… akin to the candy bars that call out to you as you wait in the
grocer’s check-out lane. In the most important moment both capture your
attention. Change your behavior. The candy bar is a “POP” or point of purchase impulse
buy.
However the stakes are much higher for the impulsive change evoked by the billboard by the New Zealand highway. The first day it rains every year more people drive carelessly. Some are killed. The usual admonition, “Drive to the conditions” is dry (’scuse the pun), rational and not behavior-changing.
Yet when the first rains come blood starts flowing from the boy’s eyes,
nose and mouth. If you are driving
by you instantly get the picture.
Slow down.
Like POP the billboard evokes an emotional response at a significant moment. For New Zealanders it is a teachable moment. So far, no more fatalities on that road since it was installed.
The lesson for us all? What is an important moment for you to “touch” your customers, colleagues, friends or loved ones? What behavior would you like to change in that moment? What image and/or words will evoke that change?
