Framing, language and complexity - lessons from a year with GM Moving

By Andrew Lawton, GM Moving | 12 October 2023 | TAGS: Marketing, Andrew Lawton

It’s been an extremely busy 12 months at Greater Manchester Moving as Strategic Lead for Marketing and Communications.

As an organisation, GM Moving prides itself on providing the time and space to stop, reflect, and share learning as much as possible. It’s not always easy but can be invaluable.  

So, before moving into a new role with GM Moving (still marketing and comms but with a health inequalities focus), I’ve looked back at my biggest lessons from my year-long secondment.  

I’ve summarised them below in the hope they’re useful for others: 

Factors are numerous and complex 

There’s no one solution, campaign, or message to get people moving more. It’s lazy to blame poor choices or lack of knowledge/education and, unfortunately, inspirational stories of ‘people like me’ don’t cut it on their own. 

We should not under-estimate the number of complex and competing factors which influence how a person behaves and, in turn, whether they are physically active or not.  

It’s not just down to willpower or choice. 

Guidance from framing expert Nicky Hawkins has been invaluable here, stories can demonstrate the multiple factors (such as an encouraging friend or GP) that impact on a person being active more.  

Instant rewards  

It’s widely acknowledged that people know that physical activity is good for them, but that’s not enough, and any health benefits are too often, seen as too far in the distance (present bias). 

Yes, moving more may stop a person getting a long-term health condition/disease in 10, 15 or even 30 years’ time but if you watch Netflix (for example), you’ll likely get instant satisfaction. 

So, no matter how much or how little exercise you do, it’s vital we communicate that moving makes you feel better afterwards. There’s an immediate feel-good factor. It is a powerful motivator.  

Adapt to your audience 

It’s common practice for communicators to adapt to their audience but I’ve gained a much greater appreciation of how to adopt messages within movement, physical activity and sport.  

For example, you may highlight the feelgood factor to motivate the public, but the Sport and Recreation Alliance are lobbying government with figures on spending, costs, productivity and GDP.  

Framing Matters  

At a recent GM Moving event, it was ‘health and wellbeing’ which was the preferred term to get colleagues from health, local government, voluntary sector etc. into the room together.  

Despite their work, the Active Partnership involved didn’t start by talking about physical activity – and I’m fairly sure there was no mention of sport (which unfortunately still has a detracting effect). 

The use of health and wellbeing is a great example of widening the lens so that our efforts align better with those we’re working or partnering with – there’s a shared ambition and a common goal.  

And in the same way some public health messaging has moved towards “Some exercise is better than none” rather than the full CMO guidelines, small steps are also important.  

If a problem is communicated as being too big, too complex that there’s nothing anyone can do about it, it’ll feel like there’s little point trying. Small, attainable successes therefore are important.  

Language is key  

Language is constantly developing and changing. It is adaptable, not fixed. It’s not either/or. It’s nuanced and, used intentionally, it can widen the lens, engage a more diverse range of stakeholders, and grow the movement in all sectors and parts of the system.  

Above, I outlined when health and wellbeing was a preferred term to sport, but other audiences will want to hear about movement, physical activity, and sport.  

That trio of terms has itself developed from just sport and physical activity – notice the order too, sport has shifted from the first thing to the last to reflect our developing priorities.  

We should ensure our language appeals to all the people we want to engage and adapt to our audience as I mentioned earlier. This makes it easier for colleagues to see how an event, for example, applies to them and their work, and is worthy of their precious time.  

These lessons will all be vital to my new role, so it’s something I’ll be spending a lot of time thinking about and working on. Lots to keep me busy as Strategic Lead for Marketing and Communications (Health). Let’s keep talking, I’d welcome your learnings.