In 2010 UNICEF did a guerrilla marketing campaign about dirty water. The project set up a vending machine on a crowded street in New York City.

Here’s how it worked. People walked up to the machine, put $1 in a slot and hit a button. Buttons were labeled malaria, cholera, typhoid and five other diseases. Out came a bottle of water the color of mud.

Nobody drank the muddy water. But lots of people put $1 in the vending machine. The money went to clean water projects around the world.

Project sponsors filmed people’s reactions. The online video went viral, bringing in donations from far outside New York City.

When I first started working in communications, this could never have happened. There was no worldwide web, no online videos. Nothing went viral, except for measles and chicken pox.

Today is a different world. To help navigate this world, I’m currently enrolled in the Master of Communication in Digital Media program at the University of Washington.

Traditional communications talks about “audiences” and “messages.” Hanson Hosein, director of the MCDM program, says the web has shifted the focus from “audience” to “community” and from “messages” to “stories.”

The internet helps people to create communities. From Facebook to Twitter, LinkedIn to Yelp, more and more people are talking to each other online. If Facebook were a country, it would be the third largest country in the world.

These large and varied communities can range from people joining together for Arab Spring protests to reviews of the neighborhood coffee shop, from checking in with friends and family to getting discounts from merchants.

In digital communities, stories are important. Things like character and plot make a difference. They engage people in what’s going on. And engaging people is key.

The Dirty Water story is, at its core, about the plight of people in the Third World without access to clean water. It adds another dimension with the visceral reactions of First World people to plastic bottles of tainted brown water.

The storyline captured people’s attention on the UNICEF web site. They stayed around long enough to watch the video. And many gave money.

What do you think of the project? Why do you think it worked?

Here are the 11 tips. You can find more details in the article.

• Resolve to be a better writer–and more succinct.
• Resolve to think outside the confines of “traditional” PR.
• Resolve to know your audience. What are they interested in?
• Resolve to be a storyteller. Tell readers how it will affect their lives.
• Resolve to speak measurement upfront. Can you measure your impact?
• Resolve to be SEO friendly.
• Resolve to be more visual. Use multimedia.
• Resolve to stay ahead of the game. Don’t just get wrapped up in fighting fires.
• Resolve to slow it down and clean up your act. No excuse for being sloppy.
• Resolve to clear your head. Take a five-minute break.
• Resolve to give good counsel. Tell your boss or client what they need to hear, not what they want to hear.

Now I’m mostly better. I would say my brain is 95% healed.

The last 5% I can best describe as my brain feeling full, as if it’s a smaller bucket. If I pile on the mentally taxing activities, I need to back off and rest. The good news is that a little rest does wonders.

It turns out I’m not alone in the overload problem. Maybe it has nothing to do with my head injury.

Most of us get inundated with information every day. How many emails did you read yesterday? What did you read, see on TV or hear on the radio today? What conversations did you have? You get it.

Information overload can shut down our brains 

A friend who knew about my concussion gave me a Newsweek article titled “I can’t think!” The article described the brain research of Angelika Dimoka, director of the Center for Neural Decision Making at Temple University.

Dimoka ran a bidding war experiment where the subjects received more and more bits of information. She measured the activity in the area of the brain that makes decisions and controls emotions. As the information load increased, the activity increased. But when the information reached the point of overload, the brain activity suddenly stopped, as if it had thrown a switch.

According to the article, “They start making stupid mistakes and bad choices because the brain region responsible for smart decision making has essentially left the premises. For the same reason, their frustration and anxiety soar: the brain’s emotion regions—previously held in check by the dorsolateral PFC—run as wild as toddlers on a sugar high.”

Other research found that participation in a 401(k) plan decreased as the number of options increased. Similarly, people make worse choices in online shopping if they have 50 options instead of 10 to choose from.

We need to think less

It turns out that we make more creative decisions if we allow our unconscious thinking to play a role in solving problems. The best way for this to happen is to turn off the information tap: don’t think you need to find out everything before you decide.

