Slackers Save Water

Fresh, Empowering Messaging to Millennials

As millennials, we’ve found ourselves in a difficult position. We know that if we don’t conserve water, our generation, and those to come, will be in serious trouble. But so far, the majority of current water-saving campaigns target homeowners, which most millennials are not (especially in Los Angeles). We’ve also noticed that a lot of the existing messaging focuses on “drought shaming.” We’re not here to shame anyone—we, as millennials, want to empower people to make the necessary changes to conserve water.

Admittedly, conserving water falls somewhere between “diets” and “working standing up” in terms of things we, millennial Angelenos, love to not do. But what if there were ways to mitigate the effects of the drought by harnessing our most renewable resource—laziness? As we know, between LA’s endless sunshine and go-with-the-flow lifestyle, plenty of people here are doing water conservation right. By wearing a shirt twice or brushing the crumbs off a plate instead of washing it, laid back Angelenos are already inadvertently making huge contributions to water conservation efforts.

Changing the Conversation: Laziness as a Virtue

Our campaign encourages laziness for the sake of water conservation, and reaches millennials where they’re most engaged—on social media. We’ll employ the hashtag #SlackersSaveWater to encourage people to celebrate their laziness as a way to save water. As people see their friends using “slacker hacks” to conserve, we’ll start a genuine conversation that can shift social norms.

Campaign Rollout: BuzzFeed Partnership, Engagement Through Conversation

We will partner with BuzzFeed to introduce our campaign through a series of four videos and a listicle on water saving tips, all of which will drive viewers to our website. The site will focus on encouraging people to join us in saving water, and will feature water saving tips, information about our campaign, and an opportunity to “pledge” to join the movement. We will also share the strongest user-generated content as a way to thank social media users for their engagement.

Additionally, “Slacker Steve,” the persona featured in our videos, will serve as the persona behind our social platforms. In addition to posting day-to-day “slacker hacks,” “Steve” will reply to tweets, engaging with people who post with #SlackersSaveWater, and continuing the conversation about ways to save water.

Focus on Sharable Content and Measurable Engagement

Our team has extensive experience in graphic design and social media, so we feel confident that we will create a visually cohesive campaign with a strong focus on sharability and measurability. We will measure success based on posts with the hashtag (we’re aiming for 75,000), engagement with the content (878,000), website views (90,600) and people who “take the pledge” on the site (9,600).

Next Steps: Presence Expansion and Influencer Partnerships

Following a successful social media campaign, we see this expanding to print and billboard presence, potentially featuring the strongest user-submitted content. We may also consider partnering with influencers (Seth Rogen, James Franco, etc.) to further our message with additional original online content.