#24 Fietsaso, you are not here in Amsterdam!
What do you do if you are standing in front of a full waste bin during a walk in the park with an empty coffee cup? Do you walk on to the next container, or do you stuff that cup in there? The text on the waste bin may well be the deciding factor. Jeanine Mies is a language expert in behavioral change and shares in Reducing word value about effectively managing ‘good behaviour’ via language. She has developed her own approach with ‘magnetic words’.
Calendars
If you want to change something, you are in favor of something. This is the motto of Jeanine Mies. As a copywriter and trainer, she comes across many examples of activating campaigns that remain in the problem. For example, draw a line through distinction. What do you expect from people? What do you want them to do? A good campaign that focuses on positive behavior always needs an action perspective: a concrete action that you can carry out. You can think of: ‘abuse, report your suspicions’. This is in contrast to a campaign on child abuse with the text ‘I don’t look away’. The non-message is often effective, explains Mies.
Remove resistance
It is striking that successful campaigns often work with humor or gentle encouragement. Experience resistance to instructions. They are assigned something and that goes against a sense of autonomy. The moment you are working on a pun instead of the instruction, the resistance disappears. In any case, we are more cheerful to follow something as we are. Experience shows that imagining a fear scenario does not work. That is why the Ministry of Justice and Security opts for a talking cat in a campaign about online safety. With delicate subjects you should of course be careful with humor, miles, but you can also submit a positive outcome there.
customization
We see from the corona instructions how difficult it is to make one clear for 18 million Dutch people. Based on the action perspective. A campaign for neatly parking your bicycle in Amsterdam the denominator ‘vak die bicycle’ might not work in a smaller sub-place. The city of Groningen previously choked on a campaign called bicycle aso. He was later renamed a bicycle hero. Cyclists who parked neatly received a golden saddle cover. The good result was instead of shaming the wrong parkers. Bicycle hero, according to Mies, that is pre-eminently a magnetic word. Listen to the podcast for more inspiring examples.
Guest
Jeanine Mies has been an independent copywriter and trainer, Dutch specialist, and specialized in language in behavioral change for more than 20 years. Mies does many assignments for the national government and blogs about magnetic words. You can also reach Jeanine via twitter to follow.
Host
Maria Punch is a voice coach, writing trainer and language watcher at BNR. She wants to know everything about the impact and functionality of the language we use every day. Maria has 18 years of experience in journalism as a radio newsreader, editor, compiler and trainer.