We've worked on some fantastic campaigns with the University of Glasgow over the years, but our latest project is definitely one of our more unusual collaborations.

A European Union charter to fight food waste

It all began last year when Glasgow University's School of Education invited us to work with local schools and Keep Scotland Beautiful to launch an anti-food waste campaign for Don’t Waste Our Future - a European Union charter to raise awareness of issues surrounding food waste. With Glasgow alone producing 80,000 tonnes of food waste a year, we were excited to be involved in such a fantastic initiative to encourage people to take action.

Brand and advertising workshops with local schools

Our initial task was to hold two workshops with pupils from Hyndland Secondary School, Knightswood Secondary School, Shawlands Academy and St Paul’s High School. In the first, we introduced the young people to the work of a creative agency and discussed the elements involved in a successful marketing or advertising campaign.

Once they had grasped the key concepts of brand identity, tone of voice, target market, etc, the pupils worked in groups to come up with their own creative concepts.

There were some fantastic ideas (we loved 'Binning is Sinning') but they finally settled on two routes: 'Food Has Feelings Too' and 'Taste Don't Waste'.

Campaign rollout: posters, window stickers and clean graffiti

In the second workshop, we explored their ideas in more detail and discussed the potential approaches to rolling out their campaign within their modest budget. We looked at all the advertising possibilities available - from billboards, posters and bus tickets to video, social media and various guerilla tactics.

Finally, the pupils settled on posters to use in local schools, window stickers for restaurants and 'clean graffiti' to raise awareness near schools, restaurants and around the city centre.

With the creative routes and approaches decided by the pupils, we designed and arranged the production of the final assets, including the clean graffiti stencil which Green Street Media used in various locations around Glasgow.

Dr Alan Britton, DWOF Project Manager at the University of Glasgow said:

'Following a competitive tendering process, we selected 999 Design as our partners for the Communication Campaign phase of the DWOF project. They brought enthusiasm, creativity, and the ability to work directly with the young people without patronising them. Quite the contrary - in fact, once they had briefed the young people on some of the basics of communications, branding and effective marketing, they went on to support the young people in developing their own ideas. The young people identified a number of core ideas and slogans that went on to form the basis of the visuals adopted for the campaign. The ‘clean graffiti’ which at times seemed unrealistic and a bit of a long shot, appeared as if by magic outside their schools one morning in late May, and I know the pupils were really proud to see their ideas come to fruition.'

The campaign launched at the end of May this year with a special Don’t Waste Our Future final presentation held in Glasgow's City Chambers.