Hey sustainability officers and green marketers: Fight for clarity in your communications. “Engineer speak” is beautifully demonstrated in this hilarious golf training video by JC Anderson. Give it a swing.
The Survival of the Fittest Green Marketers Hinges on Who Tells the Best Stories
Dr. Charles Darwin as an ape, 1871 Hornet Magazine
The recession is ransacking everything and causing the extinction of many great green and environmental causes. I’ve been researching charitable foundations lately. Their nest eggs, from which their contributions are born, are as devastated as your 401k. Giving is down, and non-profits are looking for new ways to raise funds. If you’re green cause is lacking sustainability due to a drop in donations, then start to rethink how you’re asking and interacting with your donors and customers.
Tell a More Sustainable Green Story
This is the third article in a series on Dr. Sam Ham’s engaging work on “Thematic Communications.” I asked Dr. Ham if he’d offer some examples of thematic storytelling. He pointed to a conservation campaign on Galapagos Islands, which I found only too fitting given Dr. Charles Darwin’s work there.
Dr. Ham writes: My experience has been that the key to designing successful behavior-change campaigns is that we must not enter the situation thinking only about why people are not doing as we want, but rather, we must become skilled at uncovering the reasons that they would do as we want. Even some of my colleagues have a little trouble with this mental gymnastic.
There are many, but an example is one in the Galapagos Islands I had the pleasure to design. A well-known small eco-cruise operator, Lindblad Expeditions, wanted to increase donations by its guests to a special fund (the Galapagos Conservation Fund or GCF) which was set up in collaboration with the Charles Darwin Foundation to direct much-need financial support to on-the-ground conservation in that fragile archipelago. Based on messages more or less intuited by the staff and opportunistically delivered over the course of a seven-day cruise, they were raising about USD $1,800 per week from their 80 passengers (40 couples usually). After doing their homework and developing a message package based on the beliefs Lindblad guests actually had about the behavior (i.e., donating to the GCF), we were able to increase donations the next year by 270% (to over $6,700 per week). Today the GCF generates close to $500,000 per year and has single handedly financed the successful eradication of introduced goats and pigs on one of the archipelago’s most threatened islands.
It is clear that in order to successfully apply what we’re learning about persuasive communication and behavioral influence, we must better understand the reasons people would have for doing the right thing, not just the reasons they have for doing the wrong thing.
In the Galapagos campaign, as well as in many others, this has been the key to getting the homework right. The Office of Integrated Sustainability Services in Townsville, Australia is rapidly becoming a world model in applying this approach at the community level. Teaming up with Ergon Energy, they’re tackling a suite of behaviors related to energy and water consumption with the aim of becoming a world model for sustainable cities. I think the impact of their work is potentially far-reaching both in Australia and the rest of the world.
Do you have an example of thematic communications at work? What’s your story?
The Best Social Media Strategy for Green Marketers is to Tell Better Stories First
…And now, the rest of the story.
Yesterday, I wrote about my adventure last year trekking through social media. What I’ve arrived at today is that sustainability officers and green marketers need to concentrate on telling compelling and authentic stories first, then create a social media strategy to share their sustainable stories with the world.
Case in point: Scott Harrison of Charity Water.
He not only works the camera well, Scott’s entire organization and on-line presence is all about helping you share their story and getting involved. I can’t think of another socially charged organization that does a better job of giving their ideas handles. And it all begins with telling a great story first.
The 2009 results are nothing short of a storybook ending.
- 40% company growth
- 8.5 million dollars raised
- New projects in Cambodia and Sierra Leone
- 1,145 new freshwater projects added including 200 schools and 26 health clinics
I’ll leave you with a Charity Water PSA staring Jennifer Connelly.
The Cold Shoulder of Social Media with Green Marketing
Why it hasn’t worked for me, and I wonder how it works for you?
Today I’m telling my story at Social Media Arizona. It’s about my early efforts, struggles, and successes with social media strategy for sustainability and green marketing. I’m not whining. I’m learning. This is my right of passage in social media, and I welcome any advice you might have.
I’ve chosen to structure my story as a screenwriter would in pitching a Hollywood producer a movie. This structure comes from Blake Snyder in his screenwriting book, “Save the Cat!” I’ve found you can use his concept of 15 story beats in every great tale for just about anything you want to communicate powerfully.
So grab a cup of coffee, and put your feet up, because I’ve got a doozy for you.
The Cold Shoulder Of Social Media
View more presentations from Park Howell.
