The Campaign

As an industry, advertising continues to be seen as superficial without any real impact on society. But with countless innovations, ideas for social good, and campaigns to raise awareness for real world problems, advertising can now be seen as a powerful body capable of change. We wanted to continue treading this path of innovation for social good with NICO, a simple and innovative solution for the health problems posed by mosquitoes. The NICO ashtray can give anyone access to an effective organic insecticide simply by filling it with cigarette butts- which are readily available for free. It's also easily deploy-able around the city, making the average school and neighborhood a mosquito-free zone for a fraction of the cost of conventional mosquito solutions.

Creative Execution

With an existing local law which dictates smoking to designated smoking areas, the gathering of cigarette butts, which is a critical resource for the project, was easy. With the help of the Taguig City Government, NICO was launched in January 2017 in various smoking areas around the city of Taguig, Philippines. It was first placed around 2 communities in the city, creating an accessible and effective insecticide to that was used in schools and residential areas. The Taguig NICO project was also promoted in social media through the city government's online assets.

Indication of how successful the outcome was in the market

NICO was not sold as a product due to it being a local government project for social good, but has untapped business potential thanks to its initial results. NICO was successfully tested in 2 communities, which make up 94,000 people in the city of Taguig, Philippines. It was was able to provide an effective insecticide for various schools and residential areas around the city, making countless citizens and community officials praise its ease of use and effectiveness. Thanks to its initial success, the Taguig City Government is now in the process of implementing NICO in 26 more communities. It is also considering working with other local governments to launch NICO in more areas like business districts, hotels, and schools all over the country.

NICO was designed for the any average community citizen and any local government willing to adopt NICO as an innovative solution to the ongoing health problem posed by mosquitoes. After consulting various experts and community officials, we discovered that an efficient and organic insecticide can be formed by submerging cigarette butts in water for an extended period of time. With so many active smokers present around the city, we took this opportunity to create NICO and provide an accessible and effective means of protecting the average community from mosquito-borne illnesses.