As experts in social behavioural change, Peach is constantly on the hunt for new, innovative ideas and theories. Changing people’s behaviour for the better is a challenge for governments and community organisations all around the world. How can people best be persuaded to be healthier, fitter, safer and more environmentally friendly?

If you ask Volkswagen, it’s all about fun.

According to The Fun Theory, ‘the easiest way to change behaviour for the better, is by making it fun to do’.

Launched in Sweden, this innovative approach engages with the community via a dedicated website www.thefuntheory.com. Here people can find creative and amusing ways to encourage recycling and exercise. A competition with a 2,500 euro purse calls for more fun ideas to help change behaviour for the better as well as inviting the community to judge the best entry.

Trying to change social behaviours is a complex and difficult task but Volkswagen has taken a different approach. Would you still use the elevator if you could make sweet music by using the stairs?

This question is exactly what Volkswagen set out to answer. Piano Stairs is an experiment where ‘piano keys’ were installed on each step in a busy subway station. When stepped on, each step played a different music note.  This one-off experiment was extremely successful with 66% more people choosing to use the stairs over the escalators so that they could make their own sweet music. The YouTube clip has also proven to be a success. It has achieved 9,183,065 views (noting that the video was added on October 7, 2009!!).

What a great campaign from Volkswagen and an interesting take on social behavioural change.

Tell us your thoughts on using fun to change behaviour.

No matter what your religious denomination, beliefs or faith may be; the latest campaign from Australia’s Bible Society is an impressive, integrated exercise in Social Marketing.

What started out in 2002, has travelled across Australia, through Adelaide, Canberra, Tasmania, and is currently underway in Western Australia and across New South Wales for a six week period from September 15, 2009.

According to the campaign website: “Jesus. All about life is about presenting the words of Jesus in a culturally appropriate way, the media is the marketplace of the 21st Century…The media is the catalyst for interest, but each local church involved is the delivery point of the program.”

It’s a different approach for ‘the Church’. Even the campaign website acknowledges that connecting with the community via mainstream media is a new direction, saying that to date “…the church has not used the media well.”

Perhaps we are the target audience, but everywhere we go, we see this campaign.

It has an impressive dissemination strategy, including mainstream TV ads, Billboards, bus shelters, and has a banner on almost every church you can see – talk about utilising prime real estate in a cost effective way… so cost effective that local churches pay to disseminate the campaign materials! According to the campaign website, “For just $100 registration fee, payable on-line at www.jesusallaboutlife.com.au your local church can be a part of this campaign.”

The television advertisement is certainly easy for anyone to engage with – there’s hardly even a mention of religion.

The microsite is clever – appealing to Gen Y, encouraging user-generated content, and looks a bit like a myspace page.

The campaign has certainly attracted all different types of attention, including editorial discussion by key outlets like the Australian and on ABC Radio, blogs, endorsements from well-known people, and even critical review and parody websites.

Who sums it up best? In an interview with the UK’s Daily Mail one of the campaign spokespeople said: ‘Christian or not, it’s a passionate topic. It’s a huge campaign in its own right and hard to ignore.”

We agree. Amen to good Social Marketing.

What does a pair of 12-foot long, bright yellow Y-fronts conjure for you?

Good answer!

Seriously;  although we don’t know what the impact has been to date, we give thumbs up for this “bold” campaign, devised by a Hospital in Southern China – the Changsha Bo Da Hospital in Changsha.

So, what was it all about?

Chlamydia? No.

Yellow underwear week? No.

The Annual Asia-Pacific Harry-High-Pants Festival?  We wish there was an event this cool…

No, China’s pressing Social issue addressed by this campaign, is in fact quite simple.  The stunt aims to encourage men to think about….. wait for it…. the effects of wearing pants that are too  tight.

According to campaign spokesperson, Xiang Xiong; “There are many urinary or reproductive problems caused by men’s underwear. This is intended to make men think.”

We like it.

It’s clever. It’s funny – and in line with what we think makes effective Social Marketing campaigns;

Easy - YES, nothing says ‘easy’ quite like a large pair of pants!

Emotionally Engaging – Making people laugh is one of the hardest, yet most enduring and genuine ways to connect with an audience.

Educational - Well… creating talkability and having the stunt literally attached to a hospital, not only informs the audience about the tie between underpants and health, but also provides a direct link to a place for further information, and if necessary, treatment!

Enduring - Weather permitting, it’s a clever stunt and an idea that really does stick in the mind!

So, anyone off to buy some new underwear?  Keen to hear what you think…..

This is the latest spot to come out of Miles Calcraft Briginshaw Duffy in the UK [phew what a mouthful] and it’s an anti-tobacco campaign. A new take on the age old ‘anti-smoking’ this time from a child’s point of view. Take a look.

I think I caused Obama to lose the election...

MORE than six million people have so far been emailed a spoof video blaming them for electing Republican John McCain as the next President of the United States.

The video is going out to more than 30 new people per second as a direct and personal reminder to them to vote in next Tuesday’s Presidential election.

