Australia.

Birds swoop in springtime. It's natural. They instinctively protect their territory and their young. However, being swooped can be frightening or even dangerous. The government agency I work with wanted to educate people--including managers of parks and reserves, school officials, members of outdoor clubs such as cycling or bird-watching groups, and leaders of organizations whose employees are often outdoors such as Australia Post--about why birds swoop, communicate protection and avoidance techniques, and try to protect the birds themselves, which were sometimes the object of counterattacks! Given our small budget, we couldn't identify all of the potential problem locations or mass-produce and distribute resources. A carefully targeted communication program that alerted target audiences to the available resources was needed. We developed an informational kit on signage for locations where birds tend to swoop and an "eyes" sticker that can be placed on the back of a hat or bike helmet as a deterrent to swooping birds (birds swoop from behind and don't like to be looked at when swooping!). The swoop campaign will soon launch its fourth year.

Another small-budget marketing program involved public servants in Victoria, who are being encouraged to "think before they click" as part of an awareness campaign about the importance of data quality and data security from the Office of the Victorian Privacy Commissioner (Privacy Victoria). The campaign includes downloadable black-and-white A4 posters featuring simple but striking images. These were designed in-house at no cost for easy, inexpensive printing on any office printer. Two of the posters were printed as tear-offs in a recent issue of the Privacy Victoria newsletter, Privacy Aware. (To see the posters, go to www.privacy.vic.gov.au, select "Publications," then "General Information," then "Posters.")

Carolyn Munckton

Principal, CM Communication

Richmond, Australia