Award Winning Blog - Agitator

Make it Relevant. Helpful?

Your message should be relevant. That statement, proffered as ‘advice’, is about as useful as its polar opposite, don’t make your message irrelevant to the audience. Can the same message sent to everyone on your donor file or in your acquisition marketing be equally relevant to everyone? There’s a stark difference between targeting and tailoring […]

Learn More March 20, 2024

Hal Malchow’s Last Campaign

No wonder my phone exploded yesterday. This headline explains why: “Hal Malchow Is Going to Die on Thursday. He has One Last Message for Democrats.” The subhead continued, “The pioneering Democratic consultant has been planning his death for decades.” In his inimitable style of facts salted with grace, compassion and deep knowledge of the American […]

Learn More March 18, 2024

Taking Out The Trash

Monday’s post cited a study that didn’t move the needle and sleuthed the problem to a water is wet finding; people are different and therefore, require different messaging to be effective. Here’s a soothing balm, a winning study that avoided this mistake. Researchers recruited participants with help from the local government to have their recycling […]

Learn More March 15, 2024

Messaging Conundrum: When Global Efforts Meet Local Minds

An “A” for effort, a “C” for execution. That’s how I’d grade a global survey in 63 countries and 59,440 participants testing 11 behavioral science interventions to impact people’s views and actions on climate change. It’s a noble endeavor and they went beyond the usual WEIRD audience profile. The middling execution grade is because buried […]

Learn More March 13, 2024

In Living Color

This is part of an interview series we’re doing with Mike Duerksen and the fine folks at BuildGood, a Canadian fundraising agency with way above average thinking and creative ideas. Breaking through and creating connection is tough. It’s made unnecessarily harder if we force feed a one-size fits all diet to folks. The alternatives are […]

Learn More March 11, 2024

The Story of Ethel

I want to share this story: In a small, quiet town, Ethel, a 90-year-old woman with a spirit as indomitable as the passing of time, carried out her daily ritual. Each morning, she would make her way, despite a betraying hip, to the rusted mailbox at the end of her gravel driveway. The mailbox, more […]

Learn More March 8, 2024