The spoof video is set after the election and “reveals” that Democratic candidate Barack Obama has lost by just one vote. The ‘missing’ voter is the person receiving the personalised video!

In the spoof news-style video, the missing voter’s name is blazed across headlines in the New York Times, is personally thanked by George W. Bush and is castigated by irate US citizens (including an hilariously foul-mouthed grandmother, pictured above) and a lonely goat herd who now fears his flock is about to be bombed by ‘President McCain’.

The video is witty, irreverent and extremely well done – and it may have the desired effect in helping to Get Out The Vote as well as becoming a global hit.

Research shows that this kind of social “nudging” is extremely effective. The organisers are aiming to reach 10 million people before Election Day in the USA – but look set to easily reach their target.

As the organisers, MOVEON.ORG POLITICAL ACTION say: “Studies show that by far the best way to get people out to vote is to convince them that (a) everyone else is voting, and (b) everyone will know if they don’t vote.

“This video does both—with a smile (or a smirk, in some cases).

“It takes just seconds to send, and it could be the thing that actually pushes a friend of yours to the polls.”

It is entirely coincidental, of course, that Barack Obama will be the beneficiary of this ingenious tactic which sets impeccable new standards in communications and political campaigning.

In the next British General Election, will Gordon Brown or David Cameron try something similar?

Check out the video here

thecoolhunter.net

It’s just days away from one of the most anticipated US federal elections in history and both sides are plowing into spin overdrive. Which is why we love this amazing original advertisement that has succeeded in doing what most politicians don’t  – cut through the crap in a single succinct moment.

Created by creative director – Tor Myhren from Grey NYC, the posters slice through the race issue between candidates – acknowledging that much of this campaign has predictably but stupidly been re-cast as a battle between black and white. Myhren’s powerful imagery rightly implies that this is all just distraction, seeking to refocus our attention onto what really matters – the issues.

Even before the results are in, the posters have become collectors items, with New Yorkers unable to help themselves from swiping  them off the streets.  - Lisa Evans

Story taken from thecoolhunter.net

Social marketing was “born” as a discipline in the 1970s, when Philip Kotler and Gerald Zaltman realized that the same marketing principles that were being used to sell products to consumers could be used to “sell” ideas, attitudes and behaviors.

Social marketing, often combines education and promotional communication to motivate healthy behavior and lower risks associated with negative behaviours or reinforce positive behaviours. In the past social marketing told us to wear seatbelts, to look after the planet, to look after our health, to stop smoking, care for endangered animals and to start recycling.

In the age of web 2.0, we’re also seeing the introduction of social media marketing [or some just say social marketing for short].

Social Media Marketing (SMM) combines the goals of marketing with social media sites such as MySpace, Facebook, Youtube and many others. The idea being that if you get to know your target well, understand where they hang out online & how they connect, you have a much greater chance of creating a lasting connection with them.

Rigid professional “advertising” goes out the window in favour of a more personal disruptive communication that feels one-to-one. It’s the lack of formality which helps the viewer feel connected to the communication, the cause and others who are also engaged in the issue.

Now whilst ‘Social Media Marketing’ is not  the same as the more traditional ‘Social Marketing’ both disciplines share similar characteristics. Mostly they’re looking to connect with people on a personal level, to move beyond one way communication to stimulate dialogue and a greater level of involvement and engagement.

This latest ditty we’ve found from Haagen Dazs is an absolute ripper and a great example of a brand using ’social media marketing’ techniques for a social marketing cause. It’s part of their Help the Honey Bees campaign and is worth a look.

Social marketing and Social Media Marketing . .  Isn’t it nice when they play together?

Many of you may have heard about the trivia game ‘Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon‘. It’s based on the concept of the small world phenomenon and rests on the assumption that any actor can be linked through his or her film roles to actor Kevin Bacon. The game requires a group of players to try to connect any film actor in history to Kevin Bacon as quickly as possible and in as few links as possible. The game was especially popular on college campuses in the early 1990s. In 2007, Bacon started a charitable organization named SixDegrees.org.

Even if you haven’t heard of ‘Six degrees of Kevin Bacon’, we’re sure you’ve probably heard of ‘Six degrees of Separation’, the idea that everyone in the world can be connected in just a few steps. But what if those steps don’t just relate to people but also to viruses, neurons, proteins and even to fashion trends? What if this ’six degrees of separation’ allowed us an insight into something at the core of Nature?

A quick look at an old campaign from Canada which addresses the issue of positive reinforcement amongst gay men when it comes to safe sex.

“Studies show that gay men fall into three groups: those who take HIV risks frequently, very rarely, and not at all. Three out of four gay men are in the latter two groups – they choose safety,” explains epidemiologist Dr. Tom Lampinen of the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV “The really exciting news involves that second kind of guy, the one who takes HIV risks rarely. Real power and potential rests with him. If he can commit to no HIV risk for just one to two years, he will force a decline in new infections.”

