The role of advertising in influencing behaviour
Grace Anthony, Planner at GOOD, recently spoke at the Yorkshire & Humber Climate Commission Net Zero Panel. Grace was on the panel as part of their Delivering Impact Session on Consumption & Behaviours.
Grace spoke about the role of advertising in influencing behaviour. We know that people care more than ever, with 75% of the nation believing that climate change is the biggest threat to our society (Pew Research 2022). However, they are conflicted on how best to act. Changing behaviour isn’t as simple as we originally hoped, and the current scale of threat is overwhelming.
In terms of communication, science isn’t landing the way we need it to. Unfortunately, facts are getting lost in the feelings.
Helping emotional beings get motivated and take action is where advertising steps in.
Grace shared five tips we can use, to have influence and shape behaviour through communication:
Identify behaviour
To begin, we need to identify the behaviour we want to achieve. A useful way to hone in on what impact you want to have, is to ask yourself are we hoping to promote a positive behaviour, or prevent a negative behaviour?
Identify emotion
Humans do not make purely rational decisions, so it is critical to identify what emotion we are hoping to evoke, in order to achieve behaviour change.
Leverage insight
We need to make sure we’re leveraging our insight. It’s important to differentiate between what is information, and what is insight. That is the “what” vs the “why” when it comes to motivation.
Consider framing
Framing is an effective tool to tackle stories that aren’t currently resonating with audiences in their basic form. It is about identifying an engaging story from the facts. It often involves reframing a loss story into a gain story, as humans avoid loss as much as possible. This is a big challenge from the climate movement, which is often framed as loss as that is the reality.
Make it aspirational
In the context of the climate crisis, the messaging is bleak. It will demand large scale sacrifice and adjustments from populations worldwide. The role of advertising is to reimagine ideals, and redefine aspiration in order to promote a planet friendly version of aspiration.
To contact GOOD about how we can help you achieve behaviour change, email hello@goodagency.co.uk
Posted by Lucy Martin
