Marketing Communications: the results

Trashbusters is a privately-owned rubbish removal company started by two young entrepreneurial university students. When they were setting up franchise operations, they needed help to give profile to the business in the new markets they had in mind.

How could a small company with a limited budget get positive media visibility in a number of North American markets? They called PEAK.

PEAK worked with Trashbusters’ two executives and their managers to help them see stories and find news. They developed an unusual strategy—drivers carried a camera in each truck, ready to shoot unusual trash when they were taking it to the dump. Stories also featured company employees saving useful materials from going to the landfill.

Ross and Alyn took the best stories to the media. One highlight was a baseball and hockey card collection that a North Vancouver woman gave to one of the company’s employees. The “trash treasure” story got not only local but national publicity.

In new markets, colourful 12-inch plastic garbage pails landed on assignment editors’ desks, containing a videotape of previous Trashbusters news stories, a backgrounder and press release. PEAK followed up with phone calls talking up why the Trashbusters’ story had to be told. It worked repeatedly—in Portland, Seattle, Denver and Toronto.