Tonight, as you read this, 44 million Americans are going to bed without enough food, and even more are turning to food insecurity programs just to survive. At the same time, 78 million tons of good food goes to waste every year — ironically the same amount needed to feed every food-insecure person 3 meals per day. Flashfood is a mobile app created to fight food insecurity, making better food accessible to all Americans by applying deep discounts closer to the best-by date, and the app is already making an impact by diverting food waste, with important data to share in the 2023 Impact Report. The problem: Impact Reports usually go to LinkedIn in a single post from the CEO, so we were challenged to find a better way to deliver the report, driving conversation in media and events.
Breaking through the clutter of everyday life is challenging, and reaching a next generation of consumers (Gen Z) — with the attention span of a goldfish — is a big ask for them to read a white paper about food waste.
So how do we reach the most digitally connected audiences on earth? Newsprint.
We wanted to tap into the creativeness of multiple generations of Creators, with 56% of Gen Z considering themselves creative, we wanted to turn the data into an aesthetic that can be styled like upcycled ephemera and repurposed into posters, art, making the impact report an Instagrammable moment to spark conversations.
Working with a diverse team of artists, illustrators, and writers, the Flashfood 2023 Impact Report inspired an array of activations, ranging from editorial photography with artist and influencer Deja Corin to upcycled newspaper boxes to distribute the newspapers at ReFed, a conference organized to reduce waste in food systems, and other readers creating billboards with the open newspapers using the front and back cover for guerrilla OOH.
And as follows the trend of Gen Z and Millennials exhausted from digital fatigue turning to physical media, buying vinyl records and point-and-shoot cameras, the impact report began to weave into this tangible, aesthetic world that’s tightly curated for our target audiences.
Instead of a LinkedIn post going to waste, the entire organization rallied around the exciting effort, including grocer partners across America, sharing their pride in the partnership with Flashfood.
ADWEEK celebrated the fact that print is not dead, featuring the creative on the homepage, newsletters, and social. The novel approach received massive grocery trade coverage from The Packer, Food Navigator, Progressive Grocer, and investor relations favorite TechCrunch.
Months after launch, the impact report continues to take shape on social, being shared on Stories by influencers, and tacked to the wall in the backgrounds of Creators like posters.
Brand growth has continued to accelerate, diverting over 100 million tons, driving both profit and impact, proving that the future of waste is zero.
