A hypnotic pink feline on a mission to help people recycle their electricals

Meet Hypnocat, the fluffy pink purveyor of electrical recycling. His mission? Curb the fastest growing waste stream in the UK by hypnotising the nation into recycling their electricals, rather than binning them.

increase in the number
of electricals recycled

16m+

conversion
rate

48%

cost per
action claimed

£0.50

The Challenge

As our obsession with tech grows, so does the mountain of waste it leaves behind. Millions of electrical items are hoarded or binned each year in the UK, even though three quarters could be recycled into everything from children’s playgrounds to lifesaving equipment. Material Focus set out to flip the script on electrical recycling, turning it from a chore into a cultural habit.

The Cultural Opportunity

Recycling behaviour is sticky. People know it matters, but habit wins. To shift that, we needed more than information. We needed emotion, identity, and influence. So we tapped into the power of social proof, making recycling feel easy, fun, visible and worth sharing. We made it pink and we made it purr.

Hypnocat

Enter HypnoCat, a hypnotic pink feline with one job: to get Britain recycling. By blending surreal humour with unmistakable visual branding, HypnoCat cut through across TV, radio, outdoor and digital. He made recycling feel fun, fresh and culturally infectious. The more people saw him, the more they copied the behaviour. From confused giggles to committed action, a quiet movement began.

Impact

500,000 people either started or increased their electrical recycling.
38 percent of audiences said the campaign changed their behaviour.
Just 50 pence cost per claimed action.