the power of a focused key message
Today as I was walking along the street in mid-town Vancouver, I passed this set of posters.
They look like the type has been scrawled in freehand on a set of over-large post-it notes. The unusual colour, the personal voice (asking me the passerby questions) and the in-your-face type treatment made me stop and look (and take pictures!).
As soon as I got back to the office, I checked out the URL, which leads to a one-page website comprising a 1-minute video and space for comments, courtesy of the Vancouver YMCA. Narrated by a child (or an adult with a super-realistic child’s voice) the video raises a number of proof points to illustrate one simple key message: community centres build community.
I find this communication campaign ultra-compelling for three reasons:
1) There is just one key message. It is easy for me to absorb, remember and repeat.
2) There are absolutely no bells and whistles (although the cut-paper animation in the video is charming). Just simple questions, simple proof points (30% of children do not walk to school; family dinners down 14%; internet usage up 73%; visits to parks down 10%) and simple visual presentation. All highly refreshing in today’s world of gloss and gradient and glow (and completely campaign-appropriate).
3) There are no legless orphans, which is unusual in a non-profit organization awareness campaign.
[May I digress? When I first started in PR, I worked for United Way of Greater Toronto. It was a wonderful, wonderful job. During our fundraising campaign period, we had the great privilege of an assigned reporter from the Toronto Star - manna from heaven for a publicist, right? I would spend hours digging up great stories of people who had really benefited from a United Way agency. Adults who had been through job-retraining, language learning, life skills courses, that sort of thing. I was so proud, because United Way really does pride itself of giving a hand up, not a hand up. Much to my chagrin, my Toronto Star reporter was not impressed. "Michelle, I have to sell newspapers," he said to me. "Where are the legless orphans?" And ever since then, that's what I've called the typical non-profit big-eyed-child-with-flies-on-his-face-tug-at-your-heartstrings school of marketing.]
Instead, the YMCA focuses on a positive message, and engages us with well-written copy and visuals that we can relate to.
Well done YMCA!
