community based social marketing Archives - Page 2 of 2

My Road to SGA: Judy Seitelman

Posted on April 20, 2016January 11, 2022 by Suzi Senna

(This is the first in a new series of biographical pieces to introduce you to the SGA staff.)

For 28 years, I worked independently as a management consultant focusing on strategic planning, new program development, marketing – including events, policies and procedures, and specialty documentation. My clients were primarily in higher education, but others were in credit card operations and processing, human resources management, hospitality, and forensic accounting. I also worked for several years as a technical writer for hardware and software companies.

Beyond the office, my environmental awareness kicked into high gear when I had children. Their school community service requirements forced me to open my eyes to the importance of promoting social and civic action early and often. We went to beach cleanups, helped with plastic bottle and aluminum can recycling on campuses, learned about waterway pollution at the local aquarium, and became regular household recyclers.

Becoming energy efficient started slowly with turning off lights, not running the water when brushing teeth, and cutting back on heating and air conditioning (wearing sweaters and opening windows, respectively). Later we changed out our old light bulbs to new, energy-savings types, and we switched to rechargeable batteries. In 2007, my husband and I decided to invest in home solar panels for two reasons: to save money on electricity over the long haul, and to be a part of the energy-savings solution. Just recently, we took another eco-friendly step as you can read here: “Tips Before Taking Out Your Greenway Lawn.” I have a near-zero water, lawn-less greenway that has cut my water and maintenance bills in half.

Just as my kids kick-started my better world thinking, they also precipitated my move to SGA. When my daughter moved out of the house, I decided it was time for me to seek greener pastures. (To be absolutely truthful, when I was offered my SGA job, my daughter said, “you have to say yes.”) Just as working on my own suited me as I raised a family, so does working with an intelligent, kind, and like-minded group of individuals as we try to make the world more livable for everyone. At SGA, the company seeks to motivate environmental behavioral change that improves households, neighborhoods, cities, and counties, one by one.

Tips Before Taking Out Your Greenway Lawn

Posted on April 6, 2016February 2, 2022 by Suzi Senna

California residents know that having an environmentally friendly lawn is important during this ongoing drought. However, before you dig up the lawn and make changes, have a plan in place. I did, but I also learned a few lessons along way. Here, I offer some insight that might save you from headaches.

Knowing I could do more to save water beyond our low-flow showerheads and low-water toilets, the L-shaped greenway lawn bordering the street was fair game for saving on weekly waterings.

Deciding to go lawn-less, I had two goals:

1) Save water.

2) Save money by having lower water bills and by reducing gardening expense by selecting every-other-week maintenance for my remaining landscaping.

Before deciding how to go about the task, I did a fair amount of internet research. I looked around my neighborhood, snapped photos and figured out what I wanted to do. I spoke with my gardener and a landscaper, and I checked with the city to learn about suggestions and rebates.

The easiest (though not cheapest) route was to remove the grass and plants completely. (Your city may require a percentage of planting in order to qualify your project for rebates). Just four bubbler sprinklers now support two, native, drought-tolerant trees in wood-chip planter areas. The remaining greenway contains decomposed granite with intermittent three-piece pathways of bouquet canyon stone.

The good news: I am saving water and money (though it will take a while to recoup my investment).

Not-so-good news: I need to tuck away some money to improve my design because it didn’t work out exactly as I envisioned it.

What you can learn from my mistakes:

1) Think about the daily foot traffic along your greenway. If you have a lot of pedestrians, consider how they might impact your landscaping choices. In my case, once the rains began, the decomposed granite proved to be an irresistible target for footprints and gouges. In all fairness, passengers exiting cars along the no-longer-greenway had no choice but to step onto the wet surface. In retrospect, it’s not the ideal surface to use in this much-traveled space.

2) Consider how a zero-plant greenway will affect your home’s curb appeal. I have abundant plants surrounding my home; nonetheless my initial reaction to losing the border greenery was “uh oh.” Incorporating even a few drought-tolerant plants along the greenway would introduce some height variation to the border; I’ll plan to purchase a few when the budget allows.

All said, once my new trees mature and I’m able to install enough stone and a few plants to eliminate the foot traffic and curb appeal issues, I’ll feel good about having made changes that are water-wise, functional, and attractive.

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4 Simple Ideas to Improve Outreach

Posted on January 19, 2016January 11, 2022 by SGA Staff

It’s difficult to imagine a time before randomized trials and data. But as an article in the December 12 issue of the Economist points out, before the 20^th century, “The sick were wise to stay away from doctors. Medical treatments were often worthless and sometimes dangerous.”
Then in the 1920s, English statistician Ronald Fisher used randomized controlled experiments to test the effectiveness of fertilizer on farms, and quality and production escalated. The medical field soon picked up the method. More than any single discovery, controlled experimentation contributed to the 20^th century’s miraculous increase in lifespan.

In the realm of public policy and outreach, this technique can be tricky. Changing behavior is often hard to observe and quantify. What’s more, local government programs don’t have the budgets for lengthy experimentation and controls.

But things are changing. Online media provides the ability to conduct small and inexpensive controlled experiments that allow us to determine if people are taking the initial steps towards behavior change. For example, we can test degree of awareness, intent to change, influence of social norms and more.