Brain scientists have found that many of our best decisions come from unconscious processes. One study had subjects evaluate a “rather daunting amount of information” about four made-up apartments: size, location, friendliness of the landlord, price and eight other features. Scientists had some of the subjects do a memory and attention task, so they couldn’t think about the options. Instead, they made unconscious decisions. The outcome: they chose better apartments (with objectively better features).

What to do?

In this blog, I usually give tips for people who are communicating with others and trying to persuade them to make a change. This time I’m going to give you, the information consumer, some tips to help protect yourself from thinking too hard and making bad decisions. Credit mainly goes to the same Newsweek article.

1. Deal with emails and texts in batches. That gives time for your unconscious mind to kick in.
2. Don’t attempt to assess all of the complex information about a decision you need to make. Sit back and let it process.
3. Set priorities: which criteria are most important? Focus on those.
4. Leave an issue for a time, say overnight. Come back to it later.

I just gave you a good excuse to go out for a latte or a walk around the block. Enjoy it!

Annette Frahm is principal of Sage Enviro, which specializes in green marketing communications and creating strategies for a green future.

The next thing I remember is waking up in the ambulance. The 20 or 30 minutes in between are gone, irretrievable. Even interviewing the first responders and visiting the scene of the accident did nothing to jog my memory.

Maybe it’s a good thing. I don’t remember how much it must have hurt to hit the pavement.

The doctor said my concussion was considered severe because I both had amnesia and lost consciousness. He told me to rest my brain so it could heal. Nothing taxing. Watch TV and read easy books.

At first I was capable of brief bursts of brilliance, followed by light-headedness and a low-pitched humming in my head. As time went on, I could function at my normal level for longer periods of time. But then I had to go lie down.

Physical activity was easier, less wearing, than mental activity. But if I thought too hard, I was incapable of exercising hard.

Today marks eight weeks since the accident. I’m finally approaching my normal state of mind. I’ve managed a couple of hard days and can still function the following day. That’s major progress.

But I’m conscious of how much energy it takes to think about things.

We need to remember that when we are creating messages and strategies. If people have to think too hard, you’ve lost them, right out of the starting gate. You’ll have a tough time regaining their attention.

In my presentations on persuasive communications, I talk about two states of mind: the Habitual Brain and the Executive/Rational Brain.

The habitual brain is like Homer Simpson. It’s unconscious, uncontrolled, rapid fire. It’s gut reaction. It’s sometimes called the lizard brain or puppy brain.

The executive/rational brain is like The Thinker. It’s conscious and self-aware. It’s deductive and slow. It’s controlled and follows rules. It’s sometimes called the adult brain.

Who’s in charge? Most of the time, most of us are operating more like Homer Simpson than like The Thinker. We may not act in our self-interest. Instead, we do what is easy.

A friend of mine was excited about a new app that someone was working on. You point your iPhone at a product in the store and the app tells you how hazardous or toxic it is. This is meant to help you decide whether you want to buy it.

I said that would lead to shopper paralysis. People just want to buy it and get out.

Rather than doing deductive reasoning about which product is better, we’re thinking about what we can cook for dinner and whether we’ll be late picking up the kids from day care.

I can tell you from what I’ve been going through: Keep it simple. Don’t make people think too much. It’s too taxing. They’ll tune you out.

Annette Frahm is principal of Sage Enviro, www.sageenviro.com, which specializes in green marketing communications and creating strategies for a green future.

The system uses a camera that takes a picture of every vehicle driving by. If the car is going too fast, the driver receives a speeding ticket. If the car is going at or below the speed limit, the driver is entered into a lottery to win part of the fines from the speeding drivers.

The experiment reduced the average speed of cars driving through a school zone from 32 km per hour to 25 km per hour, according to an article in Drive.

I first heard about this experiment on NPR’s Weekend Edition. Host Liane Hansen was talking with Gabe Zichermann, co-author of the book Game-Based Marketing and chairman of the Gamification Summit.

The Swedish experiment used rewards to change behavior. “And that positive incentive to create better behavior,” Zichermann says, “is a core tenet of games.”

