Strategic Communication in Society

This essay discusses the new phenomenon in communication and how strategic communication is being used to promote sustainable behaviors regarding waste management and food leftovers. The case study of Icon Agency PR is used to illustrate the use of integrated public relations services and digital content to foster communication related to sustainable measures. The I Love Leftovers campaign is highlighted as an effective way to create a positive impact on food waste and leftovers. The essay also discusses the challenges faced in promoting sustainable behaviors and the use of social media platforms to engage audiences. The impact of the campaign is evaluated, and the essay concludes by emphasizing the importance of creating a healthy community and environment through sustainable consumption habits.

Running head: STRATEGIC COMMUNICATION IN SOCIETY
Strategic Communication in Society
Name of student
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New phenomenon in communication
Using digital content to create a social movement in celebration of food, leftovers and
sustainability behaviors
Considering the case study, it is understood that the new phenomenon of communication
is all about utilizing the right online content and information for fostering a social movement to
celebrate sustainable behaviors regarding waste management along with managing food leftovers
properly too. The communication process involves sending the right messages and information
to people about maintaining a clean environment and at the same time, conduct sustainability
campaigns to make people know and remain informed about managing food wastes and leftovers
along with promoting a cleaner and healthier environment too.
Icon Agency PR, being one of the major Public relations agencies for digital era
organizations in Australia, has managed to offer integrated public relations services along with
communications managed online via social media usage and digital content. The leveraging of
integrate creative agency services has further allowed the clients to optimize their experiences
with the use of shared media channels owned by them. The company’s experienced PR team and
communication team has facilitated the use of social media marketing and strategic
communications for ensuring smooth business functioning and at the same time, foster the
communication process related to the management of sustainable measures to mitigate food
leftovers and wastes (iconagency.com.au 2018). The integrated service model used by the
company has created convenience for the clients to access the digital platforms while the

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campaign managed by the PR agency has enabled a new communication landscape and
phenomenon in communication.
One of the major issues in Australia is the generation of food wastes and generation that
has affected the social and environmental aspects and at the same time caused greenhouse gases
along with emissions of other harmful gases, which affected the environment negatively. There
are more than 250000 tonnes of wastes derived from food and due to this, 400000 tonnes of
greenhouse gases are emitted, which have cost n average of around $2200 every year in
Australia. According to Aschemann-Witzel et al. (2015), there are evidences that the Australians
discarded more than 20 percent of the food that they purchased, which could be equal to 5 bags
of groceries that could be bought There are $8 billion worth of food that are edible and have been
thrown as left over by the Australian people and its is around 345 kilograms for every household
(Aschemann-Witzel et al. 2015). The major causes of food leftovers and food wastes are because
most of the people do not know the actual processes of using the leftovers, buying too much food
rather than checking the food they have, purchasing takeaway food items at the last minute, etc.
It is high time that the Australian people remain cautious about this and make sure to reduce the
generation of food wastes and leftovers as much as Possible. Farr‐Wharton, Foth and Choi
(2014) stated that it is essential for Icon Agency PR manage a new phenomenon in
communication to make people aware of the food leftovers and wastes, furthermore maintain a
clean and hygienic environment where people can live in (Farr‐Wharton, Foth and Choi 2014).
The Sustainability Victoria’s Love Food, Hate Waste or LFHW campaign has been managed to
conduct sustainability approaches and make the behaviors of people influenced towards
management of food leftovers and wastes appropriately. One of the major challenges faced was

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during the time when the program or initiative was needed to be kept fresh, effective and
innovative to influence behavioral changes among the people. There are other challenges such as
lack of identification of behaviors of people who have been targeted, formation of right content
to appeal the clients and bring public relations efficiency and budgetary limitations (Evans,
Campbell and Murcott 2013).
As the essay revolves around the concept of new phenomenon in communication, the
company has promoted various campaigns for delivering the right messages and information to
clients to influence their behaviors regarding the food leftovers. I Love Leftovers is an effective
campaign managed by the PR agency to create a positive impact on the foods wastes and
leftovers that are avoidable and bring both environmental and financial benefits to foster
behavioral changes among the people in Australia. This has made them concerned about wastage
of food and even prevented generation of wastes that could affect the environment negatively
(Visschers, Wickli and Siegrist 2016). As stated by Evans (2014), the strategies concerned with
public relations and communications management have been facilitated with the conduct of
researches through LFHW Victoria Campaign, Sustainability Victoria’s household waste audit,
Food Wastage Avoidance Campaign and carried out quantitative researches. While most of the
cases for food wastage and leftovers involved storing the food in freeze for long time and
consuming those, the PR agency targeted the right audiences, especially those between the ages
of 30 to 50 who are associated with daily household cooking (Evans 2014). Lipinski et al. (2013)
argued that due to their engagement in online activities and assessing different food recipes, the
online websites and social media platforms are effective for creating inspiration among people
and raise client awareness to preserve food and prevent food leftovers and wastes gradually. The

