Today’s episode (36) welcomes Dominic Ridley-Moy a consultant in behaviour change communications with extensive experience in Local Government working closely with the CAN Council, Co-Chair Local Public Services Group, Chartered Institute of Public Relation and the founder of the Behaviour Change Network.   Dominic shares three predictions for behavioural science in 2023, tells us about his fantastic 5-week course ‘Behaviour Change Masterclass’(starts 19th January 2023) and his chosen book Tiny Habits by BJ Fogg.   2023 predictions from Dominic Understanding the behavioural science frameworks a bit more. Comms pros increasing their understanding of what shifts people’s behaviours. Taking a step back more often to understand what people are not doing, and what the barriers are. Using the COM_B model can help you do this. Behaviour change on its own is not enough. It will buddy up (even more) with lots of different friends including AI and data science. AI is really exciting! One to watch. Climate change! This is the most important area and where we will see the most growth. We (communication professionals) need to get better at helping people take that first step.  Links Behaviour Change Network- Masterclass 5 weeks online course COM_B explained Tiny Habits, BJFogg    The next Behaviour Change Marketing Bootcamp is live. The first Bootcamp for 2023 is on Wednesday 22nd February.  Click here. The Early-bird is open.   Want your team to get on the same page around behavioural science? Book a call with Ruth to discuss your needs.

Dear Bootcamp, I have no time! I have turned into the white rabbit from Alice in Wonderland!  ANON   Bootcamp says….. Often the first thing we do when we have no time is drop our audience insight work. We need to understand our audience. The world is now too noisy to not lead with insight.   Quote "Our messaging has got to be based on our insight & time. To do that give it some time. It doesn’t need to be a lot!" Ruth Dale   3 AHA moments  Plan in 'understanding your audience' – safeguard this time. Make it a non-negotiable in your planning.  Pull in your stakeholder's learning and expertise during the insight stage. Respect your audience’s time. Don't waste their time with messages that are not tested or do not resonate.      The final Behaviour Change Marketing Bootcamp is on the 2nd November - click here  Want your team to get on the same page around behavioural science? Book a call with Ruth to discuss your needs.

Episode 34   Dear Bootcamp, Every year we run health campaigns reminding people not to use emergency services for non-emergencies and we also frequently tell them not to miss their appointments as it costs loads of money and appointments are hard to come by. So if they cancel someone else use that appointment.  We are still tackling the same issues a decade later, what else can we do? Best wishes ANON   Bootcamp says…..   You are using a messaging strategy called ‘negative social proof’. What is negative social proof? Negative social proof is essentially when you use examples of the problem behaviour or your lead in your messaging with the negative message. What you want people to stop doing. All it does is place the problem at the front of the mind and can go as far as to normalise that behaviour and in turn give permission for others to join the herd and do the very behaviour you don’t want.   Negative social proof explained in 60 seconds Professor Robert Cialdini, Dr Noah Goldstein and Steve Martin ran a research project at the Arizona Petrified Forest testing what messages would stop the visitors from stealing pieces of petrified wood. They divided the park into three zones and posted two signs with different messages in two of the zones and left the third zone as a control group. Sign one: Please don’t remove petrified wood from the park, in order to preserve the natural state of the Petrified Forest. Sign two: Many past visitors have removed the petrified wood from the park, changing the natural state of the Petrified Forest. What was the result? Did the messaging impact on behaviour? Yes! Sign two tripled the amount stolen! 😲 The lesson? Tell people what you WANT them to do. Do not lead with what you do not want them to do. 3 AHA moments Do you have a messaging strategy? Do you plan using a messaging strategy. Do you use negative social proof unknowingly?  Use negative social proof in your strategy but not alone. It will get attention, shock and drama but will not deliver action and can seriously backfire!  Focus on what you want people to do. The desired action. Reduce the noise.    Links BAD LUCK, HOT ROCKS (badluckhotrocks.com)    The next Behaviour Change Marketing Bootcamp is live. The final date for 2022 is November 2nd. The Early-bird closes 12th October. Click here for half price training places before they run out.  Want your team to get on the same page around behavioural science? Book a call with Ruth to discuss your needs.