He uses a model called SAPS to describe user rewards. SAPS stands for status, access, power and stuff. “It turns out,” he says, “that cash isn’t that good of a reward. Status is a fantastic motivator for getting people to do stuff.”

Status, access, power and stuff are “what customers really want, in that order,” Zichermann said in his blog. “And this list is also prioritized by ‘most sticky’ and ‘cheapest to fulfill.’”

STATUS. More companies are using gaming principles to increase customer loyalty. They reward their customers with points and badges for sharing brand information and experiences with their friends, according to an article in SF Gate. Status comes from being first on the block.

Another example: Sales staff earn badges for completing training programs, with the potential for an increased commission. The badges are visible to the entire company.

ACCESS. People get a chance to interact in a special or private way with your company or service, such as dinner with the CEO, elected official or celebrity. Or they could get access to new information or hot deals sooner than others.

POWER. People get to be a moderator of your forum, where they control content. Since I’m not a gamer, this seems a bit fuzzy to me. But you gamers out there will understand it better.

STUFF. People earn points for making positive lifestyle changes. Points translate into dollars or merchandise. I’ve seen this in my own life. My health insurance company offered a gift certificate for completing an on-line health assessment. A previous employer provided store coupons as a reward for commuting via bicycle.

There are problems with using stuff for rewards, Zichermann says. They’re expensive for you to provide. They can turn users off. If they’re not big enough, they won’t motivate people to act. 

How could you use games and SAPS to encourage people to adopt green behaviors?

Annette Frahm is principal of Sage Enviro, www.sageenviro.com, which specializes in green marketing communications and creating strategies for a green future.

Big portions are a big reason. I heard recently that Starbucks plans to offer a gigantic 31-ounce “Trenta” iced drink. The Trenta is bigger than the capacity of the average stomach. Twenty years ago, take-away coffee came in a seven-ounce cup.

Drinks, snacks and meals have all gotten bigger over time. As portion sizes increase, people get fatter.

How do we get people to eat smaller portions? One way is to affect their perceptions. An experiment conducted at a Super Bowl party found that people who were served snacks from large (four-liter) bowls ate 56 percent more than people served from smaller (two-liter) bowls. The larger bowl made portions look smaller.

The Small Plate Movement promotes using 10-inch plates instead of 12-inch plates. People eat 22% fewer calories from a smaller plate, without affecting their perceived fullness or satisfaction.

Dan Ariely talked recently with National Public Radio about an experiment on portion sizes that he conducted at Panda Express, a Chinese fast-food restaurant.

When asked if they would accept a smaller portion of the main dish, most people said “No way.” Would they accept a smaller portion of fries, the side dish? “Sure.”

But after the study ended, people didn’t take the initiative to ask for a smaller serving of fries. Is it too much work? A break in the normal routine? Do they feel cheated? Or something else?

What can these studies tell us about how to change environmental behaviors?

1. Perception is reality. Visual cues tell us how to interpret the world. The environmentally friendly option should look appealing, familiar and not too complicated.

2. Think about what you offer. People may buy a larger pesticide container because it’s cheaper per ounce than the smaller one, even if they don’t need that much. Can we change the price signal for products that harm the environment? 

3. Change the market. I followed sales data for hazardous cleaning products for a few years. One year the sales of less-toxic toilet bowl cleaner skyrocketed because a major manufacturer introduced a safer, greener brand. Can we encourage more of those changes?

4. Make it simple to do. A setback thermostat is easy to use and can dramatically reduce energy consumption. That’s simpler than asking people to remember to turn the temperature up and down in their home.  Don’t make them do too much work.

Annette Frahm is principal of Sage Enviro, www.sageenviro.com, which specializes in green marketing communications and creating strategies for a green future.

Kasha & Scooter lounging with Annette

The ancient Egyptians worshiped cats. I suppose in some ways I follow their lead. My husband and I have two cats, and they have the upper hand in our house. We get lots of pleasure and affection from them, and they’ve also taught us some valuable things about how to live life. Here are nine life lessons I’ve learned from my cats.

