BrainFuel – Details, episodes & analysis

In today's episode we are joined by Stuart King. Stuart founded BeeZee Bodies 17 years ago whilst working in public health. A hugely successful service it supports people all over England. At Public Health England he was senior scientist in the obesity and healthy weight team and he still works closely with Public Health producing and hosting The Real World Behavioural Science podcast with the Public Health & Behavioural Science Network.

We look deeper into an ethnographic video Stuart developed on behalf of the London Borough of Hounslow. The video walks you through a day in the life of Veena a mum so you can see the influencers and patterns that are we are being exposed to every day. Shining a spotlight on the importance of the wider determinants of health.

• On a short walk Veena was exposed to fast food advertising 27 times. This is important because when running a healthy weight messaging you need to remember what else people are seeing. 
• Dogs motivate because they are external triggers - they will nudge you into movement. Do you know what other external triggers your audience may have that you can draw attention to?
• Does is the environment your audience is exposed to bombard them with negative triggers? Such as the 'food' options in local shops and are these triggers the norm? If so recognise and celebrate the resilience it takes to overcome them. 

Veena - A Day in the Life - 

Real World of Behavioural Science podcast

The Spirit Level  by Kate Pickett and Richard Wilkinson

Loonshots  by Safi Bahcall

Rebel Ideas by Matthew Syed

Japanese Art Of Kaizan

Linchpin by Seth Godin

This episode deep dives into 8 top tips for effective Smokefree messaging this No Smoking Day - 13th March.

For details check out our blog

Want to do more?

Come to the Smokefree Training Day 2024  - the day after No Smoking Day on 14th March 2024

Early bird is on!

Episode 52 dives deep into uncertainty and how you can use it to write killer messaging - specifically key messages.

We share why uncertainty is a decision killer - not great for behaviour change comms! 

And how you can turn that around.

We talk about the Status Quo Bias and The Curse of Knowledge Bias - two cognitive biases it is worth comms leads being aware of.

1) Your audience would rather not make a decision and revert to the status quo bias than make a wrong one! Check if you are overloading, too many choices, being vague or too technical.

2) You are not the best editor! Sorry! But you need someone who isn't part of the work to check your messaging. This is due to the Curse of Knowledge bias where we - as experts - just can't help forgetting what it was like before we had he knowledge.

3) Check your content is using concrete language. Has your creativity trumped clarity? 

Behaviour Change Marketing Bootcamp takes place on 31st October.

It is one-day where you learn then apply the behavioural science. Bring your work because you will get loads done!

You then get TWO bonus masterclasses after the Behaviour Change Marketing Bootcamp day.

Why?

Because you will need time to digest the day. But also so you can laser focus in on your speciality. 

Because your get FREE access to ALL MASTERCLASSES for LIFE!

Join us at Bootcamp - doors only open 4 x a year!

www.behaviourchange.marketing/bootcamp

This episode is a Behind the Scenes look at the reality of using behavioural science in the workplace. Alison Trout works with Ruth the host to run behavioural insight deep dives and shares the a behind the scenes look at the framework COM_B.

"you have to quite courageous to use this approach...!" Alison Trout

1. 1. Be prepared to tell people what their real problem is!
   2. Be prepared to get comfortable - uncomfortably
   3. Be prepared to check for unintended consequences

Thinking Fast & Slow, Daniel Kahneman, 2011 

    Applying behavioural science in public health. (2:35)   Applying behavioural science in local councils. (7:16)   Using behavioural science in organizational projects. (11:18)   Using behavioural science in marketing campaigns. (16:53)   Applying behavioural science in organizational change management. (22:59)   Using Combi and TDF for behaviour change insights. (29:58)   Applying behavioural science in the workplace. (35:43)

This episode welcomes Josephine Graham.

Josephine is a communications and marketing writer and strategist with a couple of decade’s experience across the private and public sector. Josephine aims to raise the bar of how we communicate with sometimes neglected audiences, such as internally with colleagues, by using behavioural science and testing to achieve measurable results for stakeholders. 

