To establish WWF’s recycling credentials in a memorable way and generate donations to WWF. No medium was designated but the budget was limited.

We decided to send a DM piece about recycling to suburban householders. But instead of letter bombing every suburb with thousands of WWF mailers, we sent just one, and simply asked the recipient to pass it to the neighbour on their right when they finished with it.We hoped the ‘pass it on’ mechanic would demonstrate how practical recycling can be, as well as what can be achieved when a community acts together.

It worked. By monitoring donations made online we could track the path of every envelope. On average each envelope was ‘passed on’ 832 times, travelled 13.3km, and generated thousands in donations. Best of all, the campaign cost just $56.95 to make. An unexpected side-effect of the campaign was messages of support from the public scrawled on the back of some of the envelopes - “What a brilliant idea. Well done WWF”. In fact the public liked the campaign so much that 17 of the envelopes are still being passed on 3 months after they were first introduced. The WWF is now looking to roll the idea out worldwide.