 Episode 33 kickstarts our 3rd series The Problem Page. Q. What is the biggest mistake when planning behaviour change marketing? A. No behaviour change goal. This episode explores the reasons why we may not start with behaviour change goal and the confusion between a policy goal and a behaviour change goal. Ruth shares two case studies and how the focus shifted when using behaviour change goals. We explore how you can stop running more awareness campaigns, and shift from piling knowledge onto people that doesn't lead to action.  How you can get more creative and increase your impact.  Quote “Not having a goal is a symptom of not actually knowing what we what our audience to do.” Ruth Dale   3 AHA moments The pressure to deliver often means the insight part is skipped. Skip this at your peril. Without knowing what the desired behaviour is you cannot communicate it! By focusing on a goal that is about behaviour, it takes your marketing into new arenas that will unleash your creativity and connect with your audience in new ways. Our data sources may keep us focused on the problem – when considering your new behaviour ensure you can measure it. If not, don’t do it!   The next Behaviour Change Marketing Bootcamp is live. The final date for 2022 is November 2nd. The Early-bird is open. Click here for half price training places before they run out.   Want your team to get on the same page around behavioural science? Book a call with Ruth to discuss your needs.

#commshero 2022 19-23 September This episode offers you practical tips on community building by expert guest and #commshero community builder Asif Choudry. Asif is marketing and sales director at We Are Resource and has built a global communications network called #commshero. What started as an online communications conference 8 years ago is now a strong and vibrant community all year round. This year's #commshero conference lasts 5 days and... Has over 50 sessions. Is available on demand for 12 months. If you look at the #commshero website you will see the saying - “With great power comes great comms responsibility” and we couldn’t agree more so we were delighted to welcome Asif to talk about how he created the legendary #commshero. Asif's Quote  “We are so good at making everyone else look good …that is why we set up the community - to create the safe space for people to actually be positive and shout about the stuff they have done and share that best practice with the community. It shouldn’t take a pandemic to make a CEO to recognise the value”  Books & links #CommsHero Week 2022 – CommsHero 19-23 September 2022 FuturePRoof (futureproofingcomms.co.uk) by Sarah Waddington Future Proof Sustainable Marketing – How To Drive Profits with Purpose by Gemma Butler and Michelle Carvill 3 AHA moments  Know why you are building the community and tap into the sense of belonging. #commshero is still used as a conversation tool still running after 8 years. Think how long are you planning your community to last? Be there – don’t post and disappear. Don't schedule and disappear. Go in with eyes wide open and be there. See you at #commshero 2022 starts on the 19th September.    The next Behaviour Change Marketing Bootcamp is live. The final date for 2022 is November 2nd. The Early-bird is open. Click here for half price training places before they run out. Want your team to get on the same page around behavioural science? Book a call with Ruth to discuss your needs.    

