Gold Coast Watersaver Program
The Challenge:
Create and implement a comprehensive water demand management strategy for a city of 500,000 people facing severe water shortages AND unite the strategy under one compelling and enticing marketing brand.
The Project:
Prior to founding Econnics, Kirk Stinchcombe was the Demand Management Coordinator for the City of the Gold Coast in Queensland, Australia. He led the development and delivery of a comprehensive water conservation program that included:
• Home retrofits;
- • Water efficient product rebates;
- • GreenPlumbers® training;
- • Baseline watering restrictions;
- • Volumetric water and wastewater pricing;
- • Targeted industrial/commercial/institutional projects;
- • Water recycling;
- • School and community education; and,
- • Wise About Water garden industry training.
The Gold Coast programs were developed using a community-based social marketing design. This means that they were created with consideration of the community’s willingness to engage and based on empirical evidence. There was heavy emphasis on market research and use of barrier and motivator analysis to identify successful approaches.
All of the projects were united under the innovative “Watersaver” marketing campaign, which used humour and reference to the iconic Australian lifesaver to catch the customer’s attention.
The Result:
Gold Coast Water became part of Allconnex Water in 2010 and continues to have one of the most comprehensive water conservation programs in Australia, still under the Watersaver banner. It has been recognized nationally and internationally for its innovative work.