There are many awesome behaviour change campaigns out there. Here are 10 of our favourites and the amazing results they achieved...
The gold standard for the health and sport sectors or any sector for that matter! This Sport England campaign was launched in 2015, and the campaign has so far successfully persuaded nearly 4 million women to take action.
Grounded in a thorough and honest understanding of its audience, multiplied by a sea of facilitators and champions and all backed up by exceptional creative. This campaign has to be one of the best of the last decade. Find out more here: https://www.thisgirlcan.co.uk/
2. Meet Graham
This behaviour change campaign won all the advertising and marketing awards going in 2017. When you explore the 'Meet Graham' website and see the level of detail that went into creating this monstruous and unforgettable vision you can see why!
The campaign took many familiar PR techniques: recruiting an expert (in this case a trauma surgeon); working with an artist; and trawling data to find a human insight, but then they mashed them all together to create an interactive, completely grotesque yet life-like sculpture to depict how a body would need to be formed in order to withstand a car accident. Designed to cut through with a male audience desensitised to shock ads, this brilliant campaign quickly became a global social media phenomenon gathering 31m video views in just a few hours.
The following year there was a 9.4% decrease in traffic accidents which I'm sure was in some way thanks to the great 'Meet Graham' Campaign.
Two mates (Travis Garone and Luke Slattery) meet up for a quiet beer in Melbourne, Australia, and the idea that sparked Movember is born. The moustache had all but disappeared from fashion trends. Could they bring it back, create a worldwide behaviour change for a great charitable cause?
That first year they found 30 guys willing to take up the challenge...
From humble beginnings back in 2003 the Movember movement has grown to be a truly global one, inspiring support from over 5 million Mo Bros and Mo Sistas.
In 2016 the organisation had 325,000 Mo Bros and Mo Sistas, 1,175,000 donors, worked in 21 countries and raised AUS $80 million (£45 million) for men’s health. Movember focuses on men’s health with focus on key cause area’s of prostate cancer, testicular cancer, and mental health and suicide prevention.
A very smart idea, fuelled by social proof, the desire to do good and a very low (handle) bar (moustache) to get men involved.
4. Schiphol Airport Urinal Fly
This is a 'behaviour change' classic case study but still stands the test of time. This early example of gamification from the 90's encouraged users of the gents at Schiphol airport to practice their aim. By printing a fly on the urinals the airport gave men a simple nudge which encouraged them to keep to the centre, and reduced 'spillage'.
The choice of a fly, something most people have little sympathy for, meant that people were happy to try and wash it away This simple change in behaviour apparently led to a a measurable reduction in cleaning time and costs to the airport, the mark of a successful campaign.
5. Mobile Alliance for Maternal Action (MAMA)
The Mobile Alliance for Maternal Action (MAMA) was a $10M project that harnessed the power of mobile technology to deliver vital health information to new and expectant mothers. Rather than using elaborate and sophisticated promotional techniques that would not gain traction in these developing regions Thrive Agency used simple SMS text messages.
They embedded key information in 5,000 SMS messages, each limited to 140 characters, and packed them with relatable age and stage-based advice to foster trust and drive behaviour change. They also ran training courses for local NGOs to give them the skills to adapt MAMA messages without losing the nuances of the behaviour change messaging.
The MAMA messages are now used successfully by more than 160 organisations in more than 54 countries around the world.
6. Change4Life
Change for life was originally developed as part of the childhood obesity prevention strategy, it targeted parents of children aged 5–11, particularly those from segments of the population where parental attitudes, beliefs and behaviours indicated that their children were most likely to gain excess weight.
It sought to inspire a broader societal movement, through which everyone who has an interest in combating obesity could work together under a common banner. Partners, whether from the commercial sector, a non-governmental organisation or from within local communities, were encouraged to support Change4Life, create their own initiatives and join these up with the national brand. The brand identity and creative assets were designed to be ‘open source’, i.e. others could use and build upon them.
Nearly 2.5M families signed up to the Change4Life campaign and committed to making lifestyle changes and over 95% of families asked understood it stood for healthy living.
Another classic campaign from Ogilvy's early behaviour change explorations... The 2011 London riots brought vandalism of local businesses, looting and anti-social behaviour problems to many boroughs. The Royal Borough of Greenwich tasked Ogilvy Change with reducing the problem using behavioural insights.
Ogilvy teams painted the local shop shutters that were initially being torn down in the violence, with the faces of local Woolwich babies. Psychology tells us that baby schema evokes a feeling of caring in humans and lowers anti-social behaviour.
They reduced overall antisocial behaviour in Woolwich by c. 24%. Since the starting salary for a policeman is around £20,000 and painting the shutters cost less than £10,000, you coud say that for more than five years service, this intervention cost less than half that of one new police officer.
Qualitatively they also know that the shutters have made a difference in social cohesion. Zafar Awan, the owner of ‘Cellfone City’ (one of the shops badly damaged during the riots) has said to the BBC that he “would have the shutter down all day if he could” as the locals want to see baby Maxwell.
9. Pink walls helping building site safety!
A bold and PR-worthy campaign where the behaviour change agency Cowry painted building site walls pink and brought in incentivising 'gold cards' to encourage staff to maintain site safety protocols.
It was a bold idea and a series of small prompts that help change unsafe behaviours while working at height reducing it by 82% in just 12 weeks. And it didn’t require large financial investment. The Cowry team continue to apply behavioural science to reduce unsafe behaviour in construction with the aim of preventing accidents, and ultimately saving lives.
10. Kick it out
A bold campaign working through against discrimination, in all its forms. Racism. Sexism. Homophobia. Transphobia. Kick It Out is here to put an end to all forms of discrimination within sport.
The power in this campaign (much like 'This Girl Can') is in its understanding of the target audience and the challanges they aare facing. This behaviour Change campaign also gains much power from the facilitators and stakeholders it has engaged, from children at grass root levels right through to Elite World class players. Find out more here: https://www.kickitout.org/