The purpose of the Wave of Change campaign is to educate the Maltese public about the problem of plastic in our seas and inspire them to help stop it polluting the water, the wildlife, the land and ultimately our own health.
This coincided with world record breaking swimming champion Neil Agius, who wanted to embark on a crazy feat, at the time, to swim around Malta non-stop, unassisted. He sat down with Melanie from Tides Rising to unpack the purpose behind the swim – his why. Neil wanted to raise awareness about how much plastic he swam into during his training sessions and find a way to have a positive impact by protecting the sea, stopping the plastic pollution and overconsumption of single use plastic.
As the campaign manager for Wave of Change, Melanie, came up with the Pick 3 Pieces of Plastic campaign to create a wave of change in Malta. The ask was simple and accessible: pick up three pieces of plastic, post on social media and tag 3 friends to get involved.
“Instead of telling Neil good luck, we made it simple for everyone to get involved and do something. Picking up 3 pieces of plastic is, unfortunately, easy whether you’re out on a walk or at the beach. We tapped into people’s sense of agency and added a dose of peer pressure by taking to social media and it spread! Not only that, but people realized they could do more and clean ups and beach cleans where being organized around the Maltese Islands. We sparked a movement,” comments Melanie.
Six years ago it was relatively unheard of to see people proudly picking up other people’s trash. Now we have a host of incredible NGOs, Local Clean up groups, Corporate initiatives and much more taking things to the next level.
The beauty of the campaign was in the simplicity and accessibility. We used social media as a tool to reach people beyond those interested in the environment or even sport and took it mainstream.
Then, with Alex Vella co-founder of Wave of Change at the helm the campaign spread to companies, schools and beyond. Gaming companies, real estate franchises were building their team building events around this. Last June HSBC sponsored the Wavemaker Schools competition where schools around the island participated by making their Ocean pledge and sharing videos of their progress.
The key to this campaign is understanding the psychology behind behaviour change. Something all brands, marketing leads and beyond wrestle with. How do we get our customers to move from one product or service to another? How do we stir people to make more sustainable choices and take action. These tools have been tested and can be applied to other scenarios and levels too.
The campaign has been going viral for the past 5 years with thousands of people sharing videos and posts from around the world with tonnes of plastic and other trash being collected. The campaign also won ‘Best Social Media campaign’ two years in a row and has a steadily growing and active community. The organic, authentic and relatable communication of the sustainability issue and the clear focus on the roles people could play in contributing to the solution drummed up a Wave of Change.
