Nutrition for kids is a huge issue. Neither parents nor children seem to be able to make good food choices, yet the health risks later in life suggest that early intervention is a big plus. Breakfast for Learning (BFL) leverages this Nutrition Calendar window and its corporate sponsors (Big Food Cos.) to launch a nutrition education program to its breakfast clubs across Canada. Typically, the focus has been nutrition, communicated to an 8 – 12 yr old using creative styles and rewards to appeal to kids. So, when Hydrogen was asked to come up with a game program that could influence real change in children’s food choices what was our focus? Not nutrition.
Subscribers to this blog will already know that Touch Marketing is Hydrogen’s technique for taking client marketing objectives, aligning them to a customer-centric values in order to form a relationship with the marketing asset. So my first recognition was that Nutrition is kid-boring. The second and more important was that the rewards for good nutrition are so intangible to a child that taste and preference will always overrule good advice and the eating experience. In other words, even if you offered to pay a child to eat nutritiously, it wouldn’t last, even if you kept upping the ante.
Better food choices have to be the choice of the child. How to effect this? Step 1: voluntary education, Step 2: voluntary experience. Q: What educational forum would a child voluntarily undertake to learn about good nutrition? A: A fun game that has almost nothing to do with nutrition.
Staying Alive
The game I created is about a team of child mountaineers that crash-land their plane in the Andes and have to trek their way out. It is a board game that on each square has a challenge that cost the player points: climb an ice-wall, escape an avalanche etc. At each corner is a nutrition break. At the centre is a deck of cards with meal choices of varying scores, determined by the nutritional value: soda = 0, whole grain cereal = 2. As you circuit the board you hope the values you pick up as you pass the nutrition corners will get you through the trials ahead. What you eat keeps you alive and, the more nutritious, the better your chances. Played as a team, the one with the most points wins.
Education
The BFL Nutritional Education Committee were very supportive to work within the game and adapt their knowledge to the points-based system. The beauty of the concept is that the game is not about nutrition. Kids are drawn to risk. They challenge themselves as they grow and develop new skills. And they are fascinated by mortality. Staying Alive is a compelling game. The nutrition education curve is entirely subliminal. The goal is not only to survive, but to win. Kids love to compete.
Experience
How does this game lead to practical experience in making better for choices? A few ways:
- Play it Live. The game instructions provide a self-scoring system that can be used instead of the nutrition cards. See how you survive based on your real-life choices.
- An aid to parents. When children refuse to engage in good food choices try saying: “Well you wouldn’t last long in the mountains.” The competitive instinct to succeed becomes the primary issue in the child’s mind, transferring the success from the plate to the mountain. I have seen this work in practice and I am grateful for having invented the game just so that I can improve my own children’s choices.
- Role modeling. The game characters have a way of becoming real in the child’s mind. Emulating success is another motivation for better food choices.
Longevity
The game has an unlimited shelf life. It can be put aside, played repetitively, played in different ways (team, solo, aggressive, supportive according to various instruction). While it is not expected to make an immediate radical change, it is part of a program of communication that can inform, raise awareness and suggest practical improvements to an audience that is willful, stubborn, non-compliant and all the other issues we adults experience raising children
Results
March is just beginning. BFL does not have a large budget for pre-launch testing. Also bear in mind that the entire project timeline was 3 months from concept to production. Informal testing was a huge success for interest, learning and food choice influence. What is interesting about Touch Marketing is pre-testing is really to determine what the customer values are, not what the execution should be. The notion that kids would be interested in survival in a game scenario was not a huge leap of faith. Post-launch research is, of course, a many faceted issue and there are hundreds of ways to measure acceptance and response. Ultimately, BFL, the Nutritional Education Committee and myself understand that this is just the first step. This game should evolve over the coming years to become a timeless feature of Canadian children’s life-learning experience. It’s real impact will by the degree that other influencers, such as government and major corporate sponsors pick up this program and work with BFL to expand its reach.
If you would like a copy of this game I would be happy to send one to you. If you are contemplating using a similar technique in your marketing programs, I can suggest that the game formula works beyond nutrition and beyond kids. It is simply a matter of locating the values of your audience and building into the game the compelling ideas that draw them to your subject and to modify their behavior.
Click on the attachment below to view the game board.
Attachments:
