Biffa. - Cogent

Biffa is a big, national brand, by far the biggest player in UK waste collection.

But despite being a well-known name, Biffa wasn’t a brand people warmed to.

When they approached Cogent, we put our heads together to create a campaign that would make people see Biffa in a new, more positive light.

We needed to generate PR, create a social media buzz about Biffa and ultimately boost sales to increase market share.

The first part of the solution was simple.

Biffa have an army of big red trucks driving up and down Britain’s streets every day.

It’s like a permanent collection of mobile 48 sheets.

At no extra cost to the client.

Biffa monster illustration and branding by Cogent

We knew this was the medium to use – the next question was how.

Again the answer came quickly.

The trucks are great big, waste-consuming monsters.

So why not turn them great big, waste-consuming monsters – only with living, breathing personalities?

We drew up designs at the agency and when we showed them to Biffa they were on board straight away.

Illustrators were commissioned to do tests and the winning designs came from Plenty in Buenos Aires.

7 different —Wasteaters’ were created, each with their own name and personality but all still clearly members of the Biffa family.

New trucks began to be wrapped as they came into service and with the first few off the production line we produced a film to introduce them to the world.

Shot by the Cogent Film team in one night and edited in house, the film was released online to coincide with a launch event.

As the trucks rolled out into regular waste collection on Britain’s streets, the campaign started to take off.

On Twitter, people began posting their sightings of these rare and magnificent creatures.

The monsters were even picked up by trade and regional press.

While as more and more people shared it, the film became a hit, increasing Biffa’s YouTube views by 164%.

At Biffa there was an immediate sense of pride in staff across the business that the brand was doing something high profile and fun with drivers vying to be behind the wheel of a Wasteater.

And crucially, new enquiries to the sales team saw a clear spike.

Not unlike the spike on Wanda the Wasteater’s nose.