Throughout my internship I worked a lot on a new campaign Make-A-Wish Australia was launching, “Swearing Can Help”. The initiative is being spearheaded by comedian Kevin “Bloody” Wilson and involves placing a Swear Can in the workplace and any offender who may slip up and drop a swear word places their fine in the can. The can is aimed at assisting cleaning up language in the workplace in a fun and light hearted manner whilst raising vital funds for seriously ill children.
The campaign is targeted at blue collar workplaces and I set to work with the marketing assistant creating databases of possible industries and businesses within the geographical location of the office (West Perth). Industries we focused on included car salesmen, mechanics and hospitality venues. We began cold calling these companies and presenting our spiel and also walked down streets surrounding the office, approaching businesses directly off the street.
We got knocked back quiet a lot (which is always expected in cold calling) with a few successes. There was a lot of backlash from the volunteer branches as t whether this campaign aligned with the company’s values and from businesses who didn’t understand the concept in the short amount of time available to pitch the idea in a cold call/visit.
What are your initial thoughts of the campaign? What other industries would you target and what would be the best way to approach these?
4 comments:
Hello,
I think your 'swearing can help' campaign sounds really interesting. The title catches you off guard and makes you stop to think about what it means. I think the concept is good, however I understand what you mean about the difficulties of cold calling! It is one of my most dreaded tasks! It is interesting that you've had backlash from the volunteer groups - aren't they involved in the decision making process when you are developing new campaigns? I don't know enough about how your organisation is structured as to whether it would work - but maybe getting them involved from the start would inspire them to be more supportive?
In regards to when you are visiting businesses - do you have some information brochures to give them to support what you are saying?
The one thing that concerns me about how successful this campaign will be is how sustainable it is? In other words, for those companies who chose to participate, I can imagine that it would be novel for a week or so, and then they would start to forget about enforcing the swearing rule and go back to their old habits....how much money will this really raise in such a short time? Has Make-A-Wish got a strategy to keep up the momentum of the campaign? Are they going to be following up with the participating organisations on a regular basis?
In terms of what industries to target - you may be surprised at how much swearing can go on amongst white collar workers too - so don't rule them out!:)
I hope this has been of some help. Best of luck with the rest of your internship.
Hi Mea,
The campaign sounds like a great initiative!'Swearing Can Help' is really a great concept and title. To be honest I was scrolling down the blog page and it caught my eye and definitely made me stop and think - so in terms of attention grabbing its fantastic!
I do think that the organisations that have been targeted for this campaign are a bit generic and are playing up to stereotypes though - I would definitely recommend incorporating a wider range of key contributors for the campaign. Like Erin mentioned you would be surprised by how common place swearing has become in the work place be it corporations to independent companies!
I understand the frustration you have with cold calling - hopefully it will pay off. This campaign has the potential for real success once it gets off the ground. Good luck too you, I hope it all works out!
Zoe
Hi girls, thanks for your comments!
You have definitely made me think more on the campaign and even given me some ideas on recommendations for the final report!
Erin you brought up a good point about how sustainable the campaign is. I agree that after a few weeks (when the novelty wears off) the donations may cease. At the moment, each business will be followed up after three months; however this is ineffective if the cans have been forgotten about two months prior. Maybe teaming the information on the campaign with ideas to raise regular company donations e.g. Crazy tie Fridays, where lasting relationships with the charity can be established?
I understand that the occasional swear word also slips out in the white collar environment however many businesses were reluctant to participate as they were worried about how this would be perceived. Is it now ok to swear in the office? HR was very strict on the cultures they were building and I think this is why the target was blue-collar. Also as this market were more familiar with the spokesperson, Kevin “Bloody” Wilson. This was just my perception of the targeting rationale, what do you think? How would you approach targeting? Is there a particular industry or franchise you think would be worthwhile approaching?
Once again thanks for your comments!!!
Hi Mea,
You are probably nearly finished your report - so sorry this post is a little late. I think your campaign is really interesting. I have certainly worked in many work places where there was a lot of swearing - due high stress levels from high volume work loads. Talking from experience the not-for-profit sector especially aged care and mental health are highly stressful environments. I have worked in both industries I can tell you that at times especially around last minute submission deadlines there is a lot of swearing that takes place! The environmnents I have worked in - although they don't encourage swearing are usually full of good fun people who all team together to get a job done. It might be worthwhile to consider other not-for-profits?
Good luck for your report.
Cya
Annika
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