Is collateral dead?<\/strong>
\n\u201cPlay Cricket\u201d (fully endorsed by the Milo corporation) came to my son\u2019s school yesterday. Here is a photo of our kitchen bin this morning. It contains a sheaf of stickers and coloured flyers.
\nI asked what happened. Our 8 year old said \u201cThere was these people who came to our school and gave us Milo.\u201d I had to explain to our boy that \u201c4.5 stars\u201d doesn\u2019t mean that Milo is “healthy food that\u2019s low in sugar”. (Milo is actually 46% sugar).
\nAnd there’s more. If we were to sign up our son to Milo-endorsed cricket he\u2019d get a \u201cBonus Player Pack\u201d with logo-emblazoned backpack, bat, ball, hat, T-shirt, water bottle and sachet of Milo.
\nAmazing!
\nNot really. It would all end up in the bin too. Along with the Surf Groms backpack, water bottle etc, with their Weet-Bix and Quicksilver logos. Along with the local rugby league\u2019s child-labour produced footballs and sheets of KFC-logo\u2019d stickers. It\u2019s all going in the bin.
\nHere\u2019s the thing. We parents are in an anti-corporate resistance. Our job is to put this stuff in the bin and de-program our kids when they get home.
\nCricket, surfing and football, of course, are all good things in themselves. However, if our son wanted to sign up, it would because he was genuinely excited<\/em> about cricket<\/em>: Either a) he knew someone who loved cricket; b) it was a memorable experience when \u201cPlay Cricket\u201d came to his school; or c) the \u201cPlay Cricket\u201d ambassador had a magnetic personality our son wanted to be like.
\nIn other words it would be because of experiences and relationships.
\nIt would not be because of branded collateral: stuff with messages and logos. Maybe in the 20th century, when this idea was original, branded stuff might have meant something.
\nBut in the 21st century almost everyone has enough backpacks, bottles, and hats. The corporate versions are just more clutter in already over-cluttered lives. They ONLY belong in the bin. A colleague who works for a very large and well-known NSW government agency told me:\u00a0“Years ago we used to have to lock up the promotional gear otherwise our work colleagues would steal it. Nowadays we can\u2019t give it away.\u201d
\nI expect PR operatives (whose worldview is obsessed with brands and messages) to delude themselves branded stuff makes a difference. What is interesting is how often our public good projects do it too. I know. I used to be the brochure king. I used to design clever, die-cut brochures for all kinds of public good efforts. I was wrong. This stuff makes no difference to human behaviours. Experiences and relationships are what do the work.
\nOh yes, there one other vital factor: unpredictability. It\u2019s the unpredictable that \u201ccuts through\u201d and makes us notice things, buzz about them, and come closer to find out more.\u00a0Collateral therefore has another fatal flaw: predictability. There is nothing memorable or buzzworthy about yet another plastic water bottle, colouring-in page, key ring, mouse pad, or set of stickers. People are going to forget about them the minute they look away.
\nI look at the boxes of branded water bottles, pens and stickers in the offices of government, council and NGO project managers, and wonder: Maybe if we invested less on stuff maybe we could invest more on experiences?
\nThe secret life of the bell curve<\/strong>
\nRevelations about the Bell Curve always seem to score well on the \u201cyes I can still remember that the next day\u201d scale in the Changeology workshop.
\nGraduates might recall our discussion about how knowing (or guessing) just one vital statistic – the current rate of adoption in your target audience – provides such valuable guidance for project design and the crafting of communications.
\nI\u2019ve finally got round to properly illustrating this idea. Here\u2019s a one pager that summarises it. I hope you find it useful. Click here to download a PDF version<\/a>.
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\nhttps:\/\/www.enablingchange.com.au\/One_page_bell_curve.pdf<\/a>
\n <\/p>\n