The PSI BCC Blog

Stale Milk

Consistency is a virtue in the world of BCC. Consistent communication and clear messages are vital to motivating a change in behavior.

But even the most consistent campaigns need to shake things up every now and then. After 16 years of featuring famous faces with milk moustaches, the “Got Milk?” campaign is taking a new tack to tout the virtues of drinking milk.

 

A downloadable “advergame” hopes to dazzle teens with music, video and manual dexterity, all the while espousing the benefits of drinking the wonder tonic. The California Milk Processor Board, the originator of the “Got Milk?” campaign, is hoping the cool factor of the game and its accompanying music video will rub off on milk. The video stars the campaign’s fictitious rocker, White Gold.

 

The iconic “Got Milk?” campaign has snagged dozens of advertising awards and increased milk sales in the U.S.after a 20-year slump. It also boasts more than 90% awareness in America. So, why the change after so much history and so much success? According to the campaign, milk wanted to reach out to teenagers. While teens have always been a part of the target audience, the campaign wanted to specifically target teens through a new media channel. Campaign research showed that internet games were the best way to reach out to teens and get their attention. The famous “Got Milk?” moustaches will remain, but the White Gold video game will seek out a new audience of teenagers who respond to computers, cell phones and video games.

 

While we all dream of 90% saturation for our own campaigns, the lesson here is that even the most successful communication needs refreshing. Staying relevant to your audience is vital, even if it means revamping a campaign that’s been successful in the past. The key is to balance the strategic reasons for tweaking a campaign and the value of consistency. In this case, the iconic campaign wasn’t scrapped, just shifted to a new media strategy and channel that will connect with a new target audience.  Perhaps adding a new channel is all you need to stay relevant with your audience.

 

Follow this link or this one, to see some examples of other online gaming for health.

 

Beth Skorochod is a consultant in the HIV department.

SCRUTINIZE Campaign Launched

SCRUTINIZE, a new multimedia campaign targeting South African young people aged 18-32, offers an interactive opportunity to learn about HIV. By scrutinizing behaviors, as viewed in short animated commercials known as “animerts,” young people can challenge their preconceived notions and established beliefs concerning risky behavior. These animerts will be broadcast on local television and in public health clinics via Mindset Health television. The campaign will also conduct events and activities at five higher education institutions.

Created in partnership with USAID, the Johns Hopkins Health Education in South Africa (JHHESA), and jeans label Levi's, SCRUTINIZE depicts animated characters in a South African township enacting behaviors that place young people at risk of HIV infection. Some of the topics addressed are risk perception, condom use and safety, multiple concurrent partnerships, transactional and intergenerational sex, and alcohol and sex.

The SCRUTINIZE website provides an interactive forum that allows users to submit summaries of events and community activities, along with pictures, which will be posted on the website. Similarly, certain characters in the animerts have established Facebook sites which encourage young people, particularly in South Africa, to benefit from the social networking of Facebook.

The SCRUTINIZE campaign has plans to broaden its features and will continually update the website with lively material in the interest of “flip[ping] H.I.V. to H.I.Victory.”

Guest blogger Jason Walton is a PSI HIV Department consultant and new media enthusiast.

Speaking Books

At the annual Global Health Council meeting in Washington DC yesterday, I was reminded of an interesting BCC tool for low-literacy audiences: the speaking book. These books, which are large-format, hardcover picture books with a recorded soundtrack for each page, allow health workers, peer educators, and others to communicate basic messages about health and healthy behaviors to rural and low-literacy audiences. The foremost champion of speaking books is Books of Hope, which works with the South African Depression and Anxiety Group (SADAG) to help NGOs, CBOs, and government agencies develop and produce these books in a number of different languages for topics pertaining to HIV, TB, immunizations, malaria, and avian influenza.

My primary qualm about the books upon first viewing was the illustrations, which seem to vary a good deal in quality. When I spoke to Brian Julius, Chairman of Books of Hope, he was able to offer some insight.

Why use drawings rather than photos? Brian reports that although Books of Hope has used photos for some books (notably those produced with AED for use with audiences in the US), they've found that this can be more difficult and time-consuming than working with illustrators. Some of the challenges he cited were a greater need to revise/reshoot photos due to their specificity (viewers were more likely to feel that they didn't accurately reflect the target audience than with drawings) and consent issues around photos of children. He also pointed out that drawings can be adapted for use with different audiences through changes to clothing and other visual cues, thereby allowing Books of Hope to quickly revise and produce new editions of the books at reduced cost to the donor.

What kind of feedback have they gotten on the work of the different illustrators? According to Brian, Books of Hope has found that what really influences the audience's response to a particular book is not the illustrations, but the recorded narration. Books of Hope uses a variety of local celebrities - musicians, actors, etc - to narrate its books. Audience members "know" these people and their voices and seem to be drawn to them (and the novelty of the books' technology) more than the illustrations themselves.

Books powered by watch batteries can be played more than 50 times, and those powered by slightly more expensive (and replaceable) AAA batteries can be played up to 500 times. Research conducted in South Africa indicated that in one community, each speaking book was viewed by an average of 59 people (www.booksofhope.com).

You can read more about speaking books at www.booksofhope.com.

Ain't that the truth®.