After Bootcamp she applied the theories to her day job with brilliant success.

She saw an 89% increase in actual change!

In this episode we focus in on COM_B and discuss the reality of using behavioural science in the workplace.

…it was really satisfying to do something properly, and do something that made a difference. Because, you know, you know, what it's like when you're on that hamster wheel of just churning stuff out, and to actually be able to take the time to step back. And think through, like you say that the journey that people were going on, and, and, you know, what their blockers actually were… Josephine Graham

1. You can use COM_B as an effective prompt tool as an exercise at your desk. It doesn't need to be overcomplicated. The end result was the tone and messaging within two emails!

2. The upfront time means you have saved so much time for the future. Audience insight has a long shelf life.

3. Josephine had a clear measurable goal … so she can share it …and we can learn from it! Did I mention two emails!

Josephine recommends to just get going - start small, use the skills regularly!

The Inner Rebel came out of Josephine. She highly recommended a journal instead of a book!

• Introductions. (0:01)
• Meeting John Peel and Bootcamp. (2:13)
• The importance of a COM-B. (4:24)
• What are the capabilities people are missing out on? (6:53)
• How did you build the email campaign? (9:07)
• The importance of content. (11:33)
• How much time did you spend on the course? (14:01)
• How to start with behaviour change? (16:21)
• One book that changed her life. (18:45)
• The power of journaling and the importance of memories. (20:15)

Every training day has been booked out this year.

The last one is 31st October 2023 with two extra bonus masterclasses.

One on Internal Comms and one on Insight Mapping. 

Check out the day here. 💗

 There are 4 cornerstones or ‘must haves’ to using behavioural science effectively in comms & marketing. If you want to shift from raising awareness to action - to get started - you need to tick four boxes.

Remember behavioural science is of great interest because it helps us understand our audiences. To find the best way to communicate and get max results.

In other words - it is a way to deeply understand our audiences.

And that is the secret sauce.

That is why we love it.

Yes there are loads of biases and loads of frameworks …..

But to get started there are four cornerstone points you need must have clarity on.

 4 signs your comms will add to the noise and not activate action

1. You don’t know the vision. The ultimate why you are doing it.
2. You don’t know who else in delivering or influential in your space.

1. You target everyone.

1. You do not measure your work.

  So to help you find out we developed a fun quiz so you can test yourself.

It takes three minutes tops.

It will show you how strong your foundations are and where you need to focus and what behavioural science tools and frameworks can help you do that!

Plus.

You get the Interactive Communicator to Changemaker Dashboard which will talk you through the ‘why’.

Because this stuff will often get skipped to get to fun creative part - design and content. But that will never create sustainable change.

I highly recommend you do them in order as they are like the building blocks to your foundation of success.

Timestamps

 How to get started with Behavioural Science. (1:58)  

You don’t know the vision of your stakeholders. (6:25)    

Know your stakeholders and your audience. (11:26)    

Set a measurable goal. (15:19)

Are you an idiot magnet?

Todays episode is a short and sweet one following the excitement of the Unleash Your Inner Rebel conference led by Advita Patel. 

The day was headlined by Thomas Erickson, author & behavioural scientist and Sam McAllister, Broadcaster & soon to be Netflix star with many other incredible speakers. 

It was a day about leading change – it offered a huge amount from both a personal and professional perspective.

 We ran the behavioural science session so folk could get going in this wonderful stuff and get active in making positive change.

 You may tell when listening we were very excited! And sorry I think I mispronounce the name of the Unleash Your Inner Rebel conference is my haste to share the many insights from the day.

Listen in for a dose of inspiration and to challenge your thinking so you can accelerate change.

“If you cannot communicate you cannot lead!” Thomas Erickson, Author & Behavioural Scientist

•  Own your decisions especially those made in moments of change.
• If you think someone is an idiot maybe you need to reflect on your need to right.
• You don’t influence people by being right, you influence people by listening.

