Spreading The Inspiration

This year's billboard to greet the New Year.

It's an advertising campaign like no other, for it doesn't advertise a product that people can buy. It's people powered and it brings messages to the public through various communication media that lead to community conversations.

INSPIRATION CAMPAIGN (IC) started in 2012, the inspiration of California artist Robert Bengtson. With that start came 25 billboards and nine bus signs with inspirational slogans and pictures designed to provoke thinking and conversation, unlike those billboards that plague our inner cities, pushing liquor and cigarettes, posted in spots designed to capture youthful eyes.



According to Mr. Benson, "IC invites individuals to come together and collectively transform media into a source of inspiration. IC is a way for us to decide what kind of media WE want to see in our world. Which is why IC is people-powered: people submit messages, people vote on the content to turn into media, and people chip-in to buy the ad spaces. We need examples that show the power individuals have when we come together, and IC is here to rally us around a shared vision to create a new kind of media as an example of what else is possible."

Billboards start out with a message, submitted by a person. Then, several inspiring messages are posted on a vote page, where people can select one message that they most want to see on a billboard. Than a professional photographer takes several shots and one is chosen to be combined with the message.

Positive messages left by visitors at IC booth at Bioneers Conference 2015.

The IC has added inspiration cards for a more personalized experience of message sharing. No, you don't pay for them. You request them, and they are provided for free. That's right, free. You can hand them out to anyone you encounter, sort of a mood booster, a positive and inspiring message on the fly and personal. You can also copy photos of the billboard locations since the beginning and share them in your blog and on your facebook page. There are even more possibilities with sharing the inspiration on their FACEBOOK PAGE.

So, if you're in the mood to spread some inspiration, check out IC. You'll be inspired to spread the positivity.

Pick out your very own positive message card at Bioneers Conference.

Thanks for information - and inspiration - from this article on Pollination Project: http://thepollinationproject.org/grants-awarded/robert-bengtson-inspiration-campaign/; and the above links.

Click here to visit Vendera Publishing.

Click here: THE ULTIMATE SOCIAL MEDIA PLANNER