If you have ever watched TV in the US - or walked down the street in an American city - chances are you're familiar with the truth® campaign, the American Legacy Foundation's massive youth anti-smoking effort. Launched in 2000, the campaign is funded through settlement monies provided by big tobacco companies as part of the Master Settlement Agreement (MSA), which they signed with the states in 1998. The campaign includes TV spots, print media, and a large, multifaceted website with online games, polls, quizzes, and downloads, as well as a blog "written" by the animated characters featured in the campaign's current phase. Truth® has also recently begun promoting re-broadcasts of episodes of MTV's long-running reality show The Real World that include these animated characters (fairies, unicorns, leprechauns, and a typewriter!) poking fun at the show's actors through speech-bubble commentary - with, of course, the occasional anti-smoking jab. The campaign is "designed to engage teens by exposing Big Tobacco's marketing and manufacturing practices, as well as highlighting the toll of tobacco in relevant and innovative ways" (www.thetruth.com). The campaign focuses heavily on changing social norms around smoking - taking the idea of smoking as youthful rebellion and turning it on its head by exposing the marketing approaches used by tobacco companies to target young people. Truth® doesn't include any calls to action - a nod to the idea that young people "can put it together" and may be less inclined to change their behavior if they're told to do so - and is known for framing its messages in a tongue-in-cheek, humorous way. The current phase of the campaign, "The Sunny Side of Truth" plays on traditional fear-based messages - which are generally not terribly effective with young people - reframing them in "sunnier" terms.

But does it work, or is it just a flash in the behavioral pan? According to www.protectthetruth.org:

• 75% of all 12 to 17 year-olds in the nation - 21 million - can accurately describe one or more of the truth® ads.
• Nearly 90% of youth aged 12 to 17 - 25 million said the ad they saw was convincing.
• 85% percent - 24 million - said the ad gave them good reasons not to smoke.

"Monitoring the Future, one of the nation's most comprehensive substance abuse surveys, reported dramatic declines in smoking rates among 8th, 10th, and 12th graders, citing truth® as a factor in this public health success story" (www.protectthetruth.org).

To learn more about the campaign and check out sample spots, check out the truth® campaign website at: http://www.thetruth.com/.

A nice version of the old standby

PACT recently developed a set of HIV "picture codes" (photographic cue cards) for use by peer educators in Botswana. The cards, which feature photographs of real people enacting common situations rather than the more commonly used illustrations, cover a range of topics relating to HIV risk, including abstinence, alcohol, sexual decision-making, gender norms, partner communication, and values and goal setting.

Using photographs rather than drawings can be a good option when developing print materials, as it may help viewers relate to the story being told and internalize messages. Production (including reshoots following pretesting) may also be less costly than drafting, refining, and inking illustrations. Instances when using photographs may be less appropriate include: 

• the material will be used with a variety of different audiences or audience segments, and there are clear visual markers of group belonging that may prevent some viewers from relating to a photograph;
• the material will feature members of a marginalized group, such as sex workers - members of the group may not be comfortable being featured in materials, and actors may not wish to portray members of the group;
• the material will feature uniformed services personnel - local laws may prohibit photography of either military sites or use of uniforms by actors.

For more information, including downloads of the full set of picture codes, see: http://www.comminit.com/en/node/269867/347

Six degrees of chlamydia

To promote STI awareness month, the American Social Health Association (ASHA) teamed up with the creative team at Duval Guillaume to develop an application on Facebook (a social networking website) to highlight the risk of chlamydia transmission among young people.  The application, known as Morph Monkey, allows users to merge two photos to see what their potential child might look like.  The user is then notified that while making this "love child" they became infected with chlamydia, some facts on STI transmission are shared, and the user is referred to the ASHA website.  Users are also asked to "help spread this virtual disease to help destroy the real one" by continuing to make love children with other users to whom similar chlamydia prevention information is shared.

It's a clever way to reach youth All Facebook users can take part in the campaign by downloading the Morph Monkey application and clicking on the "make a love child" button. 

To watch a video highlighting the application: http://vimeo.com/959090

Imagine Afrika: A reality TV show promotes a vision of a future without HIV

Imagine Afrika, a reality TV show pitting teams of African young people against each other in a competition to address some of the problems facing the continent, will soon begin its second season. The 13-episode show, which spans five African countries, highlights the experience of twelve young contestants as they work with communities to generate solutions to local problems. The show's challenges focus on factors contributing to the HIV epidemic, including poverty and struggling health services, with the goal of "demonstrating the power of personal initiative, self esteem, and leadership." Each week, audiences across Africa vote for their favorite teams, while a panel of experts score their efforts. A season finale brings together all the teams for a final challenge.

Although the show has been well received, critics have noted the difficulties of developing a pan-African product that reflects the cultural, linguistic, and epidemiological diversity of the continent.The show's creators plan to conduct an impact evaluation of the show during the coming year.

Imagine Afrika was developed by the African Broadcast Media Partnership Against HIV/AIDS as part of its It Begins with YOU campaign, a multi-year pan-African HIV program launched in December 2006.

For more information, see www.itbeginswithyou.org/tv_show/index.html

Audience-centered Messages

There was an interesting article published earlier this week in the New York Times entitled “Talking with Children about Sex and AIDS: When to Start?” The article highlighted the makings of a forthcoming documentary put together by two young girls and their parents all of whom attended the 2006 International AIDS Society conference in Toronto.  Filmed by their parents, the two girls (aged 6 and 4) interviewed top AIDS experts, activitsts, condom distributors, etc. about HIV/AIDS.  The article emphasized the varying levels of comfort with which these experts were able to respond to questions about HIV when asked by children.  As to what age to start talking to children about sex: the girls’ mother, Ms. Daoussi argues, “It’s when they’re ready to ask.  It’s our own discomfort that’s the problem, not theirs.  Kids don’t have taboos.”

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Although PSI does some parent/child communication interventions, Ms. Daoussi’s comment gets at larger issues about how we approach our health communication message design.  It emphasizes the importance of meeting target group needs and underscores the fact that sometimes those needs don’t coincide with the pre-determined messages with which our peer educators or outreach workers are equipped.  Although it is often a struggle to balance donor or program objectives and target group needs, PSI programs should strive to make its programs more audience-centered. 

More on this topic soon...