This rather bleak “obituary” for a Minnesota lake that choked to death on phosphorous gets your attention and gets its point across, but is weaker than most at motivating those who see it to actually take some action. The ad is part of Minnesota Water’s “Let’s Keep It Clean” campaign.
This month, I’m conducting my first round of field trials for the Due Diligence Test Panel. To start, I pulled “Patricia, Lake” and 9 other pieces from EPA’s Nonpoint Source Outreach Toolbox. These pieces are offered up as models for others to use or emulate, so they’re fair game for some public critique.
When asked what they like about the piece, test panel members honed in on the clever concept:
- “The most compelling thing about the piece is the title “Obituary” – that really gets your attention. Also having a black and white photo gives the impression of lack of life in the lake”.
- “I like that it is done in an obituary style, I think that it makes a big statement!”
- “The end where it says in lieu of flowers that we can pick up a rake and clean leaves from the streets and around storm-water drains. We can all pitch in to help make sure this doesn’t happen to our local body of water”.
But these high marks were offset by below average marks on two questions that predict action rather than lip service — faith that their action would make a difference, and faith that others would do their part. It seems that, at least for some panelists, the grim piece just bums them out rather than inspiring or encouraging them to act. Several used words like “harrowing,” “depressing,” and “sad” to describe how the piece made them feel.
So what do you think? Do the piece’s strengths outweigh its weaknesses? Would you spend money to run this ad, or would you send it back for repairs?
Click the link below for the full report: Environmental Communications Report
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Last year, Studio No 6 did an extensive study of stormwater outreach campaigns in which we reviewed San Diego, North Carolina, Maine, Northern Virginia, Chittenden County (Vermont) and the Twin Cities. After completing this research this particular ad rose to the top amongst these diverse outreach campaigns. Not only was the creativity on-target, but more importantly, it was submitted via press releases to local TV stations where it received MUCH air time! It also cost next to nothing to “place”. Brilliant!
Changing behavior begins with an awareness of the problem. This one small black and white ad created unprecedented awareness with it’s TV coverage! What is critical in outreach on social marketing campaigns is to pair the “paid advertising” with PR. So this ad must be analyzed in context. It was not just an ad appearing in the obituary section but a strategic component of a multidimensional campaign.
I just returned to the site to make the comment that the ad got quite a bit of free “earned media.” Traci beat me to it with her comment – thanks, Traci!
I see Traci already highlighted my comment about “earned media”. I was involved in this campaign and one thing this press ad did was catch the eye of other media and resulting in freee television and radio coverage.
This may not always happen – sometimes you float an idea and it catches lots of buzz, other times in can be passed right over. This time it caught some buzz, so for the price of a small B&W ad we got some nice exposure.