Enhancing a Food Wastage Campaign to Drive Real Behaviour Change

Enhancing a Food Wastage Campaign

📌 Client: Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP): Love Food Hate Waste (LFHW) campaign

🎯 Goal: Develop recommendations that would inspire greater engagement and long-lasting behaviour change in the target audience to reduce food waste.

The Challenge: Why people say they care about food waste — but still don’t act

Many people care about the environment and want to save money 💰. Yet, when it comes to reducing food waste at home, their good intentions often don’t translate into action. 

🚧 Barriers Identified 

Through my psychological evaluation of the campaign, I uncovered three key blockers:

🥶 Limited knowledge of food storage

People aren’t always sure what foods are safe to store, or how best to store them.

🍲 Unappealing perceptions of leftovers

Leftover food is often seen as less tasty or even unsafe — especially when reheated.

🤔 Low self-confidence in food management

Many people doubt their ability to portion, store, or repurpose meals effectively.

🧠 The Strategy: How psychology helped shift habits 

The campaign already had strong foundations: a celebrity-led video, influencer partnerships, and practical food tips. 

🎥 Main campaign video

Tied leftover usage to key real-life concerns like saving time and money — making it personally relevant in a cost-of-living crisis.

🌍 Inclusive characters

Included relatable characters from a minority ethnic group (like Meera) to engage minority audiences — increasing cultural relevance and emotional resonance.

👩‍🍳 Influencers + practical guidance

Nutritionists and chefs gave easy food-saving tips, building trust and boosting confidence in home food management. (Read more on how using experts can boost your sales here)

📈 My Recommendations: Turning awareness into action 

However, there was room for improvement — the campaign did not directly address key barriers to the target behaviour, and it missed the opportunity to better leverage its existing social media platforms. Here are the recommendations:

📚 Tackle the gap in knowledge directly

Add clear, engaging content on safe storage and leftover safety, potentially from a trusted nutritionist to boost credibility.

📣 Launch a social media challenge

Use a hashtag like #windon’tbin to create community participation and social proof, showing others that smarter food habits are normal and celebrated.

🕹️ Use gamification

Turn food-saving into a challenge! Earn points, win rewards — and reinforce behaviour through positive feedback loops.

🚀 How This Applies to Your Business 

Whether you’re driving sustainability, customer engagement, or behaviour change, the same behavioural principles apply:

To boost brand loyalty and increase positive perceptions of your brand:

🌱 Showcase your values

Tackling big issues relevant to your brand like sustainability or wellbeing builds emotional connection and brand loyalty. 

To boost your campaigns: 

🎯 Boost engagement

Use trusted messengers to reach both eager and passive audiences.

🏆 Reward action

Gamify your campaigns to motivate participation and drive repeat behaviours.

👥 Make change feel social

Leverage trends, influencers, and social media challenges to build momentum and turn habits into movements.

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