Kingfisher: Circulation

How to convince an industry built on launching new phones to extend the life of old ones?

Case name

Kingfisher: Circulation

Category

Marketing

Industry

Telecommunications

About the client

Kingfisher is a pioneering mobile experience B2B company who partners with telecommunications companies and carriers globally to manage the end-to-end device refurbishment, recovery and recycling ecosystem. 

About the project

Kingfisher wanted to raise awareness for the lack of a sustainability solution for the telecommunications industry, and how their business offering could be the answer to a more accountable and sustainable operations model.

Superson dream team

Over and above a well-curated creative team of 3 writers, 2 art directors, animators and content producers across 5 countries, we worked with an artist collective to conceptualize and build the kinectic sculpture from ground up. The team also included a sustainability strategist, a field expert and an industrial ecologist to model and research a carbon impact piece.

Task

Tackling a global issue

The telecommunications industry has a huge sustainability issue, driven by the one-time-use of mobile phones. With recycling and e-waste recovery not the most sustainable solution, we needed to inspire senior industry leaders to move from a take-make-waste model to a more holistic and circular approach to device ownership.

 

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Solution

Global movement

We created Circulation, a global movement demonstrating the true value of phones in their 2nd, 3rd and 4th lives. Using art and insight we challenged existing B2B conventions to amplify the commercial, environmental and experiential benefits of extending the lifetime of a phone.

The campaign started with a whitepaper co-authored with the GSMA (organisation uniting over a 1000 mobile industry players), keynote talks and launching the kinetic sculpture 'Circulation by Kingfisher' at Mobile World Congress Barcelona. 

'Circulation by Kingfisher' kinetic sculpture is an embodiment of the circular economy both in form and function: it transforms refurbished phones from Kingfisher's system into high-art – a 14m multi-sensorial spiral, highlighting the value of used phones, before they go back into circulation after each exhibition. The devices displayed at MWC went on to live a third life with Deaftawk to aid deaf inclusion in the tech industry.

Marketing to the general public came through the PR activities raising overall awareness around the concept of circulation and the value devices have in their 2nd, 3rd and 4th lives, as exemplified with the kinetic sculpture.

 

Results

Going mainstream

Our movement did more than turn heads and was soon picked up by the mainstream media, reaching millions worldwide.

Just as importantly, we engaged with over 20 Fortune 500 companies and tech giants around the globe to make phone ownership more sustainable for consumers, carriers and the planet.

20+

engages with Fortune 500 companies