I’ve found a brilliant example of nudge marketing – and a Planner (much less a Behavioural Insights team) hasn’t been near it.
The Gambia Horse and Donkey Trust‘s mission is to help keep working horses and donkeys in the area healthy – and a healthy working animal can increase its owners income by up to 500%, so healthy donkeys mean healthier people too.
Young boys are traditionally the main carers of horses/donkeys for the family in Gambia, but without the knowledge of how to keep their animals healthy they can inadvertently cause pain and suffering. So GHDT started teaching in schools and subsequently launched Donkey Football.
photo from GHDT’s website
Boys attend Donkey Ball Club twice a week, which as well as training them for Donkey Ball matches encourages them to build a relationship with their donkeys and take pride in their health and wellbeing, with lots of donkey care advice thrown in – after all you can’t play football if your ‘equipment’ is damaged. Prizes for winning games all focus around donkey health and safety with headcollars and hi-viz vests given out (loads of donkeys are injured in road accidents in Gambia each year).
GHDT also target older horse and donkey owners with their annual show (complete with Donkey Ball tournament) with classes based around rewarding good condition and turnout of horses and donkeys – and free health checks for all animals on the day. It’s apparently become quite a big event, with some owners setting off by foot several days beforehand in order to travel and then rest their animals before the big day.
photo from GHDT’s website
GHDT are on the hunt for more hi-viz/reflective vests and tabards at the moment, so if you know of any looking for a good home (perhaps left over from a campaign or event?, logos etc. on them are fine), please get in touch with them via here and they’ll happily take them off your hands.
How strange – I read your blog regularly (planner in London) and my mum helps run GHDT. In fact – the photo above is one of mine.
How brilliant!
Hi Ant! That’s brilliant! I did tweet GHDT to let them know I’d posted about them and double check it was OK to use the pics. I first read about them in a horsey mag and have sent them a few snaffles and a small donation over the last couple of years, they do great work.