Know-How Exchange : Advertising/PR

One of the best ways to do something like this is by looking a god examples of how other countries have handled the same issues.

Here's how we did it here in Australia:

Security Features

Help for the Vision Impaired

Long list of releases and web pages about Australian currency notes.

I hope that helps.

ChrisB

Thanks Guys,

With regards to the look of the notes ... Security prevents me from showing them to you ... I am allowed to have a look at them, but not allowed to reproduce a picture or any details at this point in time.

The same goes for the security features, I have been told that they are no different than normal ones, used anywhere else. I know that this is less than helpful to you ... and will try to get you more info as soon as I can.

I am also mindful of your time, and you don't want to waste it, thinking about something when you only have half the picture.

I guess I was hoping we could talk about some sort of generic "themes" and ideas we could use, at the best.

With regards to pop. we are looking at approx half a million, with 70% being target age (over the age of 16) ... and a culture that is very aware of special needs (vision impaired). The pop is bilingual with the English language playing a major part in all business.

I do appreciate your comments ...

Jeoff.

Hello Jeoff,

If you can provide me with the name of the country in question, something about the banknotes and other information relevant the the issuer, my office which studies and documents new banknote issues as a service would be able to cover all of the necessary requisites for your campaign. Contact our office through this service.

M Alexander

I had a further thought, if the main difference is security what do you think of going with the theme "There is a new star in town?" - and using a caricature of a soccer goalie (a safe pair of hands and feet).

Jeoff

While it would be nice to go fun and light with caractures, this is serious eduational issues. You need to hit 75 percent of folks 'getting the message'. Anytime you go with fun and frivolvity, at least half the folks won't get your sense of humor, and another large portion of your pool won't share your sense of fun.

I think you should stick with the facts. I understand the need you have that you must get the public INVOLVED in the process. Here's how it happened in Canada when we changed from a paper one dollar bill to a one dollar coin.

Here in Canada, when the new 'one dollar' coin was introduced, the press jumped on the idea of coming up with a 'catchy slang name' for the new coin. A dime is a dime, and quarter is a quater, but what will we call the new one dollar coin? Word spread, and the term 'Looney' evolved because the coin has a image of a bird called a Loon on the front. 99.5 percent of Canadians now know what a 'loonie' is. When the new two dollar coin came out, the term 'Twoonie' spread like wildfire (even though the coin has two or three polar bears on it).

While public education can be dry, you need to convey the very real points of what security features are included in the new currency. State the facts. Images, posters, leaflets, direct mail, radio, television, you'd better use all media to get the word out. The Royal Canadian Mint has been very effective in using the media to communicate with Canadians. While not only do they use all media, I think they have also tied in with an unregisterable media called word of mouth or social media, meaning they get folks talking about change without really asking them to.

The same happened with the 'inset' of red poppies to celebrate Veterans, and again when the US government issued a warning to US citizens and gov't workers that Canadian Coins could be tools for espianage (for real, I'm not making this up). All this publicity has only fueled the word of mouth campaigns.

I wish I could conveyhow the Mint got this started, but I don;t think a lot of it was by intelligent design, I think it just happened on it's own. Google the topics 'Canadian Mint Looney' and 'Canadian mint one dollar coin introduction' and 'canadian mint coin spying' and see for yourself how Canada has done it.

Darcy Moen
Customer Loyalty Network (.com)
and Happy Canada Day!

Have you asked the designers to brief you about the security and vision-impaired features they have built into the design of the new banknotes?

That might be a good start point for your documentation...

Thanks for your help guys ... I guess this one was a little tricky in the sense that I couldn't actually give you much info, openly.

Appreciate your thoughts though, Jeoff.