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Public health and environmental advocates have
been conducting campaigns like these for years to address issues like AIDS/HIV,
malaria, tobacco use, waste reduction and recycling. The best of these campaigns
have been successful where other interventions have fallen short. Uganda, for
example, became one of only two countries in the world to reverse the course of
its AIDS epidemic , largely through a sustained social change campaign that promoted “zero
grazing” (i.e. no hanky-panky outside a committed partnership). In North
America and Europe, smoking has become less accepted if not taboo thanks to
social marketing reinforced with policy change.
If you’re thinking about creating a campaign for
your organization, and you’d like to do more than create “awareness” around an
issue or simply raise funds, it’s not a bad idea to read up on this practice before
making what may be a considerable investment. I would highly recommend starting
with the book : Social Marketing: Influencing Behaviors for Good, written by fairy godmother and father of social
marketing, Nancy Lee and Philip Kotler.
What? You
don’t have time to read this 400+ page tome of marketing genius? I’ll be glad
to share a few pointers with you around the subject of messaging— a key
component of any social change campaign.
1) Do extensive research. Start with researching the
problem, the behaviors surrounding it, and the people and situations that help
or hinder the positive behavior(s). Ideally, you’ll do both formative research and
a literature review, so you can set measurable goals for your campaign. Too
many campaigns forget this essential element, and they get to the evaluation
stage and have no baseline. What kinds of campaigns have been done on this
issue? Were they effective? Why or why not? Are there best practices we can
glean from others’ successes and failures?
2) Know thy audience. It’s the
most important so I’ll repeat it. Know thy audience. Why were
the Just Say No and D.A.R.E campaigns designed to prevent
teen drug use in the US such miserable failures, and the Truth and Keepin’ it REAL
campaigns so successful? Because the latter two spoke to the target audience in
a language they understood, via messengers they responded to. You’ll want to conduct
focus groups and/or surveys with potential target audiences and find out their
attitudes and behaviors around the issue, their values, what keeps them up at
night, and who they listen to and respect for advice on the given topic. But your relationship with the audience
doesn’t end there. Ideally, you’ll want
to have your audience as active participants in the creation and implementation
of the campaign.
3) Go positive. I love the saying, “Worrying is like praying
for what you don’t want.” The same goes for messages—in most cases, “going
negative” doesn’t work, unless there is an enforced penalty attached. If at all
possible, put a positive spin on your message. Venetians, in a country that
consumes more bottled water than any other in the world, were convinced to
drink tap water, or the elegantly rebranded “Acqua Veritas,” thanks to a citywide behavior change
campaign. They didn’t tell folks, “Don’t buy Pellegrino!”
rather, they gave them a ‘classy’ alternative that happened to be better for
the environment. According to the
advocacy organization Tap It, the Italian city decreased its plastic waste by
12% just one year after the campaign launch.
4) Test. Even the biggest ad agencies have made boo boos here,
and it’s even more important for a less wealthy non-profit to test messages and
means of reaching audiences before plunking down a bunch of money on posters or
TV ads that—“Oops !” have missed their mark or worse, offended it.
5) Make it active.
This may seem like a no-brainer for a behavior
change campaign, but put an action in
your key message (unless you’re targeting norms, see #6). This means a verb and
maybe a few other words. Keep it simple. Just
Do It. Hmmm where have we heard that before?
6) Reinforce positive norms. Social norms are one of the most influential
determinants of behavior. Depending on your issue or problem, it may be the most influential. This is why sometimes
“public awareness” campaigns fall flat, or in some cases, exacerbate the
problem at hand. It’s very likely that the target audience you’re dealing with is
aware that the problem exists, and may have an already inflated idea that there
are more of their peers engaging in the undesirable behavior than really are. If
they are made aware that they are part of the majority acting out the positive
behavior, this can have a profound effect on actually changing the perceived
norm. This is why student-led responsible drinking campaigns on US college
campuses did well; peers let responsible drinkers know that they were in the
majority. Important point here, however,
don’t expect results in months or even a year. Social norms take a long time to
take hold, and require multi-faceted, sustained efforts by campaign partners
and messengers within the community and media.
7) Give them something they want.
In commercial marketing, people buy something because they want the
benefit of the product or service. The same goes for behavior, but it’s a
delicate art to finding exactly what your audience perceives as a benefit
unless you do your research. People may be told: “It’s good for you,” or “You’ll
die earlier if you don’t do this!” etc., but until you know what the audience views
as a benefit, they won’t be likely to take the action you want them to. This
circles back to #2, know thy audience.
8) One size doesn’t fit all. This is another mistake that larger ad agencies tend
to make by thinking “bigger is better” and that casting a wide net will get
more results. This may be because they work primarily on commercial campaigns
and they forget that the target audiences in behavior change campaigns may have
empty pockets. It’s more like a barter.
If our product is behavior, the benefit of acting out this behavior should outweigh
the cost. The objective is making change, not making the bottom line. Most
importantly, social issues and the behavior surrounding them, unlike traditional
“products,” are highly influenced by regional norms, customs, and language, so
it’s essential that the messages are crafted with that in mind.
9) Choose your battle wisely. Don’t waste time by preaching to the choir or trying
to persuade the toughest customers to see your way is the right way. Segment your audience into those doing the
desired behavior and those that are just on the other side of the fence. Conduct a ‘Doer’ ‘Non-Doer’ analysis to
determine what behavior determinants separate the two sides. Then, target that “sweet
spot” to get them to climb to the other side.
10) Innovate! Look for innovative ways to carry your
message to your audience(s). The usual suspects like broadcast, social media,
and print ads are fine, but better -- think of ways that will put the message
near the point of action of the behavior you’re encouraging, within the target
audiences daily listening space. This might mean comic books or kitchen tools,
personal hygiene products or taxi stickers, school notebooks or calendars, depending on your target group. You may also create toolkits or curriculum for target and secondary audiences that engage the whole community in the campaign. Telling
stories that reinforce positive norms and/or the behavior are great too, and
publicizing the popularity of the positive norm through mobile phone polls or
contests.
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| See ANAL's video about this campaign. |
The Latin American children's protection organization ANAR tried something different. They produced a
billboard advertising their child abuse hotline with Lenticular photography, so that it would appear differently at
different angles. An appeal for children to call the hotline was only
visible to those under a certain height. Although critics pointed out that "the secret was out," and that children would not call the hotline
as a result (because they rarely call hotlines themselves) the organization let on that their target audience was actually
adults, and the interest generated and calls to the hotline increased
dramatically as a result of the ad buzz.
There's no guarantee what you will come up with will be successful, but if you follow these tips you'll be off to a good start.
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