In 2015, SGA began testing out how online experiments can help build better, more reliable outreach programs. Here are four simple, but important, lessons we’ve learned:

Reach beyond likes and unique visitors. The biggest problem using social media likes and website visits as a proxy for success is that you don’t know why people took the action. They could have been searching for your content and found it engaging. Or they might have randomly clicked on your website during a Google search and quickly jumped off, never to return again. You just don’t know. While building a strong foundation of fans is important, it’s just the beginning. To build a community, you need to test how engaged your fans are through controlled messaging experiments.

Embrace A/B testing. If you really want to understand the value of your likes, you need to see if they are repeatable. The key is to run two sets of posts—an A version and a B version. (You can also run multi-variant tests if you want to move more aggressively.) Then see how each performs with your community over time. You can set these up on social media, websites and e-newsletters. For e-newsletters, send the two variations to a random subset of your subscriber list a few days before you intend to send out the newsletter. Then send the one that does best to the rest of your list.

Turn data into insights. Once you have some data to work with, you can look at the demographics of the people who engaged with your content as well as the content that got the best response. Facebook and Twitter insights and Google Analytics can tell you loads about your followers. Understanding the type of content that resonates with them will help you understand how to inspire them with behavior change messaging. This data allows you to paint a more robust picture of your audience, which you can incorporate into outreach both offline and online.

Create a call to action. Find the route to engagement by asking your fans to do something. When determining your call to action, be sure it is something you can measure and start small. Ask fans to opt in to receive emails or post their own content showing actions they have taken. One of our projects for the Orange County Stormwater Program asked people to post photos of how they were saving water in their yards. By having residents show their actions, it verifies the behaviors taken and starts to build a social norm for the action—and engagement in general.

In 2016, we will see more and more emphasis on data as online marketing’s balance of art and science continues to demand more of the science. Business and commercial marketing has already shown this. With simple experiments, you can better understand your audience, their motivations and whether they’re buying your program’s message or merely window shopping.

2015: SGA’s Year in Review

Posted on December 30, 2015January 11, 2022 by SGA Staff

Countdown of the top 11 things we did in 2015

11. Worked with LA Stormwater and Malibu Foundation for Environmental Education on the 22^nd Kids Ocean Day.
10. Won a CASQA award for our work with Orange County Stormwater Program and Gnorman.
9. Exceeded goals for County of Santa Barbara’s pilot pet-waste campaign.
8. Boosted social media engagement for San Bernardino County Stormwater with pet photo contests.
7. Helped NRDC and Grant EDC brand their new nonprofit, Watts Re: Imagined.
6. Created a new website for the Los Angeles Housing + Community Investment Department.
5. Co-chaired the 2015 Zero Waste Conference in DTLA and introduced Mayor Garcetti.
4. Volunteered at The Growing Experience urban farm in Long Beach.
3. Read good books on marketing and behavior change in our book club.
2. Went a whole new level of green.
1. Aspired to change the world, one project at a time.
Cheers to 2016! All of us at SGA look forward to another year of working with you to improve our community and the planet.

SGA Wins 2015 CASQA Award

Posted on October 21, 2015February 2, 2022 by SGA Staff

Who would have thought that a garden gnome could have such a large impact in Orange County?

Meet Gnorman:

Most people would look at Gnorman and see just another gnome, but SGA saw more than that! We saw the face of Orange County’s Overwatering is Out campaign – a campaign recently honored by the California Stormwater Quality Association (CASQA) with the Outstanding Regional Stormwater News, Information, Outreach, and Media Award.

We sent out an army of Gnormans across 34 cities, reaching 3.1 million residents. The primary audience for the campaign is homeowners, but the program effectively engages residents of all types.

This stormwater public education campaign successfully uses data to facilitate engagement across a spectrum of individuals. The challenge, which also ended up giving flexibility to our campaign, was tailoring our approach to a particular individual. We know that behavior change takes a while and that everyone is at a different stage of the behavior spectrum.

On one end of the behavior spectrum we have those individuals who are just learning about small behavior changes they can make. On the other side of the spectrum we have individuals who are already practicing the behavior change – these are our champions! It was very important for us to identify our champions, as they are the ones who are practicing the behavior change, informing others about it, and ultimately creating the new Gnormal! We wanted to give individuals a challenge that they could meet and one that they were ready to tackle so that they would remain engaged with the campaign.

The success of the campaign came from tailoring our communication strategy to the individual depending on where they are on the behavior spectrum. Acknowledging that people are only going to be engaged to the extent that they are able to connect to what we are talking about, allowed us to ultimately reach and engage a broader audience!

For more information on the campaign and our dear friend Gnorman, make your way over to overwateringisout.org. Join the movement and Go Gnome Yourself!!

The Growing Experience

Posted on September 4, 2015January 11, 2022 by SGA Staff

What do two SGAers do when they have time on their hands? They start a nonprofit using community-based social marketing (CBSM). Say hello to Appleseed!