The logline to my story – that one sentence that answers the question, “What is it?” – reads:
In a bid to survive the devastating economy, an optimistic businessman first has to overcome the unrequited love of his new marketing darling – online social media – before his muse will save him.
Opening Image: (Cutout of my head with eyes dreamily peering upward at all the social media logos in a thought cloud; like visions of sugar plumbs dancing in my head. Then the “caching” of dollar signs replace my eyeballs.)
Theme Stated: How you tell your story is more important than where you tell it. (The logos in the above image are replaced with the line, “Once upon a time…” and my face turns to puzzlement as the dollar signs drop from my eyes in a crash.)
The Set-up: Park Howell runs Park&Co, a growing Phoenix agency with a growing client list. In fact, the firm is celebrating its 15th year in business on March 1. Park’s pretty proud of his team and what they’ve built. He owns his own building, works with 16 wonderful employees, and he and his interior designer wife, Michele, have three lovely kids, each a creative entrepreneur in their own ways. Park&Co is right on track to take over the world. Always fearful of becoming a dinosaur, Park and the agency embraces social media early and begins successfully using elements of it for their clients.
- The agency used iTunes to help its client distribute its training videos worldwide, saving the company more than $250,000 in its first year of the program.
- Park&Co has have given rural Arizonans a voice in Washington D.C. by capturing their stories of needing jobs and broadcasting them through YouTube.
- He has created Ning networks to gather people online for Goodwill and Water Conservation causes
Catalyst, or “Inciting Incident”: Then “Bam!” In October 2008, the world ends as he knew it with the beginning of the global recession. (Picture of ship sailing off the edge of a “flat” world.) The “New normal” was dawning. It was not enough for Park to help his clients weather the storm with decreasing marketing resources. He had to insure the survival of his own agency. Park followed the lead of many captains in the industry, and they all pointed to online social media as more than a temporary lifeboat, but the new marketing world order.
Debate: But can he pull it off? What will it take? Does he launch his own blog or amp up the agency’s online presence? What is his story, his niche, his expertise? Which social media tools, proven or not, will he employ? How will he measure it? What will he measure? What matters? Who cares?
Break into Two (Act 2, the “Love Story”): Following a Vegas ad agency seminar, and biz dev. gurus introducing Park to the sultry and sensational attributes of online social media, Park falls head-over-heels. He develops his own blog, “A Brighter Shade of Green Marketing,” that focuses on one of the agency’s successful niches: Sustainability.
He takes time to listen to his potential audiences with his new accounts on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, FriendFeed. He monitors Digg, StumbleUpon, Technorati. He hosts online polls and posts videos. He participates in webinars, creates a Ning network, and reads social media romance novels like Bernoff’s “Groundswell,” Brogan’s “Trust Agents,” Baer’s “Convince & Convert” blog, and a plethora of novelettes in the form of free eBooks and SlideShare presentations.
Everyone’s a social media expert and he wants to be invited to the dance. He is delighted and surprised when he is asked to speak about social media in a niche within his niche: Water conservation. He researches, and writes, and posts lists, and links, and insights. He comments on other blogs, reaches out to sustainability writers, and Tweets about everything but where he’s having coffee.
Midpoint: Park finds himself in a feverish, but seemingly one-sided courtship with social media. He’s ready to round third base and head for home. Readers are going to come flooding in. The phone is going to ring off the hook. One person cautions him,
“How are you going to keep this up – working four to six hours per day on social media – when you’re going to be so busy handling all of the new business?”
Great question, he thinks. Then, in a figurative gesture, he puts his hand to his ear, leans forward toward the very computer he’s been banging away at for 10 solid months, and stops for a moment to hear what his effort has earned him in the way of new business.
Bad Guys Close In: As Park’s doubts about his social media abilities grow, and its relevance as the new marketing beloved, the economy worsens. Not ready to abandon his initial romance, even though her delicate hand seems just out of reach in the way of biz dev reciprocity, he has to reinvent how his agency can remain sustainable in this new environment of more project work, less campaigns, and dwindling budgets.
All is Lost: Park travels East to meet with other agencies for a two-day session on “Best practices.” The more they talk of scheduling tweets, publishing lists because people don’t read but scan, how bloggers game the AdAge Power150, the more Park finds himself repelling from the process.
Dark Night of the Soul: Park returns to Phoenix more confused than ever about his wooing of social media and the unrequited love he has received in the form of zero new business.
