Evidence of Success (pdf)
Rescue SCG ≠ Advertising Agency
Rescue Social Change Group is a social change organization that provides formative research, evidence-based strategy development, campaign management, & direct marketing services. We provide a few services similar to commercial advertising agencies, but that is where the similarities end.
Advertising agencies specialize in preference change strategies. To cause sustainable social change, though, we need behavior change. Preference change and behavior change efforts may use some similar tools such as advertising, events, and web. However, the strategy, messages, and functions underlying behavior change activities and messages are fundamentally different from preference change. By definition, ad agencies lack the experience and expertise in behavior change to successfully promote health behaviors.
How Rescue SCG is Fundamentally Different
- We focus exclusively on Youth & Young Adult positive Behavior Change
- We will never think strategies that sell used cars and cable services will also work to cause behavior change;
- You will never have to pay for us to “learn” about your issue, young people, or behavior change, we are experts in all three;
- We will provide you with experience and expertise in behavior change that is unrivaled by any ad agency.
- We look for opportunities to share resources across clients to save funds and increase impact;
- We are uniquely positioned to find these opportunities since we work with similar clients nationwide;
- All of our of clients are not-for-profits or government agencies, so like us, they always want to share and cut costs;
- We know how valuable your resources are, so we even offer entire campaigns already developed and ready for local replication.
- Our team members are currently based in seven states
- We know a local presence is necessary, so after formative research is complete, we establish a local team to cause change efficiently;
- We specialize in implementing local campaigns in different communities;
- While we may not yet be in your community, we offer more relevant expertise and experience than any locally based ad agency.
- Ad agencies specialize in short-term campaigns, we specialize in long-term sustainable change that outlives the intervention;
- Typical ad campaigns sit stale on TV and online for months before a new campaign is developed, but we ensure your campaign is growing organically and constantly changing based on a feedback loop.
- We have successfully caused behavior change, and our client outperform social change efforts led by ad agencies;
- Our strategies are based on experiences with dozens of campaigns in over 20 states, from Virginia to Louisiana to Maine to California.
- Exclusive Focus
- We Share
- We Work Nationally
- We Think Long-Term
- We’ve Done It
Where Ad Agencies Are Experts
While ad agencies are not the best fit to lead social change efforts, they have expertise that can complement a comprehensive social change strategy when funds are available. Local ad agencies have media relationships and experience necessary to effectively plan and place media. Rescue SCG recommends that a social change company serve as your primary behavior change strategist and implement the on the ground strategies to cause change. Once a behavior change strategy is developed, an ad agency can be contracted simply for media placement. That is the expertise of ad agencies, which should be utilized when funds are available as part of a behavior change effort.
Rescue SCG’s Pledge
- We promise to always be well-versed in the academic research pertaining to your campaign;
- We promise to always incorporate new findings and best practices into your campaign implementation;
- We promise to always look for ways to save costs for your campaign;
- We promise never to be afraid to tell our creative director if an idea stinks;
- We promise to ensure that our strategies follow a logic model and provide you with process data to demonstrate progress;
- We promise to use formative research in our creative planning;
- We promise that a team of individuals with advanced degrees in Public Health, Marketing, Psychology, and Sociology will develop your strategy;
- We promise to genuinely include the target audience in the development of your strategies;
- We promise to never try to sell you an idea just because we think it will win us an award
Need More Proof?
Click on “Evidence of Success” to see how states working with Rescue SCG and a local ad agency caused behavior change, while states with just an ad agency did not.
