How do you cut through when people tune out?
Communications can a very tough gig at times. But church or non-profit communications can be the toughest. Shoestring budgets. Even tighter staffing levels. When you succeed you can feel like you are walking on cloud nine. It’s amazing.
But what happens when you just don’t seem to be getting through? What do you do when you just start to contribute to the noise in people’s lives rather than helping changing them?
We all go through this problem sometimes when a response rate is way lower than expected or the communication just didn’t seem to work. Perhaps it blended in. Became a chameleon rather than a peacock. We’ve all been there. Some people call it clutter, noise or visual camouflage.
The result is the same. People tune out to messages we are sending because they are all the same. Same style. Voiceover. Music bed. Visual direction. Too much of the same thing can do that to the best of churches and non-profits.
For example, look at World Vision or Compassion, both great non-profit organisations who do incredible work with children. But you can only have so many ‘sponsor a child’ ads. What helps them stand out, keep their communication fresh?
Part of the solution I think for churches and non-profits is all about using your imagination and creating an original angle/approach to answer the brief. To think outside the box.
Below are four great examples of cutting through the noise when people have tuned out to the message. Oddly enough they all seem to be around the theme of safety. I didn’t plan it, but here they are:
1. Yarra Trams
2. New Zealand Airlines: Hobbit ‘preflight safety’
3. Dumb ways to Die
4. New Zealand Airlines: Bear Grylls ‘preflight safety’
What do you do to cut through the noise and clutter of a clouded communications landscape? Please comment below.
