Stores across the area are hosting a Hurricane Preparedness and Awareness event throughout the weekend.

There will be tables set up in all stores providing shelter information, preparation checklists, pet needs, as well as special needs and senior citizen registration forms.

These types of events with information distribution and registration set up near preparedness supply displays are a net positive as they do bring attention to the subject, the creation/replenishment of some shoppers’ emergency kits and occasionally fundraising for the non-profits. However, they end up being far short of what is necessary. That’s too bad since there is such great potential for what could be accomplished if the government, non-profit preparedness groups and businesses in the field really focused in a creative, sustained way on what they could do together to address the shortcomings in citizen disaster readiness.

The key is to restructure these kinds of events to give the public far more real, tangible and significant incentives (primarily financial but also logistical, educational and even entertainment) to prepare, which is something that business working with government and non-profits could do as part of an integrated, ongoing marketing campaign. The fact is that when we really want to change social behavior as a nation we do it through the carrot or the stick. The carrot is the preferable tool for this issue, but it needs to be used. And, thus far, incentives and vegetables have largely been missing from the preparedness effort, which helps explain the lack of progress.

There is a need to design and implement new citizen preparedness campaigns using strategic marketing partnerships between government and business with the goal of significantly increasing public readiness and societal resilience.

My proposal in a nutshell is that marketing campaigns and events be created at a national, state and local level to with government and non-profits working with companies in preparedness-related products businesses to offer major discounts tied to citizens taking actual readiness steps recommended by Ready.Gov and local emergency management offices.

It is a subject that I have thought a lot about, largely because I think that getting private sector far more involved in emergency citizen preparedness is a (maybe ‘the’) key to improving citizen readiness. I have also spoken extensively with government, non-profit and corporate officials about how they might work together on advance preparedness in a way that serves their (and the public’s) interest. My strong feeling is that to do so would not take much more than more attention and focus and would result in a win-win-win-win for those stakeholders and the citizenry.

At last week’s Red Cross Emergency Social Data Summit, FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate underscored the role of the private sector in disasters. “We have to figure out how leverage government and private sector resources to change outcomes.”

He said private sector involvement should be seen as a “bottom line” issue rather than just a feel-good pr move. That’s clear after a disaster as companies try to re-open quickly to serve customers in the community. And, that business-case approach should be similarly applied when it comes to advance preparedness. The fact is that the more prepared the public is, the better it is for the private sector. Business is key because as Fugate told me last year, “the bully pulpit is not enough”.

Government officials realize they need significant private sector involvement to market preparedness to the public, but have been unable to pull such an integrated program together as marketing is not government’s expertise. However, public preparedness needs to be developed and marketed as a consumer brand. Particularly since Hurricane Katrina, the corporate sector has become far more involved in disaster policy, but it has focused mostly (and often very successfully) on post-event recovery and response. Yet, there has been little attention given to have the private sector help create pre-event initiatives and messaging that would prepare citizens and institutions for emergencies in advance.

Government citizen preparedness campaigns over the past few years have raised awareness but not significantly enough to change societal behavior. This has been due to a lack of reach, frequency and sustainability of the communication, and the public’s inability or unwillingness to follow the actions recommended. No matter how good and robust the message, behavior will not change unless actions being recommended are made more turn-key, familiar and affordable. Government officials ask the public to buy supplies, make plans and educate themselves without offering them enough assistance to accomplish these not insubstantial tasks (and are asked to do so with even less incentives than other public sector campaigns provide).

Yet, the current conditions would appear to be auspicious for such an new corporate/government partnership to take on preparedness: the public is interested in becoming more prepared; major corporations are committed to the disaster issue and can offer products, resources and capacity. For them, preparedness provides excellent opportunity to ‘do good and do well’ increasing store traffic and selling products while improving community resilience; and non profit preparedness groups, most prominently the American Red Cross, have the experience and credibility to facilitate this partnership. And, as mentioned above, a priority of FEMA Administrator Fugate is to get the private sector involved in a way to “change outcomes”. Yet focus, coordination and leadership are still necessary “to connect the dots” for each stakeholder.

The range of disaster preparedness products from manufacturing companies that can be involved are endless: Bottled Water, Flashlights; Wireless Phones, Radios; Energy Bars; Canned Food; First Aid Kits. On the retail side, it can involve any store that sells these products, particularly ‘big box’ outlets and supermarkets. The campaign would also involve corporate trade groups, such as the Wireless Foundation and the Business Roundtable, which have been very involved in getting their members involved in disaster issues.

