Flexible Thinking Forum

I had to speak at two NHS conferences recently relating to swine flu.

Certainly, there is a fear of an almost Tsunami-like deluge of public concern, media overkill, and bombardment from so many different directions – which can all overload and overwhelm the hard-working network communications professionals.

Putting the issue into context, I depicted a brand landscape ranging from the Millennium Bug – where there was massive brand awareness, but in the end, the fears of the worst happening were not realized, through to the Black Death; an even strong brand and sadly with devastating effects on society. What we face with the swine flu brand is somewhere between these two paramemeters.

Some key points which need to be addressed in my view are:

Less is more. When faced with an overload, identify your core issue and message and focus on that, rather than be pulled in different directions.

Also, learn from history. While researching the talks I came across a little rhyme, possibly dating back to the great pandemic of Spanish flu in 1919.

The ditty went:

‘I had a little bird,

It’s name was Enza,

I opened the window,

In flew Enza’

(Say it aloud to get its meaning)

The lesson is that most communications challenges are not new. What can be learnt from previous campaigns – including tuff from 90 years ago?

The rhyme also highlighted the importance of word of mouth strategies. It gets over a message about keeping windows closed in a memorable, sticky way.

The Government’s swine flu campaign seems to have recognized the need for word of mouth friendly communications in its core message: Catch It, Bin It, Kill It.

It will need to add to this repertoire during the campaign.

I’m praying, as the swine flu story unfolds, it will be more Millennium Bug than Black Death.