Fed up with altruistic marketing campaigns that prey on guilt and fear ?
Me too. The main reason I got into the ‘communication for social change’ biz was because I realized that 99% of socially-oriented marketing was doing more to increase cynicism than to inspire actual positive behavior change. Let’s face it: people want to feel good. If we start at them by trying to impress upon them the terrible urgency of some overwhelming global problem, we will almost always lose them at ‘hello’. Sad, but true.
Enter my good friends at the Shelton Group. Their new water conservation campaign pushes the envelope in a deceptively clever way: by leveraging the power of social awkwardness and twisted humor. Check out the video below and see for yourself what I believe to be the future formula for socially-minded marketing success:
IMPORTANT TOPIC + CREATIVE MESSAGING = MEASURABLE CHANGE
(Note: There are several other videos available on youtube, each with its own twisted charms. Check them all out and please pass along to your friends if you feel so inspired.)
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
I love the ads and think it is a great start but hope they do more by pointing the viewer to direct answers about incentives/benefits for creating change.. ['What's in it for me?' and 'how will my small contribution really help?' will always be alive and well] ie; On the website are they adding elements like ‘Counters’ of people who have ‘joined’ the WBF’s [water buddies forever] group, interactive widgets that estimate how much water you actually saved by doing a particular activity, with email followup ‘rewards’ for reaching certain goals [ie; special coupons from the partners] real time maps of members locations with calculations of how much my area has conserved and some down line messaging of how it all adds up to benefit YOUR children. I agree with you but submit your formula is missing a key ingredient: IMPORTANT TOPIC + CREATIVE MESSAGING + providing a relevant atmosphere to harness the dynamics of community and incentive/benefit = MEASURABLE CHANGE
Hey John THANKS for qualifying MESSAGING with CREATIVE in your formula for measurable change. So much talk these days about “content” and so little effort going into it. Best, Rob
Great post, John. One of my passions is film – and there’s nothing better than a clever “green” video. Have you seen The Plastic Battle? It won FOE’s Best One Minute Film award.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJaI-Ohggd4
I do think that moderate income folks like myself need inspiration to make hard and sometimes expensive changes (although most green changes have saved me tons of money)! For billionaires and soul-less corporations, exposing them for what they do is in fact useful. (And for deniers, like Hungry Beast’s I’m a Climate Scientist video).