Variety of “Think before you buy” communication actions in Lithuania shows great results – more than 62 000 visitors have visited the webpage, campaign visuals are well recognized by citizens, news and comments made by specialists receives great media attention.

Success No. 1 – street posters

Baltic Environmental Forum Lithuania made a great contract with one of the biggest out-of-home advertising company. 3 types of posters were put on bus stop stands and street poster stands in 7 biggest cities in Lithuania on February 2013 (in parallel with press conference presenting blood testing results). Posters are still circulating – 10 moths already.

In order, to attract people’s attention, simple, colorful design and catchy slogan were carefully chosen. Slogans were the following (written in the same order as posters in the image above starting from the left):

• It is so clean in the house that it even itchs. Learn more in pagalvok.lt
• Poisons are in teddy bear’s fur. Find out how to recognize them pagalvok.lt
• You tempt not him but infertility. Learn more pagalvok.lt

Since posters were being seen in public places constantly and we used them in every media attention receiving event, they reminded people about the campaign and people got familiar (and at the same time –engaged) with the visual impression they creates. It got obvious, when one lady in the fair came to Baltic Environmental Forum Lithuania (BEF) stand and said: “I have came to you because I saw this poster. It is placed in a bus stop close to my home and I somehow feel like being at home.”

Success No. 2 – public events

Despite regular seminars for mummies, students and other communities interested in the campaign, attended 2 events that showed great results in public interest – “The Night of researchers” and “Eko Logika”.

Excursion to the Baltic Sea and artistic installation in the river

“The Night of researchers” is a traditional event in Lithuania that encourages people to get to know more about science and researches. BEF organized a “mental excursion to the Baltic Sea” based on the famous “Silent Spring” story and surprised event attendees by opening an artistic installation in Vilnia river. Famous musician Jurgis Didžiulis invited people to ford the river and try out installation – sit on one of three toilets. The story behind was very simple: there is a direct connection between our bathroom and the Baltic Sea. Even while being few hundred kilometers away, we came make influence on the water, which we pleasantly enjoy in during summer holidays. Hazardous substances from our cosmetics, household chemicals or other every-day use products could travel till the Baltics and come back to us in a different form. Vilnius mayor gave a personal permission for the installation and attended the event.

The event and the installation received public attention. People not only went to sit on the toilets and made pictures but also one group created a musical clip sitting on it.

Ecological fair „Eko Logika”

It was a posters that made the biggest fair organized to contact BEF while creating the concept of ecological fair. BEF was offered to be a partner of ecological fair „Eko Logika”. BEF had variety od activities in the fair:

• It had a stand and gave information about hazardous substances there by giving special publications;
• It made special lectures with game playing and film demonstration for students.
• It organized 2 discussions with variety of speakers about the necessity to take care of substances used in our products and possibility to build an ecologic house
• It made short presentations for the public few times per day;
• It made a “film corner” where campaign films and other videos related to the topic of hazardous substances were shown.

In total, 15000 visitors attended the exhibition and more than 600 students –special lectures.

In order to attract media attention for the fair, BEF organized press conference where dust-testing results were introduced and people were invited to choose less hazardous products – alternatives. The fair was one of the possibilities to find out those alternatives. Press conference received huge media interest – it was in all media for 2 days – all national TV channels showed it on the news, few radio interviews were made. In total, more than 35 reflections in media were recorded.

Success No. 3 – media work

Constant work in communication (press releases, articles, specialist comments, short reflections on social media) and its results could be best measured in numbers – over 200 articles and showings on media including biggest information channels, national television and radio.

BEF is now seen as an opinion leader in the field of hazardous substances and media constantly asks our comment on related topics.

Success reflected in numbers of webpage visiting

Data were taken on December 12 2014

The numbers of campaign webpage visiting reveal those BEF actions that caused the biggest public interest.

1. In the graph above you can see huge increase (up to 1016 visits in one day) after thewebpage was launched. Later on, we can see steep and fast decline having 10-20 visits per day.
2. In February 2014 we made a press conference presenting blood testing results. At the same time, poster campaign has been started. Huge increase –up to 1480 visits in one day – was noticed. It had also long-lasting effect –constant visiting of a webpage grew up (in average, 40-60 visits per day). In the opinion of BEF communication professional, this could be directly related to the poster campaign. She makes this observation after comparing webpage statistics of two press conferences (on blood testing and dust testing) that received almost the same media attention.
3. On its peak, the webpage received 2555 visits per day. It was in October 2014 after anarticle about phthalates found in loom bands was published. It increased general visiting of the webpage significantly – around 1000 visits per day. One publication made of this article received over 4,400 likes and BEF made a lot of comments on media about this topic. BEF communication professional notices, that this shows a situation when an article touches people personally and engages him. Loom bands were so popular at that time in Lithuania. Almost every child in the school had them. “Parents get very interested when you speak about the health of their child. We should keep checking what is fashionable and popular among children. Only they can be a key to a real change,” – BEF communication professional Rita Norvaišaitė comments.

It is delighting that all those “hot topics” contributed to the general and long-lasting interest of the campaign.

For more information about communication activities in Lithuania, please contact Rita Norvaišaitė, Environmental communication professional of Baltic Environmental Forum Lithuania.