1. Be appreciative. Purr when someone does something nice for you.
It’s much more fun to pet a cat when it purrs in response. Purring is a cat’s way of showing thanks and appreciation.

People like to be appreciated—whether that’s giving a smile and a thank you to the person who holds the door for you, or giving kudos to your spouse for cooking a nice dinner or even just taking out the trash. Every day, think of a way to let someone know you appreciate something they’ve done for you.

2. Focus on a single task.
Cats are great at focusing their attention on one thing at a time. Maybe it’s the bird on the other side of the window or the spider crawling up the woodwork. A cat couldn’t catch a mouse if it was multi-tasking. You will be more successful if you quiet your mind and only do one thing at a time.

3. Connect with your people.
One of our cats, Kasha, is a homebody. My husband and I are her people. She almost always greets us when we walk in the door. When we’re at home, she may come visit us to ask us to play with her, to sit on our lap or just to hang out in the same room, to spend time near us.

Our other cat, Scooter, is gregarious. When he goes outside, he has a busy social schedule. Neighbors tell me he has walked into their living room, hung out on their front porch or slept in their apartment. They tell me these stories with fondness. It’s clear they all think they have a special relationship with Scooter.

Scooter recently had an abscess and had to stay inside for a few days until he got better. After a couple of days, the next door neighbor knocked on the door to make sure Scooter was all right. He missed his friend.

4. Find sources of comfort—and bask in them.
Our cats seek out patches of sunlight and luxuriate in them. Yesterday I found both cats asleep on chairs facing the sun coming in a south window. They stretch out to maximum length so they can absorb more of the sun’s glow.

Kasha has a favorite spot in front of the heat register and behind the bathroom door. She’s found a way to capture the warmth and concentrate it in a small space. Scooter is good at finding a towel, pile blanket or pillow that makes his life just a little more cozy, then he settles in for a long winter’s nap.

5. Speaking of naps—get more sleep.
I saw a cartoon recently that showed a cat getting up to leave the room. The cat said, “I’d better hit the hay. I’ve got to be up in 23 hours.” I don’t think cats really sleep 23 hours a day, but they are the king and queen of the long nap.

I always thought a cat nap was something short; that is, until I had cats. Now I realize the priority they place on a good night’s rest, and then a good day’s rest. We don’t have time in our busy lives for a nap after breakfast and one after lunch, but we would all be healthier if we took a clue from our feline friends and turned the lights out earlier at night.

6. Be playful.
Many of us take our lives too seriously. We are always busy with work and chores and obligations. I bet we would be happier if we took time every day to do something fun. I don’t think we would enjoy chasing string or batting around a fuzzy mouse toy, but I suggest looking for ways to loosen up a bit.

Play with your kids or pets if you have them. If you don’t, read the comics or watch a comedy on TV, or do something just because it’s a little off the wall.

A funny hat or pin, a skip in your step or even a little soft shoe, will add life to your day. It will probably also make someone else smile and lift their day too.

7. Be curious. Explore your world.
Kasha needs to check out the attic and the closets every week or so, just to see if something has changed. Scooter does the same with the backyard.

If you have a garden, walk through it often in season to see what may have bloomed or unfurled or changed color. In this winter season, take a walk through your neighborhood to look at Christmas lights that are still up or the stark outlines of dormant plants. Perhaps your neighbor’s evergreen tree or shrub shows its beauty better with only bare branches in front of it.

8. Be patient.
Kasha will sometimes sit on the bathroom counter for a half hour and even an hour, waiting for one of us to come by and turn on the water so she can drink. Scooter will come to my office in our basement while I’m working and curl up on the floor until I take a break. When I get up, then he asks to eat a snack or go outside.

I know I tend to rush things, to want something to happen right now. But life doesn’t always have those speedy rhythms. There’s an old adage: Good things come to those who wait.

9. Be flexible and stretch.
One of my friends told me, “Everything I know about stretching, I learned from my cat.” When cats get up from a nap, they often take a moment to STRETCH their backs and legs. On the other hand, WE tend to get short and stiff muscles.

