Using comedy to change behavior of the masses

Population Services International (PSI) and Cambodian Ministry of Health

In recent years, many Cambodian women continue to try birth control, but almost half are quitting. Why? Many mistakenly believe that using contraception will cause cancer, infertility, tumors, or other serious health complications.

In response to these misconceptions, PSI, a leading global health organization hired 17 Triggers to write four television and radio commercials. The commercials use humor as a means to shatter myths and change beliefs. While the impact is currently being evaluated, initial prototype testing proved very positive, including an airing to the Ministry of Health where one of our clients said, “I’ve never seen the Ministry laugh so much.”
To produce the commercials we partnered with 391 Productions and Phenomena, ranked as one of the best production houses in the world for the last 20 years by Cannes Lions and The Gunn Report.

View the TV Commercials for Wrong Gossip and Confused on our YouTube Channel.

 

Auntie Need-a-Loan changes the face of financial education in Africa

Microfinance Transparency

Meet Auntie Need-a-Loan, she’s cute, she’s loveble, and she is always in a hurry take out a loan. Unfortunately her carelessness leads her to get tricked by loan predators, pay high fees, miscalculate her interest, and miss her loan payments. For many MFI clients, a loan is seen as an opportunity to grow one’s business, but in reality many of them fall into a “debt for life” cycle where they are constantly paying penalties, and getting less money than they planned.

For Microfinance Transparency t, we worked with the Rwandan advertising agency, Creative Communications, to develop Auntie Need-a-Loan to help the microfinance industry to convey important pricing transparency and consumer protection messages. Auntie Need- a-Loan will be featured in an animation video, radio public service announcements (PSAs), training materials and other print materials in Rwanda and Malawi.

Watch the full animation here.

Magazine helps Asian migrant workers save for their futures

International Labor Organization (ILO), Microfinance Opportunities

When Asian women migrate abroad for work, they dream of sending money home to help their families. Unfortunately, few women migrants realize this dream. Too often they are stuck in a recurring pattern – after months of working abroad, they return home with little or no savings and then must migrate again.

17 Triggers Managing and Creative Directors, Lillian Diaz and Mike Rios, developed a training package to help women prepare for migration, set savings goals, manage budgets, and use banks to save and transfer money. To help migrants remember key lessons after they move abroad, we designed an interactive and easy-to-carry magazine.

Stop orphanage tourism campaign goes viral

Friends-International (with support by UNICEF)

Every year, thousands of tourists visit orphanages in Cambodia thinking they are helping some of the most vulnerable children in the world. Recent reports however have found tourist visits, despite best intentions, may cause more harm than good.

Children are not tourist attractions.

Orphanage tourism does not respect children’s rights – it often increases the risks to these vulnerable children, including long-term psychological damage, possible sexual abuse, can keep their living conditions poor, and ultimately encourages the separation of families. Despite being called “orphanages,” reports show that 72 percent of the children living in these residential institutions have at least one living parent.

Driven by donations, an entire industry has grown out of thousands of tourist visits. With the support of UNICEF, Friends-International worked with 17 Triggers to launch a campaign to end orphanage tourism in Cambodia. The campaign has been featured on Lonely Planet, Travelfish, international news agencies and numerous travel blogs. Please join the movement. Post this link to their official website on Twitter or Facebook today.

Revolutionary campaign triggers mothers to wash their hands before feeding their babies

USAID, Lien Aid, Water Shed Asia, Cambodian Ministry of Rural Development

Social marketing campaigners often make the mistake of thinking that increasing knowledge is enough to change people’s behavior. But usually it’s not. Think about all those times we choose cake over a piece of fruit or fast food over a salad. The truth is: knowing what’s best for us is different from acting in our best interest.

Although most mothers know they should wash their hands before feeding their baby, many fail to do it. To overcome this resistance, we developed ads for hand washing that appealed to mothers’ emotions rather than their intellect. Our advertisements and communication materials, which were developed with the aid of consumer testing, broke new ground in behavior change campaigns aimed at rural Cambodians.

