People want to be advocates. If you present them with something worth believing in and provide a soapbox for them to stand on, an otherwise silent majority awaits the call to advocacy.
This was the case in Beijing, China, during Earth Hour on March 28. Weber Shandwick teamed up with smart fortwo, an innovative sub-compact car with an environmentally friendly carbon footprint, to give everyday Beijingers the chance to make a stand for sustainability.
Since everyday people don’t have their own cityscape to darken, the activity encouraged people to assemble at a predetermined location, surrounding two tiny smart fortwos parked at a trendy shopping mall. Then, at the predetermined time, everyone (everyone who knew the secret) froze. Stopped in their tracks. Motionless for three minutes. Some even struck a pose!
The cool thing of course is that everyone there heard about it on a blog or Facebook or Twitter or just straight from someone’s mouth. And now it’s online, here, for all the world to see.
This isn’t the first such “freeze.” The grassroots activity was made famous by the folks at New York-based ImprovEverywhere. It’s one example of how anyone can be an advocate whether in Brooklyn or Beijing or anywhere.
Advocacy is booming. Non-profits currently comprise 11% of the U.S. workforce according to The Quiet Crisis report. In fact, non-profits contribute to nearly 5% of our GDP and if were a country, the nonprofit sector would rank as the seventh largest economy in the world. More people are joining causes and volunteering although clearly the economy has had an enormous impact. However, according to the Economist, Americorps (a widely regarded one year volunteer initiative) saw a rise in applications before the economic crisis even struck. Also, New York’s public service site (www.volunteerNYC.org) saw a 27% increase since one year ago. The good news is that the passage of the Ed Kennedy Serve America Act is creating even more opportunities for national service advocates than ever before.
Tags: Advocacy, Americorps, Economist, Ed Kennedy Serve America, Non-profit, Quiet Crisis, volunteerNYC.org
We recently completed a five-month weekly tracking audit of the home pages of the largest financial services firms in the US and Europe. Our goal was to see if and how these companies, which are already in the hot seat and presumably anxious to positively connect with customers in every way possible (i.e., ensure their advocates remain advocates), were using prime real estate to address the global financial crisis and reassure customers during this time of great turmoil.
When we started the audit in mid-October 2008 we found that just 27% of 57 companies referred to the crisis. We gave them the benefit of the doubt, given it was such a tumultous week, and assumed that as they got their bearings they would increase their communications. Over the next few weeks, as another few financial institutions went out of business (we ended up with 55), the percent of home page crisis communicators inched up slowly to where eventually four in 10 mentioned the economic crisis on their home page. Our final audit was February 28, 2009 and some had ceased their home page communications, landing at 34%. That means a solid two-thirds were not mentioning one word on their home pages about the crisis at the end of February.
Why do we think its important for the financial sector to pull out all the stops to acknowledge consumers’ fears about the crisis? For one thing, a Boston Consulting Group study released results from a recent U.S. study that suggested financial services providers can diminish defections by simply communicating with consumers. It found that consumers want factual reassurance. Further, exactly half of the survey respondents said the economic crisis has caused them to lose trust in their investment/brokerage firms, followed by investment advisors and banks (46% each).
Barb Iverson, president of Weber Shandwick’s financial services industry practice group, commented about our research: “It is not enough for leading financial services companies to communicate only in good times. Our ongoing analysis leads us to recommend to financial services companies that they use their low-cost/high-impact home pages to communicate more directly and personally with their stakeholders by acknowledging and addressing customer and investor financial concerns.”
It seems that financial services firms should at least let their customers, and potential customers, know their angst is acknowledged and respected. Otherwise advocates might take their advocacy elsewhere.
Women decision-makers are uber-advocates. In the U.S., it has long been known that the gender is responsible for more than 80% of optional buying. An article on women purchase-makers reminded me of their importance. Without a doubt, the poor economic climate has caused many marketers to reach out to their female audiences to get them back into the stores or online sites. The reasons that women are so important, as noted in the article, are that they are 1) notoriously brand loyal, 2) more likely to spread positive word of mouth if they like something and 3) sadly, the layoffs have primarily hit men over the past year. The reason that men are losing jobs at a faster clip is that they are more likely to work in manufacturing and home construction. So if you are looking for a powerful segment to market to, don’t forget those women advocates who control the vast majority of decisions when it comes to food, electronics and new cars (no kidding).
Tags: brand loyal, purchase decision-makers, Women advocates
My London colleague Leo Rayman presented this deck at a recent conference in Stockholm. He says it is all about personal advocacy. It is mentioned on a blog and has been widely shared so we thought we should share with you here. It is actually quite fun and insightful. Enjoy.
Tags: Advocacy, Leo Rayman, personal advocacy
