Case Studies: Ecocell

ECO-CELL builds buzz and grows company

A strategic targeted media relations campaign creates a business success story

ECO-CELL started with a win-win idea and altruistic goals: to solicit and redistribute old cell phones as a fundraising effort for various non-profit organizations and a means of reducing discarded cell phone waste in landfills.

The company had identified the many targets of the program as the corporations and individuals who can most easily dispose of obsolete cell phone equipment, and the beneficiaries as zoos and other conservation-focused nonprofits who receive a portion of the funds from the ECO-CELL recycling program. The final winners are the low-income first-time phone customers in developing markets such as Latin America who receive the refurbished phones.

To grow their business, ECO-CELL first contacted corecubed in early 2005 for help with a marketing strategy. Because conservation is the heart of this philanthropic program, corecubed suggested a strategy to build on the successes ECO-CELL had and to focus on zoos as the primary charitable target. ECO-CELL agreed, and corecubed implemented a national media strategy to get the word out. The excellent coverage of this program continues to reap membership in this recycling program as well and to date over 100 zoos and aquariums in North America and Canada have joined ECO-CELL’s program. The exposure also gained the interest of other national charitable organizations who have signed on to ECO-CELL’s program.

ECO-CELL has gotten, and continues to get many high profile media hits as a result of corecubed’s PR efforts. Media hits include feature articles and news coverage in local, national and international outlets such as National Geographic News, Health, Cooking Light, In Business, Natural Health, Canadian Geographic, Calgary Herald, Louisville’s Business First, the Washington Post, the Atlanta Journal Constitution, San Jose Mercury News, the Courier Journal, and the Ventura County Star. Through corecubed’s plan, the online community has also taken notice of ECO-CELL, which has resulted in numerous blog and Web site articles, including articles on the Web sites for Martha Stewart, Vanity Fair and Good Morning America. The wide spread media coverage has resulted in steady business growth. ECO-CELL is now often listed as one of the top cell phone recyclers in various lists of recyclers, and organizations now contact ECO-CELL regularly to be part of the program. In fact, some of North American’s most notable zoos including the San Diego Zoo and Zoo Atlanta are on board.

In 2007, ECO-CELL and corecubed worked together to implement a grassroots Earth Day campaign. Using the creative slogan “Go Green to Make Green”, the campaign kicked off this initiative by challenging people to send in their used cell phones on Earth Day. Pitched to technology bloggers, national dailies and many environmental organizations, the initiative was quickly picked up by many “greenies” wanting to do something positive for the environment, including Life Hacker, The Sietch Blog, Amazon.com Blog, Miami Herald and Envirolink. The coverage for Earth Day 2008 with ECO-CELL’s campaign “Answer the Call of the Wild” are expected to exceed last year’s results.

As a part of the original strategy suggested, and as an ongoing service, corecubed created highly colorful graphics that are presented as a turnkey approach to the clients who want to use ECO-CELL’s fundraising. corecubed now also maintains ECO-CELL’s Web site, has implemented a very success SEO campaign that is growing Internet interest substantially, and continues to work with the young company to develop its business strategically using marketing, design and PR.

“Our investment in corecubed’s PR group is positioning ECO-CELL very well among competitors

in an emerging industry. In the first 2 months of our 2007 PR campaign we were written up in the

Washington Post, Cooking Light and Health Magazine. I can’t describe how important this coverage

is to us. Our results have been so good in fact that we are expanding our original PR project to

include Search Engine Optimization and a blog that gives our company a web-based “voice".”

Eric Ronay

President, ECO-CELL

Newsletter Sign Up | How Can We Help | Refer a Client | Special Events