Material Focus

Material Focus has a tiny PR team that has helped take a critical environmental issue - ewaste - from zero awareness to having a UK and global reputation in four years. The quality of the coverage has been phenomenal with numerous headline stories across the BBC, Guardian, ITV, Sky, and double-page spreads. And it's not just been about coverage, the media has reached its target audience, changed consumer behaviour and led to a Government announcement banning vapes. The brief for PR is simple, to raise awareness and drive action. We have seen a 22% increase in awareness of the campaign since it launched. We did this by providing simple and engaging content that inspires everyone to take action. During 2022 we switched our focus to ‘hard news’, and it quickly paid off. From 2023 to date, we’ve driven a staggering uplift in media coverage and engagement from 1,300 pieces of coverage in a year, to 5,300. The two-person PR team works alongside a small marketing team, for both Material Focus and Recycle Your Electricals, alongside the Executive Director, who is also our main spokesperson. The team has driven high quality coverage equating to 15 pieces of coverage, every day of the year in the likes of BBC headline stories, Guardian front page, The Sun and Mirror double page spreads, and documentaries on Radio 4.