Hopedance

by Bob Banner and Lisa Quinn

My friend Lisa Quinn has spoken to me many times about social marketing campaigns. I thought I was a social activist, albeit a couch revolutionary, but was quite embarrassed that I wasn’t aware of what she was talking about. However, I went to the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE) conference at UC Berkeley a couple months ago. I heard Michelle Long speak and knew that her Buy Local & Be Local campaigns in Bellingham, WA, were based on social marketing techniques . I asked Lisa to be a guest editor for this issue primarily to educate myself AND, hopefully, educate other social activists about HOW our campaigns can be successful rather than continually banging our heads against the wall. Can you imagine that a social science has been developed to actually study and dissect how people change and how social marketers can learn the tools and processes to foster sustainable behavior? I am very appreciative that Lisa Quinn has agreed to be the editor of this issue in addition to her hectic job at SLO Regional Rideshare, where she creates all sorts of campaigns and techniques to get people out of their automobiles and onto buses, bikes, carpools and walking. And you might recall, she was also the guest editor of the very successful Transportation issue almost a year ago.

Also, we are very privileged to receive permission to reprint a very exciting and valuable essay by Daniel Pinchbeck. And fortunately for us we have an exquisite and detailed report about the very recent Bioneers Conference in late October by Shepherd Bliss.

And I’d like to thank all of our sponsors and volunteers who helped us celebrate our ten year Anniversary of HopeDance. Details in the next issue

Bob Banner

---

I give a lot of thanks to Bob Banner for providing me the opportunity to be the editor of this issue. While he says he wanted to learn social marketing techniques, don’t let him fool you; the extra time gave him a chance to finish An Anthology of the Best of HopeDance.
 
I come from a traditional marketing background with a BS in advertising from San Jose State University. Convinced I couldn’t sell my soul for a pair of Nikes, I headed down a path of passion, which incorporated both education and environment, landing me in the center of sustainable transportation. Along this social marketing path, I found many people who were having an impact with all of their incredibly innovative social marketing techniques.

In this issue we looked for programs that stretched over the spectrum of social marketing. Years ago I met Doug McKenzie-Mohr, a cutting-edge leader in this field. As with many of the social marketing innovators highlighted in this issue, he is from Canada. In the past five years, Canadian municipalities have emerged internationally as environmental and health leaders by passing local bylaws on idle-free zones and making a commitment to fund important projects. For instance, take a look at a school in Toronto and their exceptional Idle-Free campaign by Julie Johnston. I invited my friend, David Laulainen whom I have been fortunate to work with on campaigns in Vancouver, Canada, to give his marketing communications agency’s “secrets” of community-based change.

And talk about using benefit as a key ingredient to any social marketing campaign: Neil Henderson’s “Elephant & Weeds Make Happy Volunteers” is an innovative program based in New Zealand, which uses weeds and animals to solve a social problem. Locally, we are proud to highlight Lisa Murawski’s article from Traffic Solutions, a government agency based in Santa Barbara County that successfully uses social marketing techniques in their annual Team Bike Challenge. We have included a collection of book reviews which complement the social marketing theme, plus plenty of links to help you find out more about this topic.

We challenge you to read and learn what these professionals are doing to create sustainable behavior through social marketing. We hope what you read will inspire you to go beyond the traditional poster or brochure.

Lisa Quinn