BrainFuel

In today’s podcast we dive into our top four favourite behavioural science podcasts.  The recommendations are divided into two sections: Behavioural Science and Applying Behavioural Science to Marketing. Discover how to set your content and marketing to new heights, while also learning key insights from the world's top behavioural scientists. Get ready for your AHA moments today! Core behavioural science 🧠 - Behavioral Grooves hosts Kurt Nelson, Ph.D., and Tim Houlihan  -The Behavioral Design Podcast hosted by Aline Holzwarth and Samuel Salzer    Behavioural science applied to marketing & comms 💞  -The Brainy Business Podcast hosted by Melina Palmer  - Choice Hacking hosted by Jen Clinehens    Links Behavioral Grooves  The Behavioral Design Podcast  Habit Weekly https://www.habitweekly.com/ The Brainy Business podcast  Choice Hacking    Timestamps [01:10] - Recommending 4 Podcast [01:40] - Our favorite behavioral scientist’s podcast [01:59] - The Behavioural Grooves Podcast [04:35] - Habit Weekly Pro [04:49] - Behavioural Design Podcast [06:46] - Behavioural Science Applying to Marketing [06:56] - Brainy Business [08:39] - Choice Hacking [11:12] - The Recap  

This week's episode is on books.  We tried to use AI to write the show notes. It didn't work. But we did write a blog - or I should say - I -  a human named Ruth - wrote a blog that lists all of the books talked about in today's episodes. Click here to head over to the full blog.  Thanks for listening & reading.  

In this episode we chat with the King of COM_B Professor Robert West as we discuss his popular behavioural science model --- COM_B --- As one of the original authors alongside Susan Michie and Lou Atkins we explore with Professor West how he feels about the success and popularity of the framework. We cover the basics What is COM-B and how did it come about? What are some of the benefits of using behavioural science? We chat about his current work with the new Welsh Behavioural Science Unit and their joint publication Improving health and wellbeing: A guide to using behavioural science in policy and practice: (Co-Author Ashley Gould) with a focus on: What is the egocentric bias and how can it be overcome? The NEAR and AFAR framework. 3 AHA moments The COM_B framework was inspired by Perry Mason. We didn’t know that when we developed the Murder Mystery COM_B training! (We were inspired by Death in Paradise.)  Egocentric bias is where we rely too heavily on our own opinions. We all have it to some degree so when running the COM_B analysis to overcome the egocentric bias always treat your perspective as a hypothesis until and unless you get insight or data from other sources to make you more confident. NEAR and AFAR are frameworks to help you design your intervention once you have completed your COM_B analysis. It works with the Behaviour Change Wheel. Episode Outline [00:01:07] - Thank you for your support [00:02:11] - 2022 By the Data [00:03:07] - 2023 2 Words to live By [00:06:00] - A dosage of Kindness at the core [00:08:15] - Introducing guest Robert West [00:10:06] - Rise of COM-B Model [00:12:56] - COM-B Model value in other markets and vertices [00:14:51] - Wales creating a behavior science guide [00:19:30] - Straight from the principles [00:23:07] - Breaking down Egocentric bias [00:25:57] - Energise: The secrets of motivation [00:28:13] - Treat your Perspective as a Hypothesis [00:29:13] - The NEAR-AFAR framework [00:33:57] - Health and Well-being is a shared responsibility   Quotes “The popularity of COM-B is due to its ability to provide a formal framework for a concept that has long been intuitively understood by many” Professor Robert West Approximately mentioned @ 00:10:06   “The COM-B model provides a starting point for understanding behaviour change, allowing you to use the four elements of normal, easy, attractive, and routine to determine the right behaviour change techniques to use in a given context.” Professor Robert West Approximately mentioned @ 00:29:33   Recommended Book Tools for Thought, by Waddington (1977)   Guest Resources/useful links Improving health and wellbeing: A guide to using behavioural science in policy and practice – https://phwwhocc.co.uk/resources/improving-health-and-wellbeing-a-guide-to-using-behavioural-science-in-policy-and-practice/ Robert West YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@unlockingbehaviourchange  Academic publications here: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=cU9Sx1IAAAAJ&hl=en (2022) Harness your animal brain. Robert West & Jamie West (2021) The Secrets of Motivation. Robert West & Jamie West   Subscribe Our February bootcamp sold out before the end of January. Be the first to hear about the next Bootcamp training by signing up to our weekly podcast email called Brainfuel - it's a mini breakdown of what we covered in the podcast and useful links to events and what's happening in the busy world of behavioural science.  Subscribe by visiting  www.socialinsightmarketing.co.uk/podcast       

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.