Mike Rios challenges the definition of success at TEDx

TEDx Phnom Penh

Before 17 Triggers, Mike worked for big brands like Nike, Coca-Cola, and Tiger Beer. Realizing he was chasing someone else’s dream, Mike quit in 2009. In his recent TEDx Phnom Penh Talk, Mike shared his story and urged others to reflect on what success and career mean to them.

TED started as a four-day conference in California 25 years ago to support world changing ideas. TEDx was created in the spirit of TED’s mission “Ideas Worth Spreading.” It gives communities and individuals the opportunity to create TED-like experiences at a local level.

In addition to TEDx, 17 Triggers staff have presented on “Financial Education and the Masses: The Keys to Creating Greater Impact” at the Citi-Financial Times Financial Education Summit (Singapore, December 2009), “Don’t Market Like Your Mom” at MABS National Roundtable (Philippines, June 2010), and recently at the “Entertainment for Change: Effective Uses of Entertainment Education and Social Marketing” at the Global Youth Economic Opportunities Conference in Washington DC.

Refreshing the Super Tunsai Family Water Filter with new branding, logo, and packaging

Hydrologic, PATH, IDE

After we named Hydrologic’s new water filter, Super Tunsai (Super Rabbit) and designed logo options, we took our materials to the field and tested them. To get results quickly and keep costs down, we set up a simple booth in the village market and tested women’s response by sticking different logos on glasses, and asking women to choose which glass they would give to a friend.

Through this testing, we found that our target market preferred the color green, which they associate with water; that the product’s name, Super Tunsai (Super Rabbit) made people smile, and one particular logo appealed to nearly 50% of participants.

Unfortunately, too many people think that this kind of market testing takes too much time and costs too much money. As demonstrated, we say it doesn’t have to.

‘Make the Impossible, Possible’ video aired on National Sanitation Day in Cambodia

USAID, Lien Aid, Water Shed Asia, Cambodian Ministry of Rural Development

In Cambodia, only 29% of the population has a latrine. Improving these statistics is hard to imagine when so many village chiefs, schools and health centers don’t have latrines themselves.

Because village chiefs are very influential in changing rural people’s behavior, we told the inspiring story of Sok Chamreoun, a village chief who believed that every family in his village could own a latrine if they all worked together, and he succeeded. Watch Sok Chamreoun’s story here.

Special thanks to New York-based director, Sam Stephens, from Humble, as well as Miguel Drake-McLaughlin, Todd Brown and 391 Productions.

Simple training praised as ‘fun, easy and effective’

USAID, Lien Aid, Water Shed Asia, Cambodian Ministry of Rural Development

Prototype testing is not just for products, print ads or TV commercials. Any idea, regardless of its size or format, can be tested. When developing training for the Ministry of Rural Development on sanitation, we collaborated with the government’s top trainers and village chiefs to create and test a program specially tailored to their needs.

The result? Not a thick training manual; instead the trainers wanted something that would fit on just one page. They told us: “No complex instructions, no boring lectures, make it visual, and make it engaging.” After three rounds of prototyping, we developed a one-hour training program that excited and involved villagers. At our final debrief, the government’s top trainer told us “These tools are excellent for inspiring people to change.”

Resource booklet for adult sex trafficking survivors wins two 2010 Addy Awards

USAID, The Asia Foundation, International Justice Mission

For women coming out of sexual exploitation, engagement with law enforcement can be intimidating. Language barriers and unfamiliarity with the legal process cause confusion and fear of arrest, and many women – even those who have been trafficked into the sex trade – worry about how they will support their families outside the commercial sex industry. In a push to improve the overall process, our client trained the police force to display more empathy toward trafficking survivors and consenting sex workers choosing to leave. Our task was to write and design a booklet that would show women their options for education and vocational training, medical treatment, counseling options, food and shelter. Most importantly, it was designed to instill a sense of hope.

Produced in partnership with Candour, the booklet won two ADDY® Awards in 2010. The ADDY® Awards, the world’s largest advertising competition, recognizes creative excellence worldwide.

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