This episode welcomes the 👑 queens of communication Leanne Hughes & Rebecca Roberts  to chat about meaningful engagement with young people looks like and how to do it. We focus on the fabulous Awkward Moments sexual consent campaign in Scotland. This campaign took a behaviour change approach and adopted COM_B to understand what young people needed to help them talk about intimate moments and sexual consent. Leanne developed the campaign on the commissioning side with NHS Scotland and commissioned Rebecca founder of Thread & Fable to develop and activate the campaign. Through engaging with young people the ‘Awkward Moment’ came through as a clear theme and trigger moment from which to enter these conversations. There is so much in this episode – loads of learning points, aha moments and don’t dos! Ever!! Young people are given the space to inform the campaign at every stage of the process. Messaging is tested on young people that are not involved in the process! Evaluation is incredibly focussed across behaviour and campaign tactics. Channels: (2-week testing) Tik Tok replies and ads. You Tube preroll ads Snapchat Spotify ads Tested FB stories Tested Instgram stories Professionals' resources are included.   Links NHS Awkward Moments https://threadandfable.com/ Engaging Youth Report Assembly Style Messaging -  the Tik Tok Rebecca mentions   3 AHA moments  Bring young people came in at the agency selection stage to judge the pitches. Commissioners gold! Asking a self-selected group if they like your creative is not meaningful engagement and it is not fair. Develop a checklist with clear parameters – ensure your process is clear for everyone knows what and why they. Get as specific as you can. It’s not about asking whether they like something – uplevel your questions – ask for feedback on a specific angle and explain why that matters. Focus! Young people are not a homogenous group. Be careful of your assumptions and your stakeholders assumptions around this young people. Ensure you are representative get proactive and get the right and all the voices in the room.    Don’t do this - tips from the pros Don’t be preachy or create an assembly campaign – check out this tik tok! Don’t talk at young people – talk with them. Talk not tell Never forget accessibility. Don’t rely on ‘in-jokes. Test your creatives and messaging to find out. Don’t forget subtitles are so important they are most likely watching with younger siblings and parents and carers about. Don’t assume all young people have unlimited data – don’t jump to digital. Don’t ask young people (or anyone) to comment on half-drafted plans or creative. Don’t forget to prep and have a clear process for the engagement for the young people. Get specific. Don’t ask do you like it? Ask specific questions and share why that question and their answer is important. Don’t forget to test with young people not involved in the development process. Don’t forget to show you value their time. Pay them.   Top quotes “The learning was not to give over scripts half created for comment – that’s not fair on young people - they will be polite they won’t be able to say what they really think. What’s unique about our process and campaign is they had the space all the way through and had the ability to speak on every stage” Leanne Hughes   “ young people are not a homogenous group ....you have to go beyond and proactively get the right people in the room...." Rebecca Roberts     Behaviour Change Marketing Team training days Your team, your priorities, bespoke day built around behavioural science. Perfect for bring a team together – at partnership level Integrated Care Service level or your immediate teams. Book your call with Ruth

 "here's my hook - now what is their potential question  - next answer that question" Today’s episode welcomes Jeremy Moser, an incredible content marketer. He is co-founder & CEO at uSERP, a performance SEO & Digital PR agency. Founded in 2019, Jeremy’s uSERP helps SaaS brands like monday.com, ActiveCampaign, Freshworks, Hotjar, and hundreds more, grow organic traffic and revenue.   Jeremy has also written a brilliant copywriting course (links below) and is co-founder of a new time-saving SAAS tool called Wordable  - it takes care of a lot of the tedious aspects of content publishing, making it easy to publish things at scale.  This is a conversation on copywriting fundamentals. It runs on one theme: naturally pushing your readers into going from one line of copy to the next. Jeremy breaks down the strategies to adopt to make your copy interesting, relevant, and SEO-friendly.  Book recommendation High Output Management by Andrew S. Grove Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling Guest Resources/useful links https://jermoser.com Jeremy's course (I found it of great value) ➡️ https://www.copycourse.io/ A time-saving solution for content (I'm starting to wish we used this) ➡️https://wordable.io/    3 AHA moments "Read the room" Before writing your copy, make sense of where your audience is at in terms of their knowledge.   Do not write from scratch. "Writing from scratch and not taking into account any direct audience/customer conversations is one of the biggest mistakes copywriters make. Because they forget the purpose is writing copy to drive action."  (No we didn't pay him to say this! So essential!) Talk to your audience. Get on a call. Record it. Listen back. Use their words. Reflect on their words. Connect with the person behind the screen and drop the jargon.     

