Will wanting to be part of the tribe get Millennials to compost?

Research has shown that while Millennials talk about being environmentally correct, it's actually the Baby Boomers who are the greenest.  So how to convert the non-doers to doers?  How about using peer pressure?  It seems to be particularly effective for this social media driven demographic.  As someone noted - they can't buy anything without checking with their friends first.

Moreover there was some intriguing research done on the topic of reusing hotel towels.  Remember that little card you found in your room the last time you traveled?  What exactly did it say?  Research has shown that the more specific the message, e.g. 65% of the people who stayed in this room reused their towels, the more effective it is.  Clearly social proof is playing a role.

Since so many people these days are self-described foodies, it makes sense to see if identification with that sub-culture can be used to change behavior.

Enter the city of San Francisco, which has apparently run out of landfill space and the "Real Foodies Compost" campaign.  The heart of the campaign is this video which is available in multiple lengths - :15, :30, and :40.  It will run on the microsite "realfoodies.com" and on pre-rolls and social media.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-dBvWdlEy0

Out-of-Home, online banners, native advertising, and interestingly direct mail -- yes old-fashioned postcards - are being used as well.

I like the strategy.  Connecting to a sub-culture is a powerful way to persuade.  But I think the execution falls short because it does not exploit social proof.  I believe that if communications focused more on composting as a route to belonging to the group the campaign would be far more effective. 

My students would agree.  Here is a link to a blog posted previously about the topic, with their comments.  I have to admit that I was surprised when they suggested requiring proof before people could claim to be green.

http://pjlehrer.blogspot.com/2010/10/how-can-we-persuade-gen-y-to-put-their.html

Lukovitz, K. (2016, August 12)  San Francisco Campaign Aims To Make Composting Aspirational.  mediapost.com.  Retrieved August 26, 2016, from

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/282421/san-francisco-campaign-aims-to-make-composting-asp.html?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=headline&utm_campaign=95507

And the gold medal goes to Reese's.

Since I managed to come down with a cold on the day of the opening ceremonies, I have been watching the Olympics quite a bit over the past two weeks. 

In my opinion, the ads have been very disappointing, heavy on the sentiment, not very memorable. 

Perhaps part of the problem is who's advertising.  Apparently the top spender is the automotive category.  I guess that makes sense now that car buying has become a gender neutral activity.  But since I don't own a car I tune those ads out pretty quickly.

The second biggest category is movies -- again gender neutral, so that works with the Olympics audience mix too (55% female/45% male).  Last week they teased the ad for Star Wars Rogue One, which was interesting.  But then when they ran the full commercial a couple of nights later it was a mess.  And that's coming from someone who will probably go see the movie.  At the end of the commercial they mentioned viewing the full trailer online, so perhaps that was their end game.  But I still think they should have done a better job with their air time.

What I think is missing most from this year's Olympics ads is humor.  That's probably why the Reese's commercial got my attention. 

I laughed as I watched it.  I also found myself thinking that is had been a while since I had had a Reese's cup and that they taste pretty good.  So it's not surprising that when I went to the drugstore to pick up some more Nyquil I succumbed to temptation and bought some Reese's cups, which were of course conveniently located at check-out.  

And you know, they tasted just as good as I remembered.