United does more than just talk about decarbonizing airline travel, it fuels solutions.

United was the first airline to commit to becoming 100% green, and to reaching its net zero emissions goal without traditional carbon offsets. Aiming to reduce its GHG emissions 100% by 2050, United’s incremental goal is to cut carbon intensity 50% by 2035.

Only a radical solution – SAF – can get United there, and it can't fly solo. As CEO Scott Kirby explained, “We realize there’s a limit to what a single company can do alone. We must reach across industries to develop coordinated efforts to accomplish our collective goal of carbon neutrality.”

To make SAF mainstream, United set three objectives for its creative campaign: increase awareness, enable understanding and raise funding needed to make SAF a viable solution. All while keeping things simple and engaging.

It’s time for everyone to get on board with SAF.

An irrefutable expert on trash, Oscar the Grouch would prove to be the ideal spokesperson to share the news that fuel made from garbage is the future of decarbonizing air travel. Since Oscar is uniquely qualified to help explain why trash could be the treasure that fuels the jets of the future, he was the natural (albeit, tongue-in-cheek) influencer to hire as the first-ever “executive” hire dedicated to finding the good in garbage.

As United’s Chief Trash Officer, Oscar eagerly schooled the world on the ABC’s of SAF. He launched a “Junk Mail” direct email campaign, educated 165 million+ flyers through his comical in-flight videos and supported the launch of the UAV Sustainable Flight Fund to provide startups with financing to accelerate SAF technology-innovations.

And the results achieved would make even a grouch smile.

The Chief Trash Officer campaign set out to make people aware of SAF and its incredible potential for decarbonizing air travel, all while increasing perception of United as a brand that’s making air travel greener.

Consistent with its Good Leads the Way brand campaign, this campaign went beyond aviation communities to reach everyday flyers; it also hoped to encourage other airlines to get on board with United’s Sustainable Flight Fund.

A different approach to a typical mass marketing campaign, it expanded quickly to star a famous furry influencer and additional media channels. Across all parts of the campaign, the approach never wavered: keep it simple, funny and conversational to generate chatter about SAF while driving traffic to the landing page to learn more and contribute to the Sustainable Flight Fund.

United took a unique approach to the campaign, going social-first and making its influencer a Sesame Street character hired for the Chief Trash Officer job at United -- a first. Gen Z influencer “Corporate Natalie” was also tapped to get the word out to her 877K Instagram followers via a funny video exchange with Oscar.

The campaign spanned three distinctive moments: March 2023 - United announced its first-ever Chief Trash Officer; September 2023 - Oscar broke down SAF into bite-sized ABCs; and February 2024 - Oscar celebrated his one-year work anniversary by spamming the world with “Junk Mail.”

From snackable sound bites to sequencing the ABCs, highly entertaining social-first content was optimized for Meta, TikTok, Instagram and LinkedIn. United amplified this reach through out-of-home content, streaming and takeovers of top-tier news outlets’ sustainability sections -- not to mention its own inflight magazine, seatback entertainment and customer emails.

United’s bold initiative to ‘talk trash’ has generated investment cash … and results. The UAV Sustainable Flight Fund attracted 22 corporate business partners and $200+ million in funding in Year One, including more than $500,000 in donations from 115,000+ consumers. That money has spurred substantial technology investments, leading to purchase agreements and alliances with 10 companies investigating new methods for producing SAF.

Social media proved to be the perfect channel to raise awareness and get traction for a boringly named, hard to understand sustainability fund. By the end of the first two phases, the Chief Trash Officer campaign attracted more than 445.7M impressions, 155.6M video views and 603K engagements. SAF became part of the public’s vocabulary, including United’s aviation peers, which issued a series of SAF announcements in the weeks following its garbage hire.