An example of the type of preparedness event I’m thinking about would include “In-Store Workshops” but with significant discounts and giveaways tied to information and actual completion of readiness steps:

* Big-Box/Grocery Stores Supply Kit Creation-Replenishment – This would be similar to the current preparedness in-store events. However, they would be far more involved and would offer consumers more benefits and assistance for coming in. There would be a specific area where employees along with local Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) and Red Cross volunteers would be answering readiness questions.

Advertisements in advance would invite individuals and families come in with emergency communications plans (or fill them out in the store) and in return they would receive a significant discount on supplies or free products (ie. if you purchase a case of bottled water, you would get your emergency supply thrown in). And if a customer signed up to volunteer to CERT or Red Cross Disaster Services volunteer, they would get a bigger discount.

In addition, customers would be provided branded bags so adults — and kids — can make/replenish their own ‘go-bag’ (if they didn’t want to buy a pre-made kit). Again, the stores would discount the supplies significantly and CERT, Red Cross and government  officials would be there to answer questions.

* Mobile Phone Retail Outlets – The mobile communications companies are eager to show their value of their products  to customers in emergencies so their retail stores would be excellent settings for preparedness events/trainings. Among the activities that could be set up: helping people register for government emergency text/e-mail alerts. I’d also like to see a event/photo-op with kids teaching their parents about texting and its role in an emergency. Here again, the companies would offer customers extra free text/phone minutes for completing the preparedness steps (I’d also like to see discounts on extra batteries though the companies do make excellent margins on the extras.)

I also think this setting would be a good place for people to learn about how the role of social media sites like Facebook and Twitter to help people in a crisis. can be very usewith be a place for families and friend also  and families and friends setting up social media sites, such as Twitter and Facebook, to teach how they can be used before and during emergencies.

Government could also increase the effectiveness of such an initiative by creating tax-free preparedness product periods as Virginia and Louisiana have (and we’re trying to do here in New York), which add more financial incentives, increase store buy-in and garner more media attention for preparedness.

The key is to pull all of these stakeholders together — connecting the information with accessible, useful and affordable products along with expert and peer-to-peer guidance –in a sustained, integrated way. I will be continuing to work on these partnership ideas and would be interested in any thoughts from readers.

“H1N1 RAP BY DR. CLARKE” (ABOVE), THE WINNING VIDEO IN THE HHS FLU PREVENTION PSA VIDEO CONTEST

The “H1N1 Rap” was chosen from more than 200 entries. Out of these initial entries, a panel determined the top 10 entries which were posted on the HHS YouTube Channel and put to a public vote. Dr. Clarke will receive $2500 in cash and his PSA will be featured on national television.

The announcement was made at a flu prevention ‘town hall’ for college students at George Mason University (a video of the event, including Dr.Clarke’s ‘acceptance speech’ can be found here). In his remarks, Clarke, who is the medical director of the Long Island Railroad, thanked “the voters, blogs and Twitter” as well as his wife who suggested he do the video. I believe Clarke — who Sebelius called the “hip-hop doctor” — could be the breakout star of the Fall.

I think it was a terrific idea for HHS to solicit, unleash and highlight the creativity from Americans of a variety of ages, backgrounds, and points of view for this contest. It was fun, citizen-driven/focused, and most importantly I believe will be effective in raising flu preparedness among the public.

“Preparedness is a shared responsibility that begins with the American people,” said Secretary Napolitano. “These public service advertisements highlight the simple steps everyone can take to prepare for disasters, enhancing the safety and security of our country.”

The theme of the PSAs is “World Upside Down” underscoring that a disaster can turn one’s life upside down. The PSA urges audiences to get a kit, make a plan and be informed. Below is one of the spots from the Ad Council’s YouTube site:

A READY.GOV/AD COUNCIL “WORLD UPSIDE DOWN” PSA

Produced pro bono by advertising agency Cramer-Krasselt in conjunction with the Ad Council, the new Ready PSAs-produced for television, radio, print, outdoor and the Web-direct audiences to visit www.ready.gov to find national and local preparedness information and resources. The Ready Campaign encourages Americans to take three simple steps to prepare for emergencies: (1) Put together an emergency supply kit; (2) Make a family emergency plan; and (3) Get informed about the types of emergencies that could take place in their communities and appropriate responses.