The humorous “Gay Men Play Safe” campaign was created to validate and support gay men’s safer sex practices while reinforcing the fact that sexual safety, including condom use, is a community norm. AIDS Vancouver and partner AIDS organizations from across the country worked with Rethink Advertising to create a new kind of HIV message that challenges the widely held perception that gay men suffer from condom-use fatigue and apathy.

“It’s time we recognize gay men for more than 20 years of practicing safer sex and using condoms,” says Phillip Banks, Director of HIV Prevention at AIDS Vancouver and national coordinator of the campaign. “It’s undeniable that gay men’s efforts in the early days of HIV had the greatest impact on reducing HIV infection rates. This campaign validates these efforts and encourages gay men to keep it up.”

According to Dr. Terry Trussler, Research Director at the Community Based Research Centre in Vancouver: “Surveys show that gay men are aware and concerned about the continuing threat to health posed by HIV. This campaign doesn’t threaten or blame gay men. Rather, it acknowledges that as a community, gay men continue to support HIV prevention.”

You can check out the rest of the campaign here

Caught you looking at my ta-tas!

A great story from the nytimes on the changing landscape for breast cancer positioning & marketing communication.

___

Here goes:

You know breast cancer’s come a long way when you can’t tell whether a shirt’s for charity – or for Mardi Gras.

Weary of dealing in the same old serious mantras, a new crop of cancer-awareness campaigns are taking the emphasis off the C-word and putting it on the fun part. Uh, parts.

Aimed at a demographic of young women raised on irony and American Apparel, these clingy, boob-centric T-shirt logos are making the message positively hip.

Julia Fikse, founder of the Save the Ta-Tas Foundation, coined her slogan while trying to cope with a relative’s illness. Humor pops up at the weirdest times, she says: “My husband’s aunt got breast cancer, and had a double mastectomy. My husband and I were talking about it, and we had a chuckle about boobs. I thought maybe other people would want to laugh during that dark time, too.”

She now sells a whole line of shirts, emblazoned with the pink breast-cancer ribbon: “All-American ta-tas,” “Rockin’ ta-tas” – even a line for men, including her newest: “Save a life, grope your wife.”

She also sells a bottled shower gel, with breast self-exam instructions on its side, called – what else? – Boob Lube.

Subtle, it’s not. But then, neither is dying of cancer because you didn’t know how to do a self-exam and missed a lump.

This is almost what happened to 38-year-old Leigh Hurst, breast cancer survivor and founder of the Feel Your Boobies Foundation. After noticing a lump accidentally at age 33, she became obsessed with spreading the word. “I just made up some shirts for my friends, because I was always telling them, ‘Feel your boobies!’ ” she says, laughing.

The women wore their shirts to a fund-raising walk, and were besieged by inquiries. They went to the “Today” show one morning, Katie Couric held up their placard, and business really took off.

“I think people like to joke around more than to be serious,” Hurst says. “You can’t make it feel like your mom waving her finger at you. If you say ‘boobies,’ it’s a little sexy, a little provocative. It might even create a dialogue between a guy and you where he says, ‘Can I feel your boobies?’”

Feel your boobies

The upfront slogans aren’t the first shot in the war of humor against cancer; a little over a decade ago, comedian Julia Sweeney performed a one-woman show – “God Said Ha!” – about her struggle with cancer. And in 2004, TV producer Geralyn Lucas published an irreverent memoir, “Why I Wore Lipstick to My Mastectomy.”

When Lucas attended a meeting of the Tickled Pink Foundation – a group for survivors and their kids – the visit was controversial, says founder Iris Dankner. Lucas talked openly about her surgery, and didn’t sugarcoat anything.

“Moms were like, ‘Do I want my daughter to hear this?’ ” says Dankner. “But I feel like you’ve got to get young women to be comfortable with their bodies.”

Female celebrities – not historically known for helping teen girls feel more confident – have actually been helpful in this regard. Sheryl Crow, Cynthia Nixon, Kylie Minogue and Melissa Etheridge have all “come out” as survivors. Fran Drescher, a uterine cancer survivor, wore a “Caught You Lookin’ at my Ta-Tas” shirt to an Emmy party.

Most recently, Christina Applegate had a preventative double mastectomy and went public immediately. “I have to get out there and make this a positive,” she told Robin Roberts – a high-profile survivor herself – on “Good Morning America” recently.

Erin O’Brien Dugery, who watched her sister Kelly die of breast cancer, went positive, too. She and her sister’s best friend now sell shirts featuring a slogan coined by her late sister: “Save 2nd Base.” The cute pink tees – with two strategically placed baseballs – are selling like hot cakes.

“It’s such a serious, sad subject, watching somebody die,” Dugery says. “It’s the worst thing that has ever happened in my life, holding my sister’s hand while she was taking her last breaths.

“But she was such a funny, goofy person,” she continues. “If there are people who get a giggle out of something my sister said, and we’re able to raise money to find a cure, that’s so rewarding.”

You can check out ‘Save the tatas’ here

Original story taken from nytimes