Stretching is not only good for our bodies, it helps brings oxygen to our brains. I bet we would be happier, healthier and more alert if we stretched as much as my cats do.

There you have it. Nine lessons I’ve learned from the cats in my life. I hope you’ll take away something that will help your life be better tomorrow and for days to come. Meow . . .

Annette Frahm is principal of Sage Enviro, www.sageenviro.com, which specializes in green marketing communications and creating strategies for a green future.

The class involved exercises where someone drew the beginning phrase of a sentence from a bowl. We all wrote for five minutes, using the phrase as our starting point. Then we read our pieces out loud to each other. It was amazing how the same phrase took us in so many different directions.

The last exercise started with “Right on time . . .” Here’s what I wrote. My fellow students cracked up. I hope you enjoy it too.

Right on time . . . that is something people rarely say about me. I am usually a few minutes late wherever I go.

The habit drives my husband crazy. He’s German, and an engineer. Both of those things mean he believes in order. “Ordnung muss sein” (German for “Order must prevail”) is the German national anthem, according to him.

On the other hand, I was brought up with a mother who was always a little bit late. I always think that perhaps I can get one more thing done, or I remember something I needed to do, or I decide I need to take a shower.

Or I’m walking out the door and my cat Scooter wants to come in the house, which means I need to go back in and put away Kasha’s bowls so he won’t eat her food and become more chubby than he already is.

I could never live on an island because I would always be stressed out trying to make the ferry on time.

When I first got to know my husband’s German parents, they showed up at my house 20 minutes early. I was in the shower.

Twenty minutes is an eternity of getting ready time. I’ve cleaned the bathroom in less time with a wet paper towel. OK, well, sort of cleaned the bathroom.

My brother and sister are also late. They learned from my mother too. I am patient with lateness because I know what it’s like.

I can’t imagine being early. I wouldn’t know what to do with myself. I’d have to read the New York Times on my BlackBerry so I wouldn’t fidget.

Once when I showed up a few minutes late to meet a friend, I said, “Promptness is not my strong suit.” He said, “That’s OK, you have plenty of other talents.” Whew.

I’m not going to put “Promptness” on my list of New Year’s resolutions. It would be a futile effort.

Annette Frahm is principal of Sage Enviro, which specializes in green marketing communications and creating strategies for a green future.

Another tool of the trade is anchoring. Charities keep track of how much you gave them in the past, and they use that as a starting point. If you gave them $50 last year, they might suggest a donation of $75 or $100. If you gave them $200 last year, they might start with $250.

These starting points, called anchors, are used to help us make decisions. We start from a number or a piece of information. In this case, the anchor is our past history of giving to the organization.

Charities might also use a totally different anchoring method. They might start with a very large figure, perhaps “We hope you would consider a gift of $1,000.” When one suggested that amount to me, I laughed out loud. (Perhaps you’re richer than me.) Starting with a high anchor may make smaller amounts seem less unreasonable.

Prosecutors have successfully anchored juries on large awards for product liability lawsuits. As a result, class action suits may wind up with multi-million, or even multi-billion, dollar awards.

Another kind of anchor is a stimulus that calls forth a state of mind. Perhaps the scent of lavender reminds you of your grandmother’s home, or a song by the Rolling Stones reminds you of a time when you were young and carefree. Why do you think public television stations run programming of John Sebastian or the Moody Blues when they ask for pledges?

Like a ship’s anchor, our existing anchors can be moved. Starbucks successfully changed the anchor for many people’s experience of buying coffee. The Starbucks experience includes a warm ambience, high-quality pastries and foreign names (Venti, anyone?). This is not Dunkin’ Donuts.

If you want to be successful in your communications, you need to begin from your audience’s anchors. For example, in Puget Sound, people’s anchor for water is lots of rain. But Seattle has a few months of drought every year. People need to change their anchors to “summer drought” before they will conserve summer water.

Annette Frahm is principal of Sage Enviro, www.sageenviro.com, which specializes in green marketing communications and creating strategies for a green future.