Rebuilding national relevance for Keep Australia Beautiful without paid media

Keep Australia Beautiful has been part of Australia’s environmental movement for decades, but recognition alone does not guarantee relevance.

The organisation needed to re-enter the national conversation around waste and environmental responsibility at a time when public attention was fragmented, sustainability fatigue was real, and there was no paid media budget supporting the campaign.

This was not a coverage problem. It was a relevance problem.

The challenge was to give a well-known organisation a fresh reason to be part of the conversation, while connecting its environmental mission to issues Australians could understand and act on.

Hyde & Seek built the campaign around Keep Australia Beautiful’s national Contain Your Waste challenge, running from 18 to 24 November 2024.

Rather than relying on the organisation’s heritage, we focused the media story on a simple contemporary question: what responsibility do Australians have for the waste they create?

The campaign combined proactive story development with expert commentary pitched across national and regional television, radio, print, and digital media. We also prioritised links back to the campaign hub so that earned coverage could continue helping people find Keep Australia Beautiful after the original story had run.

The campaign became the starting point for a broader partnership with Keep Australia Beautiful across subsequent national programs.

The November campaign generated 13 pieces of earned media coverage with an estimated cumulative reach of 2.2 million.

Coverage included Channel 9 News Darwin, Australian Geographic, Green Magazine, and EcoVoice, spanning television, environmental media, and specialist audiences.

• 13 pieces of earned media coverage
• 2.2 million estimated cumulative media reach
• National and regional coverage across television, radio, print, and digital media
• Seven relevant backlinks to the campaign hub
• Consistent campaign messaging across coverage
• Media relationships rebuilt around Keep Australia Beautiful and its experts

The campaign gave Keep Australia Beautiful a stronger platform for future activity, with renewed media relationships, a clearer public narrative, and fresh earned coverage around the organisation’s work.

What began with Contain Your Waste developed into a broader partnership across subsequent Keep Australia Beautiful campaigns and national initiatives.