Plastic bags have been one of the most successful innovations of the 20th Century - cheap, easy, hard wearing - 1 Trillion are made every year.

We're addicted to the convenience of plastic - we have come to realise this is a now a huge issue.

With the application of a 100% existing technology and a simple insight of rewarding customers, we designed a shopping bag that shoppers are now addicted to RE-USE every time they shop.

Malaysian use up to 9 billion bags per year. Even wehn shoppers are to be taxed a RM 0.20 cents for every plastic bag following the government policy implemented for almost 10 years, still only 5% of Tesco shoppers reuse their bag when they shop. Over decades of shopping has turned shoppers addicted to the simple convenience of picking up a new bag every time.

Since 2019, all retailers are further pressured by the government to replace all plastic bags to biodegradable bags, but biodegradable plastic is not a truly sustainable solution for our ocean waste problem. Tesco Malaysia key goal was to find an effective way to accelerate

With only 10,000USD (MYR 40,000) budget at hand, we needed a highly effective solution to effect significant behavioral changes on a mass scale to convince Tesco customers to regularly reuse their bags.

We make plastic bag “Unforgettable” by turning something the world sees as rubbish into something worth keeping, creating a new life-saving habit for shoppers.

This is about creating behavioral change on a mass scale. Instead of trying to change behavior by making shoppers feel guilty for forgetting their bags, we worked within the set of established ‘deal hunting’ behaviors of Malaysian shoppers, their love of rewards.

And since the routine of using plastic bags rooted deeply in every Malaysian and it's still the most viable and friendly option compared to paper bag and cotton tote bag, we used plastic bag itself as our very key vehicle to drive a behavioral shift.

We re-designed the existing Tesco reusable bag by adding a simple change, a barcode, we transform the bag into an ongoing discount, an incentive that ALL shoppers will chase after. Creating a rewards that actively changes behavior.

CLIENT BRIEF - 3rd Jan 2018

1st RESPONSE - 22nd Jan 2018

CONCEPT AGREED - 2nd Feb 2018

DESIGN & PRODUCTION - 10th Feb - 28th March

LAUNCH - 3rd April 2018

By adding a simple change to the design, a barcode, we transform the bag into an ongoing discount, an incentive with wide appeal to Malaysian shoppers. Sold for 50cents, the bag has an unlimited rebate of 20 cents. Simply scan the bag (just like a coupon) at the checkout every time you reuse it and get a discount whenever you shop. So users only have to re-use three times to be actually making a profit for their positive behavior.

The barcode are integrated into the form of the animals most at risk from plastics in the ocean, forming an attractive and very distinctive pattern. The design style is simple and cute - to appeal to the widest spectrum of customers from young to old.

Currently Tesco has over 30 re-usable bag designs, all useful but mostly ignored. We simply redesign an existing reusable bag for sale with minimal time and logistic cost.

We see the greatest reduction in single-use bags in Tesco Malaysia history:

• A reduction of 20 million single use plastic bags YOY = A 26% reduction in the total single-use bags.

• A massive increase in re-usage rates, from 5% before the campaign to 68% post campaign.

Commercial Savings & ROMI:

• RM 138K YOY bag production cost saving with reduced consumption and the simple cost-effective implementation.

• RM 1.1 million operation cost saving from mitigating the implementation of the Government’s mandate for all retailers to replace all plastic bags to Bio-Degradable bags had Tesco been unable to demonstrate an effective bag reduction.

• With a MYR 40,000.00 total campaign cost, the campaign generated a saving of over MYR 1.1m in operational costs, which gives an impressive ROMI of 275% or for every RM 1 spent on the campaign, a return of