Title	ADDRESSPOLLUTION.ORG
Brand	COPI CENTRAL OFFICE OF PUBLIC INTEREST)
Product/Service	ADDRESSPOLLUTION.ORG
Category	B02. Non-profit / Foundation-led Education & Awareness
Entrant	AMV BBDO London, UNITED KINGDOM
Idea Creation	AMV BBDO London, UNITED KINGDOM
Media Placement	TALON OUTDOOR London, UNITED KINGDOM
Media Placement 2	GRAND VISUAL London, UNITED KINGDOM
PR	ONE GREEN BEAN London, UNITED KINGDOM
Production	HYD London, UNITED KINGDOM
Post Production	THE MILL London, UNITED KINGDOM

Name	Company	Position
Alex Grieve	AMVBBDO	Chief Creative Officer

Why is this work relevant for Integrated?

Addresspollution took an invisible, ignored killer and made it unignorable. Doing this required a totally new approach. We turned a complex and overlooked raw data set into a first of its kind, public health system; understandable and meaningful for all. We hijacked the property market and permanently embedded ourselves into its economics and codes of conduct. We transformed a large segment of the population into overnight environmental activists by relating air pollution to a capitalist model of self interest. As a result, we made headlines, drove individual action, created systemic change and rewrote the law.

Background

10,000 Londoners die prematurely every year due to toxic air. The Mayor of London has declared it a public health emergency. Air pollution has recently been linked to infertility, premature mortality and Covid-19 fatalities - to name but a few of the harmful consequences. But air pollution is an invisible killer. Unseen, ignored, and all the more deadly as a result. The data is there if you bother to look, but no-one was looking. How could we get Londoners to see the problem, and care enough to do something about it? And as a small crowdfunded campaign group with a limited budget, how could we make enough noise to get air pollution talked about in the short term, while creating systemic change in the long term?

Describe the creative idea

Previous campaigns focusing on the health risks only, hadn’t hit home. So, to make Londoners open their eyes to air pollution and demand action, we tied it to something they care and talk about a lot: property prices. Working with King’s College London, we took raw data, accurate to 20msq and used it to build a 5 tier air quality rating system. The system linked the levels of the deadly pollutant, nitrogen dioxide, to any London address. To get it out there we built a website, addresspollution.org. The site not only revealed the health impacts of the property, but also the costs to their pocket - the higher the air pollution the bigger the financial impact. Shocked homeowners could then demand action at the click of a button from their local council or the government. We launched the website with a multi-channel guerrilla campaign that infiltrated the property industry.

Describe the strategy

Our strategy took an intangible environmental issue and related it to a capitalist model of self-interest; thereby weaponising homeowners’ worst fears and recruiting them as a powerful lobbying force in the fight against air pollution. Our plan was as follows: Drive talkability through our guerilla campaign and PR coverage of our key message: air pollution could impact property prices by up to a fifth. Incite action by getting horrified homeowners to demand important policy changes from local councils and the government. Create systemic change by embedding air pollution in the economics of the property market and informing estate agents of their legal obligation to disclose air pollution information. We launched in London because it has the highest pollution levels and is home to some of the country’s most well connected landowners with a direct line to the Government. We subsequently received funding to expand our programme, and have rolled nationwide

Describe the execution

The London pilot was launched with a multi-channel guerrilla campaign that infiltrated the property industry. By crunching the data we noticed that the most expensive areas were also the most polluted. These areas were the homes of some of the most influential landowners, with a direct line to Westminster. In areas like Chelsea we ran spiky billboards that warned well-connected locals of the pollution. We got even more targeted and projected ratings onto London’s most polluted residential buildings: including ‘Park Modern’, the most expensive development in the city. We ran 650 real-time responsive DOOH at times of air pollution spikes, to make the dangers feel more immediate. We ran small-space classified ads in the property listings, to get people in-market thinking about air pollution. And we ran a direct mail campaign to warn estate agents of their legal obligations to disclose our information, since it could materially impact health.

List the results

WE MADE HEADLINES We reached over 36 million people and were discussed on the likes of BBC, Good Morning Britain, Channel 4, Sky News, and made the front page of The Times twice. WE DROVE ACTION Over 465,467 London households have generated an Air Quality Report. Far more than double the number of properties changing hands in London in any year. WE GOT FUNDING TO EXPAND THE SYSTEM The European Climate Coalition awarded us funding to launch nationwide including two more pollutants. WE CREATED SYSTEMIC CHANGE Estate agents now have a legal obligation to disclose our information. Zoopla has made our system available. Another portal, Search Smartly, now use our API to produce Air Quality Ratings for every listing. Local councils have adopted the measures homeowners petitioned. Most importantly, we achieved the policy change we lobbied for: to bring forward the ban on petrol and diesel cars from 2040.