Today's charities have become billion dollar industries and household names.
It’s widely believed that their success is due solely to massive budgets; with the money they have, they can afford to reach the largest amount of people possible.
But the truth is that they’re success is not due to finances, they’re utilizing the most powerful communication techniques known to humanity, while we’re not using them at all.
And this has guaranteed a permeating influence on their side, while leaving a massive vacuum on ours.
It’s important to understand one thing, they’re not winning us over with information; they’re fashioning meticulously planned campaigns which are accepted at a single glance, and leave a long-lasting emotional and ethical impact.
Our lack of exposure is not due to our lack of budgets.
There are countless books, articles, seminars and studies which lay out the strategies needed to influence that crucial 40%.
It’s in studying these methods however, that something becomes immediately evident: only a small handful of techniques are being used against us, over and over again.
The first and most crucial of which, is a well crafted single image.
An image is understood near instantly,
“…90% of the information that is transmitted to our brain is visual, and visuals are processed 60,000x faster than text. It’s no surprise to see that visual is taking over our news feeds with quality photos, infographics, interactive videos and even memes which can provide a message that’s memorable at a glance.”
Sai Roshini Daswani of Sinclair communications agency.
James Balm of BioMed implicates information overload as a determining factor,
“One of the things that happens through information overload is in a world where we are bombarded by stimuli we often seek the easiest and most fluent way of acquiring and learning information. Reading can be a slow and time-consuming activity. It takes a lot longer to read a long sentence than to analyze a visual scene.”
The Silent Impact
There are few better examples of how to make a powerful statement with a single image, than the “Quit Smoking” campaign.
It conveys clear and immediate warnings:
“Smoking damages your lungs”…
“You’re playing with your health”,
“You're playing a dangerous game”,
All without uttering a single word.
We could even identify the target-audience by simple virtue that it’s based on a video game.
Visual information is not only communicated near instantly, when done properly, it’s unmatched in influence and impact.
And it only takes a few simple guidelines…
I. Emotion Over Information
It’s been proven repeatedly that objective facts are far less influential in shaping public opinion than emotions are.
No matter what the message, the focus is always on leaving an emotional impact, which ensures a permeating and long-lasting effect.
This is what turns heads, not information.
Ogilvy & Mather, one of the most influential marketing agencies in the world, know this well, as they explain in their Red Paper, “What’s the Big IdeaL?”,
“The ideas we admire and are attracted to are filled with ideals, in other words, an ethical notion behind the words, a higher purpose.”
This doesn’t just apply to advertising; according to Paul Slovic, Professor of Psychology, at the University of Oregon,
“We must also look to psychology to understand the impacts of emotional news content. Research demonstrates that audiences need an emotional connection – and not merely a “just-the-facts” reporting approach…”
II. The Ethical Argument
The ethical argument is your first sign that you’re most likely dealing with a well-crafted campaign. It’s sad, but it’s true.
It’s your first sign that you need to carefully consider whatever is being said and view it from a detached perspective, no matter how persuasive it might seem.
And it will be persuasive, because that’s what it’s purposefully and professionally designed to be.
The main strategy to be acutely aware of is that there are multiple perspectives to every issue…
For example, “The healthcare workers have lost their jobs” is a perspective.
“The healthcare workers were once celebrated all over the world and now can’t even feed their own families” is also a perspective, however it’s an undeniably ethical one.
The ethical perspective isn’t about presenting cold facts, it’s about striking a deep, resonating chord.
What image do you see when you read, “Drunk drivers kill people”?
What if we said, “In one unforgivable act, an impaired driver changed my life and my family’s life forever.” - M.A.D.D.
See the difference?
It’s the ethical perspective that wins people over, and it’s the ethical perspective which makes people want to take action; in some cases, no matter what that action might be.
III. Short Bursts of Information
Bombarding the public with information seems to be the weakness of most grass-roots organizations who’s materials are typically scattered with paragraph after paragraph of cold-hard facts.
In the corporate and political world, the only materials which present long bursts of information are the pamphlets, something most people won’t even ask for until they’ve been hooked by an initial, impactful statement.
Ogilvy & Mather have this to say on the subject:
“An ideaL is best expressed in a short phrase that captures the campaign’s point of view on the world, or on life, or on the country in which it operates. Despite being short and memorable, it is not a tagline. It is a highly structured form that conveys the ethos of the group...”
And it’s absolutely true:
“Feed the Children”,
“Save the Whales”,
“Have a Coke and a Smile”.
Memorable phrases, written in quick, concise language, expertly designed to illicit an emotional response.
Entire arguments captured in 4 words or less and understood at a single glance.
Which historically enter the collective and seem to remain for decades to come.
IV. The Cost of Delivery
One can debate whether this is a cognitive bias, or if it's just another example of the long-term effect corporate marketing has had on our world-view; but people trust the campaigns that seem to have spent the most money on delivering their message.
Whatever we do, our materials must look professional.
We may not be able to hire graphic designers, but we do have access to free online sources of professional photography and endless examples of professional graphic design, which in most cases is the only difference between being noticed, or being lost in the shuffle.
This act alone ensures that our identity has that all-essential, credibility.
As you can see from the, “Stay Home. Save Lives.” campaign above, it doesn’t take much.
And a simple design can be powerful.
It’s been said that we’re equally as capable of the greatest good as we are of the greatest evil. I guarantee you however, that no matter what side of the that fence anyone has found themselves on, it’s almost always been based on an ethical perspective.
It may be hard to believe.
But it’s absolutely true.
I suppose the good news is, if the ethical perspective is what it takes to win an argument, then we must by our very nature be ethical beings.
The bad news is, it’s a non-stop badgering of ethical arguments which has lead us into this divisive state of finger-pointing, anger and fear.
At the end of the day, there’s only one question we should be asking ourselves, is this perspective uniting us, or is it tearing us apart?
If it’s tearing us apart, then perhaps we need to stop, and re-think what we’re doing.
Thanks for reading.
If this work is meaningful to you, I invite you to subscribe. It’s free.