Beermats & fly tipping, getting the message over

Everyone accepts that fly tipping is becoming an increaing problem as the cost of rubbish disposal in landfill sites increases every year. Now some of the local councils are using beermats, which coincidentally are themselves 100% recyclable, to deliver a hard-hitting message in relation to this illegal and anti-social activity.

Gateshead Council used 40,000 branded beermats to deliver quirky and innovative messages to raise awareness of the campaign aimed at capturing the public’s imagination and encouraging them to take ownership of their Borough.

Two distinctive designs were utilised bearing images of environmental crimes as well as details of the fines attached to the offence. One was aimed at street litter, such as takeaway rubbish and other forms of fast food waste, whilst the other was aimed at fly tippers. The council emphasised that anyone caught dropping litter could face a fine of up to £50 whilst fly tippers could risk fines of up to £50,000.

The beermats were distributed to local pubs and clubs who were said to have been fully behind the campaign and its virtues.

Beermats have become a popular and inexpensive medium for advertising, branding and campaign messages used by many governement agencies, charities and businesses to deliver their messages. Because they can now be ordered in smaller quantities, are typically litho-printed in full colour, they are perfectly suited to targeted campaigns. No longer the sole domain of breweries, beermats are being used in mailers, at shows, as business cards and in upmarket restaurants and hotels.

Design a beermat competition

When in comes to widening the impact of a beermat message and maximising the return on their investment, the local county council of Neath Port Talbot undoubtedly lead the way. This forward thinking local authority decided that they would launch an anti-drink drive campaign during the summer months. This in itself is noteworthy; however, rather than simply pass the job to their advertising agency, they encouraged pupils from local schools to participate in the design of the beermats. Now that is clever!

 

Apparently, more than 300 entries were received from local pupils, resulting in 30,000 beermats being printed with 4 of the best designs submitted by the pupils. The council had originally intended to select one winner, but the quality was so high, they eventually opted for 4 designs. Fortunately beermats are flexible enough to offer up these types of changes.

 

The local authority was encouraged to use beermats to deliver their message after independent research has shown that a promotional beer mat will be seen and read ten times before being discarded. Beermats can be ordered though advertising agencies, promotional companies and of course, direct from the beermat manufacturer. Modern printing processes now mean that beermats no longer have to be ordered in multiples of 1m, in fact some beermat printers allow customers to order a few as 25 full colour, litho-printed beermats, now that is progress.

Beermats deliver Road Safety message

You may well ask what beermats have to do with road safety. Well, road safety campaigners in the county of Cumbria used beer mats to reinforce the message that drivers should wear their seatbelts.

 

The county was alarmed at the number of people driving in Cumbria who were not wearing seatbelts. Therefore, they launched a campaign utilising beermats which included pictures of the injuries suffered by people who had not been wearing their seatbelts.

 

This particular campaign has a pleasant picture on one side and then relying on the age old practice of ‘beer mat flipping’ they included an image on the reverse of someone that had suffered horrific injuries as a consequence of not wearing a seatbelt.

 

Clearly beermats can deliver serious messages as well as act as an advertising or branding tool as was clearly recognised by the road safety campaigners in Cumbria. Some UK manufacturers of beermats offer short print runs at a fraction of the cost, allowing a wider audience to use beermats for small campaigns or perhaps, a number of different campaign designs.