recycling

Challenge

Rackspace is on a mission to change the amount of recycled materials thrown away at its main headquarters in San Antonio. The goal is to have recycled waste constitute 40% of its overall trash. With over 3,500 employees, how do you encourage them to change their habits and recycle more?

Solution

How do we get people to recycle? Let’s give them a prize. It has to be something cool. It has to be something that they will talk about, blog about, share on Facebook, brag about on Twitter and show on Instagram. This was the birth of the RAX Rewards Program. We started out by designing some really cool shirts to hand out to those who were caught recycling. These shirts had to be something that they really wanted. The first series was designed after popular movies. We chose a quotes from Airplane and The Anchorman as well as a theme from the Matrix (Karma).

With all these cool rewards to hand out we needed a way to keep track of everything. We decide to build an app that would allow someone to take a picture of the employee’s badge and select a shirt, size and male or female style. This information would then go directly to a secure website. This site is synced up to the app where the inventory is immediately changed once a shirt and size is selected. They can also export all the data into an Excel or CVS format.

The last part of the project was to build a site for Rackers (Rackspace employees) to learn more about recycling. They can see all the shirts available to win and also get tips on and what is what is not recyclable at the Castle (what we call the Rackspace San Antonio main headquarters). Rackers can rate the shirts and keep track of the 40% goal.

Results

We went with this campaign to stir up some excitement, some buzz … something that people would talk about and want to be part of. And that is exactly what happened! Everyone wants a shirt and is asking how to get one. We have Rackers posting pictures on Instagram and other social media networks, bragging about how fun the rewards are and how they are proud to be part of a company that would focus on recycling. But more importantly, Rackers are thinking twice about what they throw away and the recycle bins are filling up fast. It’s early in the game but we already see a difference … and cool shirts on Rackers’ backs.