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company’s approach to sustainable campaigns have been aimed at creating a positive mindset
among people regarding their saving of food and create more sustainable behavioral changes
through sharing of accessible and relevant information (Lipinski et al. 2013).
The new phenomenon in communication is fostered with the implementation of strategies
that are aimed at accomplishing the objectives of raising awareness among people regarding the
avoidable food wastes, influencing behavioral changes in people to adopt sustainable approach
for managing food leftovers and maintain a cleaner environment. The SMART objectives that
are to be communicated are to engage the audiences and reach a minimum of 100000 people by
adopting social media channels while working with the Government to arrange events for
sustainable food management (Derqui, Fayos and Fernandez 2016). The campaign was
facilitated by using various PR strategies, digital platforms and using content to transform the
food consumption habits into some kind of social good. The execution of PR strategies and
campaigns has involved use of various communication methods for managing conversations with
the clients and make them informed about the brand content, furthermore use social media
platforms to manage proper distribution of services too. Based on the statements made by Scott
(2015), the new phenomenon in communication could be the use of websites and digital
campaign hubs for managing resources and also involving other food waste organizations o
contribute to the betterment of community and social well being (Scott 2015). Other ways of
communicating the right information and messages are by using videos to demonstrate the latest
trends for food recipes that can prevent food leftovers and wastes.
The social media platforms like Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram have kept the
customers engaged by sharing videos and pictures that consist of some information and messages

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regarding sustainable food waste management. The communication process is further facilitated
by developing blog content through use of online tools across the social media platforms and
ensuring grabbing the attention of customers too. The I Love Leftovers online competition has
boosted the delivery of content via social media channels, which has created convenience for the
PR agency to share graphical messages consisting of information about food wastes or leftovers
and how those could be mitigated to the utmost level possible (Young 2014). There are food
recipes for producing the right food items by using the leftovers and also reduce the wastes,
which compelled the customers to try out sustainable measures and prevent this issue to create a
greener, healthier, cleaner and effective environment devoid of any harmful gases or substances.
Another effective way of communicating the right information to clients is through paid
advertisements to manage the campaign properly and promote the issues via online media
including MamaMia, Taste, etc. The social networking websites, being a part of most of people
nowadays, has been used to target large groups of audiences quickly and with much
convenience. As stated by Linke and Zerfass (2013), the Australian Government support has
assisted the PR agency to make an outreach to councils in Victoria, Australia and communicated
information and messages about preventing food wastage and leftovers (Linke and Zerfass
2013). With the involvement of councils, Government and regulatory bodies, sustainable food
consumption campaigns are promoted largely, which even allowed to promote the messages by
presenting the tagline “I Love Leftovers” in apparel and clothing for enhancing customer
awareness.
From the research and evaluation of efficiency of campaigns, it has been understood that
the I Love Leftovers campaign has created an impact on the community positively by engaging

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both offline and online audiences and the videos and graphics spread on social media channels
have brought more than 10,000 views in the first few hours only (Theaker 2017). In Facebook,
the videos have recovered nearly 180000 views while the likes on Facebook page managed by
LFHW Victoria have increased gradually with huge amount of website traffic consistently
generated for the past few months. Therefore, it could be understood that the new phenomenon
in communication has brought huge changes and created behavioral changes (Planchenstainer
2013). This has not only created a positive mindset among people regarding sustainable
consumption habits, but also has made them aware of preventing food leftovers and wastes to
facilitate creation of a healthy community and environment altogether (Iconagency.com.au
2018).

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References
Aschemann-Witzel, J., de Hooge, I., Amani, P., Bech-Larsen, T. and Oostindjer, M., 2015.
Consumer-related food waste: causes and potential for action. Sustainability, 7(6), pp.6457-6477.
Derqui, B., Fayos, T. and Fernandez, V., 2016. Towards a more sustainable food supply chain:
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Evans, D., 2014. Food waste: home consumption, material culture and everyday life.
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Evans, D., Campbell, H. and Murcott, A., 2013. Waste matters: new perspectives of food and
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Farr‐Wharton, G., Foth, M. and Choi, J.H.J., 2014. Identifying factors that promote consumer
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Lipinski, B., Hanson, C., Lomax, J., Kitinoja, L., Waite, R. and Searchinger, T., 2013. Reducing
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