In this episode, we look at 3 ways you can use behavioural science to help ease NHS pressures.  ‘Long waits for emergency care, previously only seen in the depths of winter, are now commonplace. In April, more than 24,000 people waited more than 12 hours to be admitted to hospital from A&E – a more than 45-fold increase compared to a year ago.” April 2022, Siva Anandaciva, Chief Analyst at The King’s Fund   Tip one. Don’t talk to your patients  When we are in a state of emergency behavioural science tells us that our evolutionary survival defaults and social norms will kick in. This is called System 1 and it is where our subconscious will drive our default decisions. And in our society, for so long our default norm, when faced with a medical emergency, has been to contact 999 or go to the Accident & Emergency department. So the question is - can we reset that social norm? Can we influence people to reset their automatic choices so that when with they need to make a health service decision they choose the best service for their needs and not automatically A&E?This means we need to communicate with patients outside of health settings  - in other words - not only as patients but as people going about their everyday lives.  Public Health prevention messaging has always been upstream and now with the emergence of the newly formed Integrated Care Services, there is the opportunity for NHS health messaging to shift beyond the patient and talk to people. This episode shares two examples 'Help Us Help You' as an NHS prevention campaign and 'Listen to Your Gut' as an example of a more upstream prevention campaign. Tip two: Remove all uncertainty The gods of behavioural science are used to illustrate how they reduce uncertainty in their homepage design and copy and I share how when running behavioural deep dives one key insight was people's uncertainty around diagnosing and treating health concerns.  Tip three: Use social proof to remove uncertainty When we are uncertain we look around for social proof.  We want to be part of the group and we will look for social proof to guide us in our decision-making and choices.  Fitting in was once essential to our survival and our evolutionary code can still demand that of us.  That’s why social proof, case studies, testimonials and stories are so important. Social proof is closely linked to the 'Band-wagon' effect.   AHA moments 💡🧠 1. Ensure your upstream prevention work is still clearly aligned with strategic goals of easing pressures.  2. In behavioural science we talk about the barriers a lot - understanding our audience so we can reduce them. In this context - we must understand what is making them uncertain. Why are they hesitating to call 111. Without addressing this head-on all the marketing is pure noise. 3. Plan strategically Integrated Care Services are a unique opportunity for change communications.    NHS Bootcamp on Wednesday 6th July  Join as a Team or at  the next Bootcamp to get this stuff nailed!  Wednesday 6th July - NHS pressures “A really fun, interactive, and informative day which provided a wealth of information in a short space of time. Well worth making space in your diary for this course." Sarah, Head of Communications NHS "A really interesting course for anyone who is either at the start of their comms career, or is looking to build upon their knowledge and practice. Ruth was down to earth, friendly and extremely knowledgeable, without being intimidating."  Laura, Head of Communications & Engagement, NHS        

Grab your free COM_B cheat sheet via our newsletter Brainfuel - it will really help when listening to this episode or email me at bootcamp@socialinsightmarketing.co.uk  COM_B introductory podcast episode E21 The busy communicator's guide to COM_B (socialinsightmarketing.co.uk) This episode welcomes Elina Halonen, behavioural science advisor at Square Peg Insight to talk about her favourite tool for thinking behaviour change framework C.O.M._B Elina’s experience draws from 20 years market research with 10 years within behavioural science space, she uses COM_B on her projects with public sector and commercial organisations. Elina highlights the importance of defining the problem and defining the audience and however tempting it is not to skip past this – BEFORE using COM_B. (This temptation is based on two things – this is the hard part and two pressure to get going and just do something!) Unless you are as specific as possible and you clarify what you are talking about stakeholders will talk across each other. When you stay vague you can go in circles.  (We’ve all been there!) “It’s like building a house on shifting sands.” It’s also important because without understanding the behaviours you won’t in turn understand the scale of change needed – different behaviours have different scales of change. Elina also highlighted how “time pressure can lead to thinking errors” so use COM_B as a checklist to support your thinking. Use COM_B to group data and expand thinking.  Books & links  The Behaviour Change Wheel by Susan Michie  The Centre for Theory of Change Engaged: Designing for Behavior Change by Amy Bucher  3 AHA moments  To clarify your thinking. Start with your outcome and work backwards. What set of behaviours is needed to achieve this goal. Then go deep into each behaviour to understand the scale of change. Use COM_B as a thinking tool and group existing data under each heading. Use COM_B as a facilitation tool with experts and partners. Ask ‘have we considered the findings in this bucket’ where do our assumptions fit? How do they fit?    Connect with Elina via LinkedIn or via her website Behavioural Design | Square Peg Insight   Behaviour Change Marketing Team training days Your team, your priorities, bespoke day built around behavioural science. Perfect for bringing a team together – at partnership level Integrated Care Service level or your immediate teams. Book your training day before the end of 10 July and get a special bonus – one -to – one campaign planning session with Ruth. These 90-minute sessions (RRP£299) take place after the training day where we go step-by-step through your plans to ensure your application of behavioural science is the best it can be. This can include the insight, behavioural proposition, channels & content, chosen behavioural framework (usually COM_B or E.A.S.T or both) and stakeholder plan.

