Global Experience


Brussels

BOZAR - Centre for Fine Arts BOZAR, the leading music and visual arts presenter in Brussels, asked for my help in evaluating a pilot arts-focused, youth engagement program called Next Generation, Please! which explored the topics of European identity, borders and migration. I interviewed and surveyed participating students in three languages to understand what they took away from the program and spoke with the Belgian artists, teachers, politicians and philosophers who coached the students to see how processes could be improved. Based on my recommendations, BOZAR is planning the next iteration of the program.

Cambridge

The Arcus Foundation Keen to learn how it might most impactfully incorporate behavior and culture change communications strategies into its work, the Foundation commissioned me to research and report on the topic. Driving Behavior Change Through Communications: Campaign Insights, Successes and Lessons Learned is an open resource for grantees and the wider conservation and social justice movements, and showcases the issues faced by those in both sectors. It includes an overview of behavior change theories, a compilation of successful behavior change campaigns, lessons learned, and tools for planning new initiatives. Following the initial draft report, I led day-long workshops with staff, grantees and other experts to gain input from the field, which has also been incorporated into the report. And I was thrilled to present the report at the 2016 European Social Marketing Conference in Helsinki.

Jamaica

Ad Council Jamaica

The Ad Council is a uniquely American institution that thrives on a model of volunteerism and pro-bono support. A few countries have developed similar organizations but none so small as Jamaica, which unsuccessfully launched a similar organization in 2009. I’ve worked with a new Board of Directors to rethink the current organizational model. Through a series of stakeholder interviews, benchmarking best practices from around the world and board advising, I’ve helped Ad Council Jamaica develop a strategy to become a viable, sustainable organization.


Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Ukraine, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan

Social marketing and communications consultant The former Soviet countries continue to be in a state of flux. With the growth of privatization and entrepreneurism, there is also an interest in issues like volunteerism and market-based behavior change campaigns. Recruited by USAID-funded agencies, I developed a two-day program for a George Mason University-certified training on social marketing and communications. As part of the training, the local government, NGO and private sector participants created hands-on campaign planning projects addressing their countries’ most critical social issues.

Moscow

Laboratory for Social Advertising In an effort to share knowledge and learning, I maintain a working network of practitioners of social issue advertising around the globe. In 2009, I was invited to deliver a keynote address at the first ever Russian Conference on Social Advertising entitled “New Ways of Thinking in Social Marketing and Advertising” to over a hundred organizations dedicated to improving the quality and impact of social marketing and communications campaigns in Russia. For their fifth anniversary conference I was invited back to give a speech entitled “Building a Collective Consciousness about Sustainability.”

Toyooka, Japan

Mombusho English Fellow While the Japanese are talented at learning complex written English, their conversation capabilities tend to be limited. I developed curricula, supervised English Language clubs, assisted classroom teachers and taught basic conversation skills to junior and senior high school students.

Chishinau, Moldova

Hepatitis Prevention Campaign Moldova, the poorest country in Europe, faces a horrific epidemic of hepatitis spurred by a migrant male population engaging in unsafe sex and intravenous drug use as well as a public unaware of health risks and means of transmission. Recruited by one of the public health participants from my social marketing trainings the previous year, I served as an on-site consultant to a USAID contractor working with the local health ministry. I analyzed consumer Knowledge, Attitude, Practice (KAP) survey data and interviewed local health officials to create an advertising strategy and communications plan to help reduce transmission of hepatitis B and C strains. I also briefed ad agencies that were participating in the RFP process on the campaign strategy.

Tokyo, Japan

Toppan Printing Company Toppan, the second-largest commercial printer in Japan, created the 500-person Toppan Idea Center for corporate clients who wanted everything from creative concept through to finished printed materials. As their base of clients needing English-language reports and brochures increased in the mid-‘80’s, I was hired to coordinate translations, edit copy and manage production. I developed a broad range of corporate communications and sales promotion materials for blue chip clients like Japan Air Lines, Nissan Motors, Mitsui and others.

Rome, Italy

Club of Venice As part of my efforts to help the Ad Council become more widely known in international circles, I secured an invitation from the Club of Venice, an unofficial association of EU government communications officers that meets semi-annually, and was the first-ever American invited guest to address this group. I presented and explained the effectiveness of the Ad Council model to communications officials from “old” and “new” Europe.

Geneva, Switzerland

World Economic Forum (WEF) The idea behind the new website Creative For Good is simple – to help social campaigners around the world with inspiration and best practices for creating more and better campaigns. Working with a leadership team from WEF, The Ad Council and Ketchum, I help set overall site planning and policy, assembled a global advisory committee to review case submissions, and successfully launched the program at the 2013 Cannes International Festival of Creativity. Moving forward, I am helping the planning and development process to build out site capabilities into a more engaging online platform.

© George Perlov 2019. All rights reserved.