Philip Kao, Adam Quinn and pediatrician Ruth Chiang Kao founded Appleseed, a nonprofit with SGA roots that aims to inspire the choices and actions that matter most for the future of our children and planet. They’re doing this through projects that improve nutrition and agricultural sustainability.

Their first project brought them to The Growing Experience farm in the Carmelitos housing development. Once an abandoned field of sod, The Growing Experience is now an urban farm operated by Housing Authority of the County of Los Angeles. The farm was facing a particular problem: minimal participation in their fresh fruit and vegetable programs from the surrounding community.

Appleseed saw the potential of this farm, along with its untapped benefits for the community, and suggested a solution: CBSM! Using the tried-and-true methods of CBSM, Appleseed gained insights from residents of the housing development and quickly realized that residents felt that the garden wasn’t theirs. Not only that, but the concept of sustainable food felt foreign to them. Learning this, the Appleseed crew immediately set out to bridge these gaps by planning and organizing an event that would A) give residents a chance to connect with their local farm and its farmers, Jimmy and Holly and B) signify to residents in this community that this garden was open—for them!

The very first annual Community Cook-Off event was held at The Growing Experience and was a great success. Six residents participated in a cook-off competition, where they prepared delicious dishes using fresh vegetables from the garden. An amazing turnout of over 60 guests and kids came to visit the garden for the first time, where they tasted and voted for their personal favorites in the competition. An awesome community member, Purpose, volunteered to MC and DJ the entire event. Did we mention there was a talent show for the kids?

With stomachs full and new relationships formed, the event came to a close with an air of excitement for next year’s cook-off. And just recently, Appleseed received word from farmer Holly that a number of the cook-off guests had begun stopping by the garden to pick up their fruits and vegetables! If success was a picture, I think it would look something like this:

For an inside look into the event, check out:

Bravo, Appleseed! To follow Appleseed’s progress and hear about their upcoming project in Guatemala, subscribe to their monthly newsletter at www.appleseedimpact.org.

Dude, Where’s My Bag?

Posted on June 8, 2014February 2, 2022 by Suzi Senna

Dog owners know that picking up after one’s dog is the right thing to do. The trick is to get them to actually do it.

Fresh off the presses, we present the results of our program to reduce pet waste on behalf of the San Bernardino County Stormwater Program. Over a one-year period, we found the percentage of dog owners who attached the waste bag canister to their dog’s leash jump to 83% from 52%, a jump of nearly 60 (far exceeding our goal of 10%!). Of the 190 dog owners surveyed this year, we also found that 92% said they planned on refilling the canister with more bags once the bags ran out.

Why does this matter?

In 2010, we learned through an initial survey that the biggest barrier to dog owners picking up after their dogs was not having a bag to scoop the poop in. Just over half of the 95 dog owners surveyed cited being bag-less as the culprit for not picking up. What motivated them to pick up? Being around friends, being watched or judged or the feeling like they ‘have to’ – in short, the social norm that picking up is the right thing to do and not doing so would be frown upon.

Behavior change comes when you lower the barriers and promote the motivators. If over half of dog owners say they don’t pick up because they don’t have a bag, we decided we’d provide free waste bag canisters to dog owners. If they feared social disapproval from not picking up, we would encourage those doing the right thing to share the message and free bag promotion with their friends and family to help establish picking up as a norm.

So our latest campaign focused on having a visible waste bag when walking a dog that would make it more likely for dog owners to pick up. We wanted to make it socially unacceptable not to have a visible bag when walking your dog. First, we distributed 886 free waste bag canisters. Then, we sent a reminder to every dog owner who received a canister to attach the canister on a leash. A few months later, when we projected the bags in the canister would run out, we sent an email to those same dog owners to remember to share the free canister promo with friends and family and to refill the canister with bags. Demonstrating the power of social norms, over half (53%) of those surveyed this year said they had shared our campaign with someone they know.

Based on our research, having a visible bag will likely increase the chances of picking up after their dog. More than the visual pain, preventing static dog waste is an environmental boon: dog waste is a major contributor to bacteria in our waterways. So correctly eliminating pet waste not only keeps our neighborhoods clean, it keeps our water cleaner too. From audience analysis to action and evaluation, that’s CBSM at work!

Continue reading “Dude, Where’s My Bag?”

STAFF	Songs in Playlist (Title/Artist)
Adam Quinn	“The Temptation of Adam” by Josh Ritter
Andy Luo	“Knock You Down” by Keri Hilson
Carolina Gonzalez	“Don’t Want to Fight” by Alabama Shakes
Chris Koenig	“Hold on, Hold on” by Neko Case
Dani Schmulevich	“Beautiful Life” by James Morrison
Erin Rode	“Ragged Wood” by Fleet Foxes
Basil Mangra	“Stella” by Jam and Spoon
Jackie Ayala	“Spottieottiedopaliscious” by Outkast
Judy Seitelman	“Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” by Sara Bareilles
Rachel Dowd	“Who You Are” by Jessie J
Rose Solis	“Work” by Rihanna
Sarah Catallo	“Worry” by Jack Garratt
Stephen Groner	“So What” by Miles Davis
Thomas Kim	“If I’m Unworthy” by Blake Mills
Whitney Schmucker	“Hurricane” by Halsey