 Are you really surrounded by idiots? (1:36)

Leadership is a communication process. (3:08)

The problem with confusing clever words with personality. (5:17)

Own your decisions when things don't go right. (6:53)

Leaving the BBC to write her book. (8:45)

Behavioural Science Workshop. (10:17)

The importance of having a framework. (11:51)

Two fab quotes (14:04)

Unleash your Inner Rebel

* disclaimer* written by AI

In this episode, we welcome Phil Barden author of Decoded and Owner & MD of Decode marketing consultancy.

There are exciting developments happening at Decode, a consultancy focused on applying behavioral science to marketing. We talk about how Decode has incorporated AI into their work, specifically in the area of human vision and testing creative artwork.

The AI developed by Decode has been trained using 15,000 hours of human eye tracking video and has achieved an accuracy of nearly 99%, replicating human vision. This AI can analyze videos and static images in minutes, providing insights on areas of interest, legibility of text, reading time, word familiarity, visual complexity, and even memorability.

The book "Decoded" written by Phil, the founder of Decode, is praised for its valuable insights and case studies that apply behavioral science to marketing strategies. 

We chat about how that understanding goals and motivations is crucial in developing effective marketing strategies, and that Decode's approach helps bridge the gap between engagement and application of this knowledge in marketing campaigns.

Timestamp:

Phil’s most memorable marketing moment. (2:36)

Why do you not believe in change? (6:48)

How to link goals and motivations to the value proposition? (9:05)

How to link the value chain. (14:24)

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. (16:48)

Creative effectiveness measure at scale fast. (21:38)

Solving a real problem in marketing. (23:31)

Optimising the implementation gap. (28:35)

Why writing in capitals makes it harder to read? (31:40)

In this episode we welcome Advita Patel to the studio. Advita is the founder of Comms Rebel, a consultancy that helps organisations cultivate inclusive cultures through effective communication. She is also an experienced confidence coach and the co-founder of A Leader Like Me and Comms Edged Rebels. Vita shares her journey and discusses her book, "How to Build a Culture of Inclusivity," which focuses on building a culture of inclusivity through effective internal communication for diversity, equity, and inclusion.

But that's not all! Advita is also organizing a remarkable event called InnerRebel 2023, an inclusive Manchester-based event dedicated to doing things differently in the world of work. Advita's frustration with attending events that lacked diversity and different perspectives led her to create the Underrepresented Speaker List, which features over 180 names of individuals from diverse backgrounds and experiences. InnerRebel 2023 aims to showcase what a great inclusive event looks like, featuring high-energy speakers and topics that challenge the status quo.

The event boasts an impressive line-up of keynotes, including Thomas Erickson, the author of "Surrounded by Idiots," a book on human behaviuor and communication; Sam McAllister, the ex-Newsnight producer known for bringing controversial figures to TV; and Nisha Katona, the founder of Mowgli restaurants, who will share her inspiring journey of humanizing leadership.

Alongside these keynote sessions, the will be there running a workshop on behavioural science in marketing!

Advita is kindly offering listeners to the show a 20% discount 💪🏿💪🏿🔥🔥

Unleash Your Inner Rebel 2023 takes place on Wednesday 14th June 2023 in Manchester.

Check out the agenda at https://www.commsrebel.com/events/unleash-your-inner-rebel

Use coupon code: RebelRebel20 

Come say hi! 

It's one thing for you to love behavioural science. To read the books , get some training and get going - but you need to take your team and stakeholders with you.

This weeks episode explains how to do that.

The idea is based on a decades experience selling in to public health as the lone marketer in the team and selling in to the corporate comms team. A double whammy of selling in - selling up and pushing the vision. 

See what you think!

Let us know!

If it peaks your interest the final one-day Bootcamp training until the Autumn is on June 7th 2023.

Come see what you're missing!