A new collaboration between Disney and Recyclebank, a Marketing-as-a-Service (MaaS) company that promotes sustainable behavior change, “hopes to inspire teachable moments with kids and families” across the U.S. and encourage recycling through the magic of Disney storytelling and characters.
Recyclebank members earn points by playing games, taking quizzes, and learning about recycling and can use their points towards rewards. “The Magic of Conservation” campaign’s interactive content will engage audiences with the help of Disney characters, and features rewards such as free e-books and discounts for DisneyStore.com.
Now in its 12th year of business, Recyclebank is a certified B Corp that offers waste-focused behavior change programs, combining education, incentives, technology and community engagement to make a real-world impact on waste and recycling goals.
“Roughly a year ago, we began discussing a collaboration with Disney that would pair our curriculum with their stories and characters,” Recyclebank CEO Javier Flaim said via email. "Through this campaign, we will inspire teachable moments for kids and families across the country to encourage recycling behavior through the magic of Disney storytelling.”
Flaim told Sustainable Brands that the collaboration between Disney and Recyclebank will primarily involve digital content. New content will be released throughout the campaign and digital tools including an upcoming Twitter chat will be used to raise awareness and encourage participation.
A spokesperson from Disney said the media giant thought leveraging Recyclebank’s curriculum could be an interesting way to engage kids and families on recycling and conservation, and they’re excited to see how the content resonates.
When asked how the campaign’s success would be measured, Flaim said, “The goal of this campaign is to inspire kids and families to recycle. We will monitor interaction with program content as well as engagement on social media platforms to see how it is resonating with families.”
While there are no plans to extend the campaign into Disney’s theme parks, the campaign is tied to Disney’s other efforts to revitalize neighborhood parks around the country. In celebration of Earth Month, Disney fans based in the U.S. can nominate their favorite park and/or vote daily for park projects throughout the month of April. The projects that receive the most votes in each of the 15 selected communities will receive $20,000 each to help make improvements or expand programs. Recyclebank members can also earn points by voting.
Disney celebrated Earth Month last year with a donation to Conservation International for every child’s pledge to take environmental actions such as recycling or visiting a park, and on behalf of attendees to its movie Monkey Kingdom during its opening week (which coincided with Earth Day). The proceeds were expected to go towards monkey habitat restoration.
More recently, the Disney Conservation Fund surpassed the $30 million milestone in annual grants awarded to wildlife protection, and the company announced the Disney Climate Solutions Fund for investment in forestry projects.
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Published Apr 13, 2016 5pm EDT / 2pm PDT / 10pm BST / 11pm CEST