Relay For Life has been around for 26 years. It spreads across small towns and big city in this nation. Although each event is united under the main theme for Relay each year, each individual event has made it their own and customized it to ‘tip’ in their area. How did they do this? And how can we as a class make our Relay For Life Kick-off ‘tip’ in a significant way?
According to Malcolm Gladwell in his book The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference, in order to create an epidemic and make something push over the ‘tipping point’ it has to contain three main components. These components are the law of the few, the stickiness factor and the power of the content. Our challenge as a class is to take this information from Gladwell, apply to the Relay event, and create an epidemic out of it. Not such a small task, but it can be done.
The law of few discusses how certain people need are gifted with the ability to make things work and get others interested. Gladwell separates these privileged few into three categories Connectors, Mavens, and Salesmen.
Connectors are those who have the ability to link others together. These people know everybody and everybody knows them; their contact and Facebook friend lists are endless and the great part is they remember everyone of their contacts and have good reputations with them. In terms of Relay, Kendall Stiles, the director of The GIVE Center, is definitely a connector. Everyone knows her and if they don’t they have at one point heard about her. On the reverse she knows everybody and has a contact list a mile long with very valuable names on it. Considering that she made The GIVE Center tip to the point of epidemic portions in Milledgeville, I think she has what it takes along with all the other connects on the committee to help us connect to the right people and make our Relay event tip.
Gladwell defines the word Maven as a Yiddish term meaning ‘one that who accumulates knowledge.’ These people are not necessarily as sociable as Connectors, but they have the ability to retain valuable, useful and interesting knowledge. They are a walking encyclopedia, almanac and guide. If you want to know the best place in town to change your tires or what company to buy stocks from you would go to Maven. In terms of Relay these are the people who can help us with knowing where to get black and white blown-up pictures and how to strategically arrange the tables to get the best flow of traffic. They will be great assets in helping us work out all the little nit-picky things that make up our event.
The final chapter in the law of the few is the Salesperson. These people have the power of persuasion on their side. We have all seen these people in action and walked out of a store wondering why we felt the sudden urge to purchase a new toaster when we already have a working one at home or sign a 2-year contact to a timeshare in Alaska when you hate snow. A salesperson has the ability to sell the product to others. We need sales people for Relay in order to convince people to come and donate money this great cause. I would like to think that I fit into this category the best. Between being a double concentration in advertising and pr, selling ads for the Colonnade and being the oldest sibling I have mastered the art of the sales pitch. I am not afraid of talking and persuading people to do things as long as I have all the facts. At the Relay event I can use my persuasiveness to convince people to make a card for cancer patients. Looking at the bigger picture I look forward to helping out with getting people to donate money and raise awareness of different cancers.
The stickiness factor is what makes the message or content that you are trying to convey stick in people head. If the message does not stick then what is the point of getting it out there? In order to create this stickiness for Relay we have to look at who we are trying to get the message out to. What makes a message stick depends on who is getting the message and if it applies to them or not. Our objective for the Relay event is get team leaders and cancer survivors to attend the kick-off and get them excited about Relay For Life in the spring. We have chosen to appeal the message to by incorporating it all through-out the event. Every inch of the kick-off from the moment they receive invitations to the lighting of the birthday candles will be about Relay and will hopefully stick with them and get them excited about fundraising. Also how we present the message to them through slideshows, symbolism, and even in the decorations we hope to touch them in such a way that the message sticks with them. In return after the message sticks they can help us spread the epidemic by sticking the message to other through word of mouth.
Cancer is a very powerful word. In this century, it is very rare to find someone that does not know someone who has been affected by cancer. The power of this particular content appeals to people because they can relate to it on some level. The power behind Relay For Life is that people can relate to one another through the common factor of the same content. By establishing a relationship through the same content we hope to unite our audience and get them to understand the importance of Relay, why we do it and why they should get involved. Relay For Life is a powerful thing and when done right we can help make a big impact on the lives of cancer patients just by presenting the content to the right people and creating an epidemic.
Relay For Life has been successful in creating an epidemic in fundraising for cancer research because they have had the right people, strong content and a method that makes their message stick. I believe that my class has a good mixture of connectors, mavens and salespeople to make this event tip and spark the epidemic of Relay For Life in Baldwin Country. I look forward to making this event happen and seeing the difference our ‘little things’ made.
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