In addition to the national Ready PSAs launched today, New York City’s new public service campaign-Ready New York-was also announced to encourage all New Yorkers to prepare for emergencies. The national Ready ads have also been localized for a number of other cities, including Austin, Texas, Atlanta, Chicago, Eugene, Ore., Houston, Kansas City, Mo., Los Angeles, and San Francisco-as well as the states of Utah and Virginia and the U.S. Navy and U.S. Virgin Islands.

Initiated in 2003, the Ready Campaign is a national public service advertising campaign designed to educate and empower Americans to prepare for and respond to all emergencies in order to raise the level of basic preparedness across the nation. In addition to outreach via traditional media, Ready also provides a series of social media tools to help Americans prepare for emergencies, including a downloadable family emergency plan, an interactive widget that provides users with updates on emergency situations, emergency kit checklists, and preparedness guidelines. To view the PSAs and for more information on the Ready Campaign, visit www.ready.gov or follow “ReadydotGov” on Twitter.

The Red Cross received special permission from New York Governor David Paterson to use their twist on the 32-year-old ”I ♥ NY” logo used in the campaign (see inset right).

According to the article:

The ads feature current members of the Red Cross Reserves, representing the gorgeous mosaic that is New York in their ages, races, ethnicities, accents and appearances… In video clips on the Web site, the volunteers discuss why they are donating their time to the New York Red Cross, offering reasons that range from Hurricane Katrina to wanting to help build a community of caring New Yorkers to giving back to the Red Cross for assistance previously received from the organization.

There are currently 6,200 members of the Reserves, the New York Red Cross says, who qualify to help in the event of large-scale mishaps, man-made or natural, by taking a six-hour training session. The goal of the campaign is to increase the ranks of the reserve force by more than half, to 10,000.

“All of us in New York agree we should be prepared for the possibility of catastrophic events in our future,” says Terry Bischoff, chief executive at the American Red Cross in Greater New York. “We’ve determined we need 10,000 New Yorkers trained as Red Cross volunteers before the next disaster strikes.”

Anyone interested in volunteering can go to the new website set up for the campaign: www.iredcross.org. And, by the way, March is Red Cross Month.

 

The text of the two spots are below:

1) Hurricane

[SFX: Kitchen noises like sink running, and cleaning dishes in background]

KID: Mommy, what kind of goodies did you pack us in case the hurricane comes?

MOM: What? A hurricane? Where did you hear that?

KID: Tommy from school said his mom packed them the best stuff.

MOM: For what?

KID: For their Emergency Supply Kit!

MOM: So, what’s in it?

KID: Juice boxes, graham crackers…food for their dog, Spot. And she put some toys and games in there in case they had to sit around for a long time. What goodies did you put in ours?

MOM: (hesitating) Um, we don’t have one. [MY BOLD]

ANNCR: Hurricane season is here. Is your family prepared? Readvirginia.gov-a websitewith helpful information-can show you how to make an emergency supply kit foryour family, and what necessary items-and goodies-to include.

KID: Tommy said he’s going to his Aunt Mary’s house if the hurricane comes. Where are we going mommy?

MOM: Uh…how ‘bout we get daddy and figure that all out right now? You can help too. [MY BOLD]

KID: Ok!

ANNCR: Three simple steps is all it takes to protect your family. Readyvirginia.gov will show you how to make an emergency supply kit, how to make a family plan, and how to stay informed.

2) Flash Flood

SFX: [Flash flood, heavy rain, water rushing, getting louder and faster]

SFX: [Kid yells, "Mommy!"]ANNCR: Right now the Leonard family is caught in a flash flood.

SFX: [Mom yells out, "Ben?!?"]

ANNCR: A million things are running through Mrs. Leonard’s mind right now-like how is she going to get a hold of her daughter Katie at school, what’s going to happen to her house, is there time to grab enough clothes, food & water for her family, and where are they going to sleep tonight? [MY BOLD]

The truth is most people are like the Leonard family. Research shows the majority of Virginians are not prepared for a major weather event or emergency, and haven’t taken the time to make a supply kit or family plan.

SFX: [Mom yells, "Ben, where are you?" - Sounds abruptly stop]

The power to protect your family is in your hands. Just go to readyvirginia.gov. This website will show you how to create an emergency supply kit, how to make an emergency family plan with a specific meeting place & important phone numbers, and how to stay informed if an emergency occurs.

SFX: [Rain and water sounds come back]

ANNCR: There’s no time to pause when a flash flood hits. Get prepared today with readyvirginia.gov.