This episode welcomes award-winning communicators Nicola Bonas, Keri Ross and Amanda Nash.   Nicola and Keri both work at NHS Devon Clinical Commissioning group soon to be Integrated Care System for Devon. Nicola is the Associate director of communications, involvement and inclusion and Keri Ross is the Senior communications manager. Amanda is based frontline as Head of communications at University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust. This is a jam-packed episode! The theme for this show was winter pressures but as you will hear we cover so much more than that including 1: the importance of marketing as a system. “working as one team with one plan that we all contribute to has been definitely something that we’ve continued to grow and seen massive success from” Nicola Bonas 2:  From the pre-pandemic days. Nicola shares her experience of developing the childhood flu vaccination campaign #thumbsupforcoby. This campaign was based on the tragic death of young Cobi, and driven by his parents. “it came from a really real place, two parents experience and a community behind them is what led it to be successful” Nicola Bona 3:  Winters here Jon Snow! It’s all year round. For two reasons increased demand is all year resetting social norms takes all year  “Winter did used to be a very defined time period with a very defined set of pressures that came with it I think those pressures now run right through the years and they have been for the last few years” Keri Ross 4: Insight is the core to the message development. Insight tips from Keri include good relationships with voluntary sector organisations, community groups and networks to draw down resources and expertise such as the  Academic Health Science Networks.  “Insight is really the core of everything we then design and develop. We need to understand what peoples experiences are of services and what their understanding of services to really know how to reach them and design something that will connect with them and make a difference.” Keri Ross 5: Case study: Think 111 is a campaign built out from insight. An understanding of the need to reset social norms, make it easy and reach people all year round – when they are not in an emergency situation. The team worked with Healthwatch to run qualitative research sessions to understand their audience and why they had attended the Emergency Department.  Because the team evaluates they know that 78% people had tried another service before attending the Emergency Department. The constant pressure is keeping up with demand 6:  Understanding people is at the heart of what we do: You can do this by reviewing published work too. Lift and shift!   “Insight is core to behavioural change, its about understanding the people whose behaviour you are looking to change, understanding what motivates them, what barriers they face and what will drive them and sustain them -  intrinsic and extrinsic motivation.  That’s what we’re good at – we always come back to – what do the people that we are trying to influence what are they currently doing and why?” 7: Case study: Reducing Do Not Attends (DNAs) at outpatient appointments Amanda used the learning from a randomised control study at Barts Hospital (2015) that successfully reduced DNA’s by 3% following some simple word changes in outpatient text message reminders. Text-based reminders: (messaging not exact)  Control group received a reminder along the lines of “Remember you have your appointment at xxx on xxxx”  Easy-call group received a reminder along the lines of “your appointment is xxx at xxx to cancel or rearrange call”  Social norms group received a reminder along the lines of “we expect to see you at xxx at xxxx date 9 out of 10 people attend.”  Specific costs “we are expecting you to attend xxxx not attending costs the NHS xxx ££ xxxx per missed appointment call if you don’t want to attend” Plymouth University Hospital achieved their lowest ever rate of DNA’s to new and follow-up appointments. To read more about this study click on this link.   Recommended Books Nicola’s books: European Dictators by Steven Bailey Lean in Sheryl Sandberg Keri’s book: This Is Going To Hurt: Secret Diaries of a Junior Doctor by Adam Kay Amanda’s books: The Behaviour Change Wheel by Susan Michie Social Psychology, by Michael Hogg and Graham Vaughan The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman   3 AHA moments The NHS pressures are constant all year round. Insight will help ensure messaging is as impactful as possible to support pressures.  The team work as a system and draw insight from across organisations and so elevate the standard of their work as they deepen their understanding of the challenge.  Shift and lift! Publish your work so others can benefit. You don’t always need to run qualitative research – start with seeing what’s out there and try it. N      Behaviour Change Marketing Team training days Your team, your priorities, bespoke day built around behavioural science. Perfect for bringing a team together – at partnership level Integrated Care Service level or your immediate teams. Book your training day before the end of 10 June and get a special bonus – one -to – one campaign planning session with Ruth. These 90-minute sessions (RRP£299) take place after the training day where we go step-by-step through your plans to ensure your application of behavioural science is the best it can be. This can include the insight, behavioural proposition, channels & content, chosen behavioural framework (usually COM_B or E.A.S.T or both) and stakeholder plan.