Tag Archives: National Social Marketing Centre

Mr. Roboto is…a Social Marketeer?

Yes, you heard correctly. Who ever thought you’d hear the word “robot” used in the same sentence of “social marketing?” Julia Snow of SocialMarketingEast did.

Using online technology xtranormal, Snow created three YouTube tutorials about social marketing–each lasting about a minute and a half–featuring robots. The idea is for anyone to create their own videos or to submit questions that can be addressed in future tutorials.

Below, you can follow part one of the robots explaining what social marketing is and how it’s different from traditional marketing. Part two gives a simplified look at the exchange theory. In part three, the robots discuss segmentation.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IB_szszLjbA

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=103DUJeB8Do

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ent90gapikU

We talk about making our communications innovative, unique and creative; thus, I like how Snow and SocialMarketingEast are doing just that. With the help of robots, perhaps we can better brand integrates these social marketing as a field, as well as educate others about its potential.

*Special thanks to the National Social Marketing Centre (NSMC) for featuring these videos in its latest e-bulletin. You can sign-up for the bulletin at the bottom left of NSMC’s home page.

The BBC: More Social Marketing Please

Our brothers and sisters across the pond are onto something – and it’s called social marketing. Though the practice has been around since the late 1960s, the U.S. and other nations have been slow to adopt its methodology.

On Monday, the BBC published an article that highlighted findings from a study, Kicking Bad Habits, conducted by the King’s Fund that calls for new ways of thinking when it comes for public health – specifically, more social marketing. In short, the King’s Fund study enforced what many of us in both the U.K and increasingly so in the U.S. is that what we have been doing to address health isn’t working, and that more social marketing may be the answer. Quote:

“Social marketing techniques and data analysis tools like geodemographics should be used to identify, target and communicate messages designed to motivate people to change how they live.”

“And public health programmes should not rely on just one approach…as the evidence shows the most effective interventions employ a variety of tactics.”

“The methods used to promote public health need to be more modern, using the most advanced techniques and technologies.”

“We need social marketing techniques to target messages and understand what will make changes worthwhile for people but also we need to make sure the healthy choices are the easy choices.”

You can download the full results from the study here. This article further re-enforces why the U.K. created the National Social Marketing Centre. Once I got beyond my own excitement that 1) social marketing was being covered by mainstreams media and 2) that the use of the term “social marketing” was applied correctly (i.e. –> NOT confused with social media), I started to analyze what this means.

I wasn’t alone. Social marketing great Alan Andreasen brought the article to the attention of the social marketing list serv. A member of the King’s Fund responded to the article on the list serv backing the application of social marketing. Social marketer Craig Lefebvre blogged his response to the post as well. Hallelujah!

So, SB, what does this mean? It means the time is now. If a similiar study was conducted in the U.S., I agree with Lefebvre that we’d probably find similiar results. What we are doing isn’t working. Taking a serious look at social marketing and fully integrating it into our activities, I think, would bring about much of the ‘change’ that is a-buzz this year.

As I shared on Craig’s blog, I feel social marketing truly can and does provide an umbrella for people with various expertise across a range of fields to approach public health and well-being. Won’t you join us?

To those on board in the U.K, know we are all watching, here to support and hope a similiar initiative develops here in the U.S. Perhaps an international social marketing association would help? (Hey, it’s at least worth another plug right?)

(digg the BBC’s original article here)

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Defining Social Marketing: Lessons from London’s NSM Centre – 8 Benchmark Criteria

Being in the social media space, and telling others I write about social marketing, I often preface the convo with a 25-word de-briefer between social media and social marketing.

This post hopes to further clarify and define social marketing by highlighting the eight benchmarks that London’s National Social Marketing Centre developed. And, will be used to evaluate future social marketing campaigns in the future.

Background: Alan Andreasen, one of America’s social marketing thought leaders, originally developed 6 benchmarks for defining social marketing in 2001. The NSM Centre then embarked on further evaluating these benchmarks in 2006. Some may point out that other benchmarks should be used as defining criteria, so it is important to note the NSM Centre created these eight benchmark’s as the characteristics unique to social marketing.

How to Use: These benchmarks can be used as a tool when working to identify whether a certain approach or campaign is identifiable as social marketing. These benchmarks are not necessarily the approach to conducting social marketing. However, they can help inspire new ideas and be used as a resource.

These benchmarks may also be useful when: A) considering and/or developing social marketing strategy, B) conducting social marketing trainings, C) in academic research and for reference. If one can not find these benchmarks within the work, then that work could very well not be ‘official’ social marketing.

Who Should Use: Government agencies, consultants, changemakers, evaluators, researchers, professors, trainers, policy makers, non-profits, foundations, charities, Ad Agencies, Communications Firm, Environmentalists, International Development folks, and more.

The Eight Benchmarks:

Customer Orientation: Does the strategy develop a full understanding of the consumer? Is consumer research gathered from a variety of sources?
Behavior: Is there a clear focus on behavior? with specific behavior goals in mind?
Theory: Are the behavior goals theory-based and draw from an integrated theory-supported framework?
Insight: Does the strategy work to gain a deeper ‘insight’ approach? looking at what ‘moves’ and ‘motivates?’
Exchange: Does the strategy incorporate ‘exchange’ analysis? What must one give to get?
Competition: Does the strategy address the ‘competition?’ What behaviors compete for the time and attention of the audience?
Segmentation: Are you going beyond targeting and delving deep into various audience segments?
Methods Mix: Are you utilizing an appropriate ‘mix’ of methods?

Take Aways:

The social marketing field is evolving. As the definition has continually been tweaked and expanded, it is helpful to decipher among what is and what is not, social marketing.

Social marketing, as a field of study and practice, is increasing its professionalism. These benchmarks help to decipher social marketing from public service advertising, cause communications, health communications, education, corporate responsibility, nonprofit communications, advocacy, lobbying, and social advertising. These fields may overlap and share common factors within social marketing but they in and of themselves, are unique, but could be possible social marketing tools.

To Access: The full PDF outlining these social marketing benchmarks, along with other helpful social marketing materials, can be accessed on the NSM Centre’s Web site.