Food Campaign Media

We require a media agency to work with our creative agency to:
• Collaborate during the campaign strategy and planning phase;
• Create a media plan for the campaign, recommending appropriate channels and formats, timings of media bursts and cost-effective approaches;
• Buy media space on our behalf, managing budgets efficiently;
• Report on campaign performance, tweaking channel approaches where necessary; and
• Work with the creative agency to ensure the right creatives are being used in the right spaces and identify where improvements could be made, both to the creative and messaging approaches and to the overall strategy.
We are asking agencies to respond to a series of questions, which we will be using as the basis for evaluating responses.
The questions are:
1. The aim of our campaign is to change food behaviours at home, which requires a very different approach to campaigns which target buying behaviours.
a. Do you have experience of buying for behaviour change campaigns?
b. Which channels and approaches would you use for this campaign to reach as much of our target audience as possible and ensure our messages stick?
2. We have a small budget but big ambitions. How would you ensure we are valued as a customer despite our size, and how would you achieve value for money?

3. As well as creating our own content and via influencers, we may signpost the content of others on our social channels and feature them on the campaign website. Would you recommend a different media strategy/tactics for this approach. If so, what would it be and why and what is your experience of doing this?

4. As well as OOH, digital and social, there may be the potential to explore audio (e.g. radio/podcasts) and media partnerships for this campaign. How would you approach audio and media partnerships as part of an overall campaign strategy?
Campaign requirements
The campaign is to be delivered over a one-year period. The planning phase will start immediately on appointment with a full briefing on progress to date. Our goal is a June 2026 campaign launch.
While the campaign may create a wide range of assets on both main topics (food waste prevention and food waste recycling) over the three years, some boroughs and waste disposal authorities may choose to focus more on one set of messaging, so the campaign must work and be adaptable on several levels, including potentially:
• Regional - awareness-raising activity across the capital, including outer as well as inner London boroughs;
• Sub-regional - awareness-raising and engagement activity across clusters of boroughs (waste authorities);
• Localised - targeted activity tailored to residents of one or more London boroughs.
Channels/media
The campaign will launch in June 2026 and media bursts (approximately two to three per year) will continue for the duration of the campaign. Our initial thinking on channel mix is below, however we would like to hear your recommendations:
• Out-of-home advertising - depending on budgets and media availability, including TFL network (buses, tube, etc), plus owned or price-capped media channels via boroughs (e.g. JCDecaux sites, libraries, community spaces, leisure centres, etc)
• Digital advertising - via social media channels (Instagram and Facebook) and influencers. Additional digital channels (e.g. programmatic) could be explored if relevant and recommended
• Audio - such as local radio and podcasts if recommended
• Media/brand partnerships - with likeminded individuals, influencers and organisations
Sites of particular interest include high density and high dwell time areas within the London boroughs which are providing funding and support of this campaign (see below), on key transport networks and busy commuter routes, as our research has indicated this is where marketing communications can have the greatest impact. Depending on the media location the campaign messaging may flex to either cater to the food waste prevention or food waste recycling message.
The 17 boroughs participating in the campaign are:
- Barnet
- Bexley
- Camden
- Ealing
- Enfield
- Hackney
- Hammersmith & Fulham
- Haringey
- Hillingdon
- Islington
- Kensington & Chelsea
- Lewisham
- Merton
- Richmond
- Waltham Forest
- Wandsworth
- Westminster
We are also keen to explore brand partnerships with likeminded individuals, influencers and organisations to help land and scale the messaging. Recommendations for this should be included in the proposal.
Owned channels include a website and organic social media channels which are updated several times a week. The website would be updated to include a section dedicated to food waste recycling.
Campaign KPIs and evaluation
While the ultimate goal of the campaign is to change people's behaviours at home to increase food waste recycling participation and waste less food, it is primarily an awareness-raising campaign to help Londoners draw the link between food and climate, and understand how their food behaviours can both reduc