News flash!  The “Abstinence Pledge” didn’t work.  In fact, teens who took the pledge had more unprotected sex than teens who didn’t take the test.  Plus 82% of pledgers denied taking the pledge.

This is just another example of “Feel Good” social marketing that didn’t work.  The avoidance of controversy and the lack of understanding of the audience wasted $200 million dollars.

Social change is not an easy thing.  It’s controversial and people don’t just do what they are supposed to do.  We can look to ourselves as proof.  Do we exercise enough?  Always eat the right foods?  Always drive the speed limit?  No!

A slogan like “Just Say No” meant nothing to the people experimenting with drugs, it only meant something to the people who were not going to experiment with drugs.  If you never answer the question of “why shouldn’t I?” in a compelling way, you will have no result.  The abstinence pledge meant nothing to a 16-year-old in the heat of passion.

Effective social marketing needs to break through in a bold way to be effective.  The target audience needs to perceive a problem and believe that changing behavior is important to solving that problem.

Too often target audiences are defined as a demographic.  For media buy purposes it serves a purpose.  But a demographic description is not rich enough for really insightful messaging.

How does a BMW buyer differ from a Volvo buyer?  Or a Chrysler buyer from Toyota buyer?  Or Cheerios from Granola?  If you were to describe them demographically, you’d have mud.  But describe them psychographically and you have gold.

If you know that the BMW driver digs detail down to the stitching on the gear shift nob that might give you an idea of how to speak to them.  If you know that that same driver might collect wine and subscribe to Gourmet magazine, that might give you a richer media buy.

The key to winning in this marketplace is having a better understanding of who your customers are, what they think, how they live day to day, what they value and how they think.  Try to paint a picture that includes fashion, music, food, aspirations, hobbies and all the things that make your own life rich.  Then you can use that picture to figure out where to communicate and what the message, tone and feel should be.

The words Social Marketing have been hijacked by Facebook, twitter, LinkedIn and the whole social networking world. But in fact social marketing is the act of using marketing techniques to change behavior.

Social marketing has been applied to any number of different causes and efforts to change behavior.  Communication is a powerful force when appropriately applied to a societal challenge. Even as far back as slavery, mass communications were used to influence thought and behavior.

The temperance movement had its share of communications.  This example however might just drive you to drink.

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The most important thing about social marketing when done well, is that it has a lasting affect on us even if it might not change our behavior.  Who can forget this campaign?

The “This is your brain on drugs” campaign became part of Americana with many, many spin offs.

The most important thing about social marketing is that when it works, it produces positive changes in people’s lives.  Maybe it helps them quit a gambling problem, live a healthier life or convinces them to use generic drugs and reduce the cost of health care.

On the business side of things, social marketing can improve an industry’s image and alleviate problems caused by over indulgence if done with honest good intent.  Social marketing techniques can change a way employees treat customers, or improve the way employees do their jobs increasing quality every step of the way.

If you Google “web videos” you ‘ll see hundreds of listings for the funniest videos, the most passed around viral videos, animal videos and a hundred or so others.  What you won’t see much of is how to use web videos to your advantage.  Everyone knows about YouTube and its cultural significance and sometimes insignificance.  There are plenty of ways you can use web video to move your business forward.  Here are six ideas you can use:

1.  Instructional videos

If your product needs installation, maintenance, assembly or special operating procedures, a web video is an excellent way to communicate with your target audience.  You can put the videos on your website, or put them on YouTube or a host of other video sites.

2.  Product demonstrations

Do you have to see to believe?  You can do it on video

3.  Employee communications

Have an important message that employees all over the country need to hear?  Put it on video and publish it on your password protected employee site.

4.  Sales video

Reference your sales video in marketing materials with a URL that goes directly to it.  If you’ve got an email list, you can even monitor who watches it.

5.  Brand Manifesto

Need to communicate your brand far and wide?  You can produce an entertaining video that will drive your brand strategy home to employees, sales, dealers and customers alike.

6.  Testimonial

Testimonial videos done well can be effective, done poorly, deadly.

There are some guidelines that go along with web videos.  Don’t make them too long, don’t bore people, have enough professionalism so it reflects positively on your company, humor should be left to the funny and have realistic expectations.  Your installation video is not going to be a YouTube sensation and that’s okay.  Videos should accomplish an objective.  Unless you have experience in video production, consider hiring a company to produce them for you.  They’ll be better and more effective.  If you need the name of a company who can do it well, we have a name for you.

Here’s a great site about the video phenomenon.  Digital Ethnography

Once upon a time there was a company.  It wasn’t very well known, it’s product wasn’t much in demand but it had a wonderful website.  If you searched for its product, the company was at the top of its category.  Sadly, few people searched for the product.  The company bought Google ad words, but sadly, few people searched for those words. There was less traffic on this website than a side street in a town of 100 at 3 a.m. on a snowy February night.

The president of the company called a meeting.  At the meeting, he announced that the website isn’t working.  “Our sales aren’t any better than before we had a website.  Who created this failure?”  The conference room fell silent as every face in the room turned to the Director of Marketing who sheepishly replied, “With all due respect, you did when you cut the marketing budget.”

Producing a wonderful website and doing nothing to invite people to visit is kind of like printing a great brochure and never handing it out.  Building a better website isn’t the answer.  Making it the center of an integrated campaign is.