Break into Three: With the help of his brilliant team back at the agency, and what he’s learned from the accumulated months of research while pursuing his social media muse, Park arrives at the greatest truth of all:
It’s not where you tell your story, but how well you tell it.
She doesn’t want you to simply show up with flowers. She wants you to freely share your heart and soul. Only then will she give back.
Finale: Park realizes that behind the siren song of online social media lays many virtues that aren’t at first apparent. Online social media loves you back by:
- Making you a better listener
- Honing your writing skills
- Recognizing and capitalizing on trends
- Developing ones self as a more skilled online communicator/marketer
- Building expertise in your chosen niche outside of social media
- Employing your new found knowledge to guide your customers
- Creating more enlightenment to innovation with easy access to thought leaders
- Exercising resiliency and self-discipline in your daily development
- Perfecting presentation abilities
- Enhancing your own leadership skills
And most of all, social media helps you become a better storyteller.
Tomorrow, I will tell Part II of my story. I will share with you compelling stories being told offline and on that make it easy for people to share. These are stories that in many ways are changing the world. And they all have one thing in common…
Tags: Chris Brogan, Green Marketing, Jason Baer, park howell, ParkCo, social media, sustainability
Posted in: Green Marketing, Happy H Wisdom, Sustainable Marketing
“Once Upon a Time…” The Four Most Formidable Words in Sustainable Marketing
"I'll be back!"
If you have two hours to kill, would you choose to sit through a powerpoint presentation on the benefits of using all natural products to clean your office, or watch the film, “Terminator?”
Even if you’re not a big Arnold fan, don’t appreciate science fiction, and hate violence in movies, I still bet you’d be drawn to high definition entertainment over low resolution powerpoint.
This was the question I posed to a gentlemen yesterday. He showed me his ads and marketing materials laden with facts. No emotional triggers. No differentiators. No reasons why his company will help me sleep better at night. It was all about how “green” his cleaning service is.
Being “green” these days is no longer a chief brand differentiator in many industries, especially in commercial cleaning. It’s a commodity. It’s a little bit like having a neurological hospital trumpet that they have the smartest brain surgeons in town. I’m afraid in their business that having bright cranial docs is the cost of entry. They’re a commodity. And we all know what happens to commodities in our customers’ minds. Our services are devalued, get subjected to bidding wars, and our prices resemble the aftermath of a cyborg encounter.
Since people buy with emotion, then rationalize their purchase with facts, why do so many green marketers holster their most formidable weapon: Telling great stories?
Earlier this week I introduced you to Dr. Sam Ham, and his thesis of “Thematic Communication” to coax behavior change. In this second in a series of articles on his work in environmental communications, I asked Dr. Ham for his description of thematic communication.
“It’s simply a way of thinking about communication that is based on the idea that persuasion is about making people think their own thoughts. We must provoke people to think and make their own meanings with respect to the message if we want to increase our likelihood of success over the long term.
“A ‘theme’ is simply the message. It’s like the moral of a story, or the main conclusion a communicator would like her/his audience to draw from the message. These morals and conclusions are meanings made between the ears of the individual. The more strongly relevant the message is (the more it connects to what the audience — not just the communicator — already cares about, things that matter to them), the greater the likelihood they will attend to and process it. The more they think, the more persuasive the message can be. And if the thoughts they think are consistent with or supportive of the kind of behavior being advocated, that behavior stands a greater chance of ensuing.
“We must not try to intuit what this moral might or should be. To enjoy our greatest chances of success, we must derive it from our ‘homework,’ which allows us to isolate the truly important beliefs our audience has about the behavior, and specifically, which of those beliefs is different between compliers and non-compliers. Our theme needs to target those beliefs and we need to craft it, package it, and deliver it to our audiences in a compelling way, connecting it to what matters to them.
Dr. Ham included this 70-page guide, “Promoting Persuasion in Protected Areas,” that takes you through creating thematic communication in your campaign.
So if you’re selling anything from green commercial cleaning services, to top-notch brain surgeons, to a behavior change that asks visitors, “Don’t feed the animals,” start by getting your story straight. Understand what motivates your customer emotionally. Then tell a tale that makes them think and compels them to action.
I will be telling my tale about “The Cold Shoulder of Social Media” and the tendency for its contributors to write as poweproint engineers as opposed to Spielbergian storytellers as a presenter at Social Media Arizona. If you’re in Tempe, AZ, stop by the MadCap theater. I’m at noon.
