Go Outside the Box?

Last week, there was considerable brouhaha within the environmental community about a released-for-just-a-minute video produced by 10:10, an organization based in the UK and committed to reducing emissions by 10% per year starting in 2010.

The video is here: [WARNING: YOU'LL PROBABLY FIND IT OFFENSIVE.  THERE ARE VIOLENT IMAGES. CLICK AT YOUR OWN RISK]

The response from other environmental organizations was immediate and harsh, condemning the organization and the video and proclaiming it the death knell of the environmental movement.

While we don’t work on this particular campaign, so don’t have the background about what led to the video, we would guess it was something not dissimilar from what we’re hearing from a number of our clients: frustration with being drowned out by elections, economic crisis, random acts of violence, and even other voices from the same movement. Frustration leads to what can be a productive impulse: think outside the box and do something very different.

Team Englin is divided on the video itself: some of us find it horrifying, others thought-provoking, and still others just quintessentially British. What we agree on is that the video (and resulting brouhaha) reminded us of this week’s 3 things: questions to ask and thoroughly answer before going outside the box.

1. Who are we?
What are the outside boundaries of what defines your organizational values? Are you traditional or newfangled? Establishment or outsiders? Soft and fuzzy or confrontational? Be very clear about who your organization is – know the confines of your box – before making decisions about moving to the edge of outside of that box with messaging, strategies, or tactics.

2. Who are we trying to reach?
Do you need to wake up your base? Catch the attention of a new audience? Irritate your opposition? Who, exactly, are you hoping will pay attention to your risky move, and how are they different that the other parts of your audience? Are they diametrically opposed?

If you think you’re talking to everyone (or “the public”), you’re not talking to anyone, or at least not saying anything meaningful. Be specific about who you’re frustrated you’re not reaching.

3. What thought/action/feeling are you hoping to inspire with your “something very different”?
If pressed, we’d guess the 10:10 folks were going for amusement, shock, “hipness” with the crowd fueling the vampire and zombie crazes. We’d guess they were hoping to inspire conversation, and some sense of stigma around not participating in the climate change activities on the 10th of October.

The good news is that all of this is testable, easily cheaply and quickly. Be extremely, excruciatingly clear about how you’re thinking your risky communications will move your target audience, then test your thinking with even informal focus groups of your target audience.

And, a bonus:

4. Have your crisis communications plan ready to go. You’ll need it.