Media Release, 13 March 2024
HypnoCat, the Recycle Your Electricals messenger for electrical recycling, is once again gracing the UK’s television screens. Following the success of last year’s nationwide TV advertising campaign, Recycle Your Electricals’ pink, fluffy mascot ‘HypnoCat’ will once again be hypnotising the nation to recycle their old electricals and put an end to the UK and the world’s fastest growing waste stream: e-waste. You can watch the hypnotic advert here.
In the UK we discard over 100,000 tonnes of electricals every year and hold onto 880 million unused electricals instead of reusing or recycling them. This creates e-waste, which not only poses a major threat to the environment and to human health, but when unwanted electricals are thrown in the bin we lose all the precious materials held within them. FastTech is also on the rise, with more cheap and disposable items thrown away every year – over half a billion items were bought in 2023 with 90% of them ending up in the bin within the year.
Since HypnoCat’s television debut in 2023 his rise to fame has supported the Recycle Your Electricals campaign in achieving significant milestones towards making it easier for people to reuse and recycle their old electricals and encouraging them to take action. According to campaign tracking research, results indicate the following achievements:
The advert, commissioned by Material Focus and produced by creative agency Truant London, re-launched on the 11th March across the ITV family and multiple Sky channels, supported by radio (Absolute and Heart), social and on-demand TV. The 30-second advert through its hypnotic trance music and visuals highlights the issue of e-waste, and provides a clear message to recycle electricals.
Scott Butler, Executive Director of Material Focus said, “As we welcome back HypnoCat to our screens he will be reminding the nation of the simple actions that need to be taken to recycle your electricals. Whether you love him or loathe him, HypnoCat is making a difference. His catchy tune stays in your head long after you’ve heard it, effectively delivering the message we want to communicate.”
Don Larotonda, Head of Planning at Truant the creative agency, said “We are very excited to see the return of our fluffy pied piper of recycling. The impact of the campaign so far has been amazing and we can’t wait to see the effects of its hypnotic powers on the nation this time round, all the while building on the awareness and actions of our previous campaigns.”
David Lucy, Managing Director for december19, the media agency supporting the campaign said, “We’re very excited to continue working with Material Focus on our 3rd TV campaign for Recycle Your Electricals. Hypnocat continues to build on past success and will be coming to our screens again this March. Since 2021 we’ve seen millions more people in the UK start recycling their electricals and we can’t wait to hypnotise more people and see that figure grow.”
HypnoCat continues to champion electrical recycling as a regional ambassador for over 60 local projects funded by Material Focus which are being rolled out in local community projects across the UK on waste truck sides, social media platforms, or local posters. The fund will be reopening for projects around the UK in late April. Sign up to our newsletter for updates and click here for more information on the fund.
ENDS
For media enquiries please contact Will Treharne – will@materialfocus.org.uk
Notes to Editors
About Material Focus
Material Focus is a not-for-profit organisation whose goal is to stop the nation throwing away or hoarding all their old, small electricals. Material Focus is delivering the UK-wide Recycle Your Electricals campaign. The campaign is revealing the value hidden in electricals and is making it easier for us all to recycle and reuse the small electricals we no longer need by providing more recycling points as well as providing practical information on how households can reuse and recycle.
The campaign is funded by producers of electrical appliances which pays for a range of activities, including communications, behaviour change activities, increased recycling projects and research. Ultimately the aim is to support actions that will help the UK increase the levels of reuse and recycling of waste electricals.
About Truant London
Truant London is an advertising, media and music agency that unites the three disciplines to drive an unfair share of attention for brands and causes. Founder-run and wholly independent, its ‘progress through rebellion’ philosophy is found in the work it delivers for clients and in the way it runs its business. It’s also part of the reason Truant was awarded ‘Best Place to Work 2022’ by ad land bible, Campaign Magazine. Formed in 2011, current clients include: Pepsi, Pizza Express, Royal Caribbean International, Rockstar and GWI.
About december19
december19 is an independent media planning and buying agency which places people at the heart of its business; staff, clients and partners #mediamadehuman. With significant experience across the media and marketing industry, d19 offers established brands an alternative to being lost within the large agency network model, as well as supporting exciting new challenger SMEs to grow through advertising. Formed in 2010, current clients include: Xero, Pizza Hut, GWI and Pol Roger.
Calculations of impact notes
*Campaign tracking research
The research results have come from Consumer Insight (CI), a full-service market research agency specialising in brand tracking and foundational research. The research was conducted via a 15-minute online survey which sampled a national representative of 18-54 year old advocates of recycling, pre and post the TV campaign. This survey was run twice – in April and October, following the three-week TV ad. These were samples from Kerbside areas (those living in any council area where kerbside pick-up for WEEE) and Non-Kerbside areas across the UK to understand the impact of the campaign on people’s claimed recycling actions (pre – 200 National Kerbside and 200 National Non-Kerbside; post – 400 National Kerbside and 400 National Non-Kerbside). The research identified an uplift in those responding positively to whether they would now recycle as a result of seeing the campaign this when calculated across the population in the areas where the advert was run = to 1 million.
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