Social media in campaigns connects with millennials
As the latest phase of the historic California drought rears its ugly head, regulators have desperately scrambled to engage the millennial water waster in any way possible, most recently via the music station Pandora. The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California’s “Water Lover’s Station” features songs about water and rain, and campaigners hope that citizens will time showers to the playlist to keep water conservation in mind. In the newest attempt to attract more people to the water conservation movement, MWD’s move parallels other approaches to water conservation that use social media and billboards as part of a multi-pronged effort to successfully appeal to millennials.
MWD’s promotion of the Pandora playlist comes at the heels of highly funded social media campaigns such as Lawn Dude and Save the Drop LA. Laced with catchy phrases like “Don’t do the sidewalk of shame” and “Recovering wateraholic,” these privately and publicly funded campaigns provide the friendly face that veils the not-so-friendly water restrictions mandated by the state. It’s a way for millennials to remember that water conservation is an essential part of collective action that they are obligated to participate in. It also targets demographics that may not respond to economic incentives — the upper class,
Perhaps the importance of the work of MWD and other campaigns remains understated. The unprecedented shortage of water in the state elicited Gov. Jerry Brown to announce a state of emergency and mandate a 25 percent cut in statewide water usage. And at an estimated $2.7 billion, according to a University of California, Davis study, the drought’s economic impact has been severe. If citizens do not act collectively to make significant changes to water use, it could spell out even more trouble for California’s access to its most precious resource.
Considering that millennials are the least water-cautious — individuals between the age of 17 to 24 consume more water per capita than any other age group — they remain a tricky demographic to effectively influence. And since many of them do not yet live in their own homes, they do not face the cost crunches that force other demographics to conserve. But a message that hooks readers with humor but bears the heart of responsible citizenship might provoke a concrete response from young adults.
The ability of social media campaigns to lead to concrete solutions remains debatable. The approach, however — using humor as a hook to deliver a pointed message — has for years spelled success for advertisers, so outcomes for public message campaigns are optimistic. And when utilized as part of a multi-pronged approach — combined with turf rebate buyback programs, mandated water restrictions and revised rate-setting structures — a full-scale effort to keep Californians responsible incorporates both economic incentives to conserve and a sense of social responsibility.
When using tactile methods to save water, such as the newest conservation movement featuring Pandora, media campaigns could encourage people to improve personal water footprints. For example, though donations to the Pacific Institute steer researchers toward finding effective solutions, the lack of transparency behind the research creates a disconnect between those affected by the drought and the productive change created in the environment. Instead, by reminding listeners of the “Water Lover’s” station of an adequate shower time, people are further educated about actual methods to combat the drought, rather than helping the cause through blind and passive means. Moreover, the MWD campaign resonates more with debt-burdened college students since shorter showers and drought-friendly landscaping require less fiscal resources than donations to research institutes.
With an unprecedented emphasis on new forms of media, these drought campaigns tell us something else: the way conservation activists engage with the public has fundamentally changed. Calling for action no longer takes the form of sad PETA commercials and frightening PSAs. Humor seems to be the new key to meaningful engagement.
To effectively obliterate the California drought dilemma, tactics have to appeal to a wider audience, especially the millennial generation. To do this, Pandora’s “Water Lover’s” campaign, along with other social media campaigns, have the potential to deliver concrete solutions. After all, this is, as Lawn Dude eloquently put it, #NotYoMommasDrought.