Tale,Two,Commemorations,You,pr marketing A Tale of Two Commemorations

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You probably don't know that February 3 is World Wetlands Day -- a dayof proclamations, press releases, ceremonies, festivals, newsletterarticles, and t-shirts all clamoring to raise awareness about the vitalrole of these vital habitats.World Wetlands Day is just one ofmany well-meaning efforts to create a commemorative occasion to callattention to some particular environmental topic. Here in the UnitedStates, World Wetlands Day shares the calendar with annual events suchEarth Hour, Earth Day, World Water Day, National EnvironmentalEducation Week, Endangered Species Week, International Migratory BirdDay, National Rivers Month, National Wildlife Refuge Week, NationalFishing Week, National Parks Month, and National Birdfeeding Month.Just to name a few. Sohere’s a key question: Do these commemorative occasions attract enoughattention to meaningfully raise awareness about all these variousworthy causes? At least in the case of World Wetlands Day, the answerseems to be “no.” These days, Google searches, Twitter“trending topics,” and other online activities provide some insightinto public interest in various issues. And World Wetlands Day seems to leave rather few electronic breadcrumbs. The number of U.S. citizens who search for “World Wetlands Day” is toolow to register at all. The number who conduct Google searchescontaining the term “wetlands” peaked in 2004 and has slowly butsteadily eroded ever since. This even though the volume of newscoverage of wetland topics has actually risen slightly over that sametime frame. So at least by this one measure, World WetlandsDay comes and goes each February without moving the needle on theambient level of public interest. And this is the pattern for almostall of the commemorative occasions I mentioned in the first paragraph.With one sharp exception: Earth Hour,the Johnny-come-lately of the eco-commemorative events. Earth Hour isabout global warming, and in its brief  history, the event has producedtwo sharp spikes in Google search activity -- two sharp spikes inpublic attention to global warming.Clearly, the organizers ofEarth Hour are doing something different from the people who bring usWorld Wetlands Day. And the difference between these two events boilsdown to two words, “awareness” and “action.” World Wetlands Day is aneffort to raise awareness. Earth Hour is a call to action.Symbolicaction, to be sure. World Wildlife Fund, which sponsors Earth Hour,wants you to pledge to turn off your lights for an hour to send signalto officials that you want action on global warming. Even massiveparticipation in Earth Hour would produce only the most negligible dentin global warming directly. But that’s actually beside the point. Thesavvy organizers of Earth Hour know that everybody who turns theirlights off for an hour will tell ten friends about their deed -- andthat is the real payoff for the effort. Marketing professionals andresearchers who study human behavior note that “word of mouth” almostalways begin with a personal experience or act. People talk aboutproducts they have tried, they talk about places they have been -- andthey talk about the conservation actions they have taken. They are farless likely to talk about things they simply read or see on TV. Theorganizers of Earth Hour could have picked from any number of energysaving actions to promote, but they have wisely chosen to focus theirefforts on one - a simple, symbolic act that everyone can do andeveryone can explain. And for good measure, the deed is visible tothose who pass by a darkened house. Doubtless, the organizers spentconsiderable time and effort wrestling the list of possible behaviorsdown to a single one, but they did -- and the trend data shows thereward.Can the wetland conservation community do the samething? Can we scrap World Wetlands Day as we know it today -- anincoherent spray of awareness-raising proclamations, edicts, pressreleases, events, fact sheets and other materials that share only theloosest thematic unity -- and instead select one single behavior topromote heavily?When the topic is wetlands, it is a challengeto come up with something that everyone can do, everyone can explain,and that others can see. But the organizers of Earth Hour faced thesame dilemma, too, in the beginning. So here, in no particularorder, are some thoughts. We could urge supporters to tie a greenribbon around a tree in their front yard. Or to stick a sign in theyard proudly proclaiming it is fertilizer and pesticide free. We couldask them to wear a sticker saying they had eaten organic and localtoday, or that they had made the call to Congress about finally gettingthat Clean Water Restoration Act moving. Inspired? Got abetter idea? Great -- visit my blog to share your thoughts. Stumped? Iunderstand. But until we get collectively un-stumped, we can expectthat downward dwindling trend wetlands interest to continue, and theuphill battle to protect this vital resource to get slowly get steeper.