Mobile phone recycling program MobileMuster transforms bus shelter panels into “Phone Death Installations” in new campaign via Enigma

We all have one or know one – stories of mobile phones meeting an untimely end after being dropped, drowned or damaged in dubious ways. Now, indie creative and media agency Enigma has turned those tales of the death and destruction of devices into a bold national campaign to reignite mobile phone recycling across Australia for MobileMuster, the telecommunications industry’s mobile phone recycling program.

There are an estimated 13 million broken and unused phones lying forgotten in drawers across Australia, and 96% of a phone’s materials can be repurposed. But awareness of why and how to recycle phones is low. The “However it Dies” campaign is designed to change this and help drive a new wave of recycling behaviour.

To spearhead the campaign, Enigma has collaborated with multidisciplinary artist James Dive to create a series of “Phone Death” art installations within standard oOh!media out-of-home panels. These interactive mechanical art works dramatise iconic scenarios where phones meet their untimely end, from a dance floor, to taking a spin in a washing machine and a dip in the ocean. Each installation is placed tactically in a contextually relevant location – near nightclubs, inner city laundromats and the beach.

Says MobileMuster Marketing & Communications Manager Joel Murray: “The power of this work is in the engaging way it brings static media to life. A wait at the bus stop becomes a branding and education moment – there’s no damage you can do to a phone that will make it un-recyclable, and MobileMuster is where you go to recycle old, broken phones. Enigma have come up with the kind of bold creative we’ve been looking for.”

Says Enigma CCO Simon Lee: “In a world that’s flooded with flat screen digital experiences, there’s something timelessly engaging about dimensional, mechanical works like these. The proof though, as they say, is in the pudding: minutes after installing the “phone crushing boot” artwork in Marrickville I watched a group of teenagers cluster around the panel to take a look. One of them pressed the button, and as the boot went to work on the end of its piston was heard to say: ‘this is actually cool’. Praise indeed!”

Adds Enigma Chief Media Officer Justin Ladmore: “It’s in projects like this that our integrated Media and Creative offering really comes into its own. Bringing this campaign into the world has required seamless collaboration between our two teams, oOh!media and Poly who played an invaluable role in helping us integrate these artworks into standard outdoor panels.”

The next phase of the campaign will launch later this month, including social media “True Phone Death” Stories – leveraging real viral footage of spectacular phone failures, and an OOH campaign including large format roadside, street furniture and train station media, in close to 400 locations across Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth.

Creative Agency: Enigma
Chief Creative Officer: Simon Lee
Creative Directors: Matt Ennis & Cam Brown
Strategy Director: Karl Bates
Executive Producer: Katie Hope
Managing Director: Jack Mason
Business Partner: Brendan Swansborough
Account Manager: Samantha Laidler

Media Agency: Enigma
Chief Media Officer: Justin Ladmore
Executive Director: Sally Lawrence
Senior Media Manager: Sophie Rivers

Production Company: Scoundrel/Studio Dive
Artist: James Dive
Producer: Charlie Taylor
Executive Producer/Co-founder: Adrian Shapiro

Artwork Construction: Yippee Ki-Yay

Poly, oOh!media’s creative and innovation hub
Technical Producer: Micheal McCarthy
Senior Producer: Maria Lentidoro
Production & Content Director: Richard Moore

oOh!media
Senior Business Leader: Cassandra Agnew
Business Manager: Daniel Decher-Reeves
Group Sales Leader: Jessica Nikolovski

MobileMuster Marketing & Communications Manager: Joel Murray