How to develop a habit

Habit forming occurs after 66 days.

That was the average time it took for volunteers in a study to begin doing automatically something they had adopted as a daily duty, such as eating fruit with their lunch or going for a run before dinner.

It means if you make a New Year’s resolution to exercise or eat healthily and do it daily until March 7, it is likely to stick. In the research, being reported in the European Journal of Social Psychology, the researchers set out to investigate how long it took for the repetition of behaviour to reach a stage of ‘automacity’, where it is performed whenever the situation is encountered without thinking, awareness or intention.

The volunteers who took part in the study were asked to choose a healthy eating, drinking or exercise behaviour that they would like to make into a habit. It had to be done in response to a particular cue, such as eating a piece of fruit with lunch, drinking a bottle of water with lunch, or running for 15 minutes before dinner. Participants were asked to try to carry out the behaviour every day.  Each day they also completed a test designed to measure features of habits which are central to automaticity, including lack of awareness and lack of control. Results showed that whilst the average time to form a habit was 66 days, more complex behaviours took longer, whilst an exercise habit took longer to form than a healthy eating or drinking habit.

So each member of our team is going to give it a try…..and see what happens!

Rochdale Observer review ‘Use it don’t lose it’ Social Marketing Campaign

FAMILY deaths, forgetfulness and celebrating a birthday are just some of the shocking excuses given by Rochdalians who fail to turn up for dental appointments and prompted Perfect Circle to work with NHS Heywood, Middleton and Rochdale PCT on its latest social marketing campaign.

In 2008, about 10 per cent of appointment slots at surgeries were left unused despite being booked by patients.  For further information on the campaign read the article featured in the Rochdale Observer

For more information please visit our case study page, where you can request a detailed case study to be e-mailed.

South Manchester Reporter & Asian News recognise college achievements

The South Manchester Reporter and Asian news attended Burnage Media Arts College to interview the team behind the college’s silver screen debut!

We briefed ninety students on the project and mentored them along the way. In groups, they developed conceptual storyboards and reviewed print, broadcast and online media vehicles to find the best method of communicating with their target audience.

The popularity and aspirational theme of the Harry Potter film prompted the students to opt for cinema advertising and after selecting a final storyline they held castings to find the adverts stars, including their very own Harry.  Read more about the film following the interview with the Asian News or see the film on YouTube.

Learn more about the making of Enjoy Media online

To communicate everything there is to know about the making of their spellbinding cinema advert that will appear alongside Harry Potter, Transformers and many more blockbusters this month, we created www.enjoymedia.co.uk .  This informative website is the primary call to action that appears on the 30 sec film trailer and offers visitors the opportunity to see the movie again, read the latest news from Burnage Media Arts College, download brochures, prospectus and much more.

Engineering a new look at the Technology School

Communicating visually the UK and Manchester’s manufacturing, engineering and social history formed the brief for the centre piece of Middleton Technology School 6th Forms new internal signage.  The chosen design was a timeline that featured key moments in time, when engineering, manufacturing or social movements made history. 

Perfect Circle cast students spellbinding cinematic debut

Perfect Circle has been working with Burnage Media Arts College to make its spellbinding cinema debut alongside the latest Harry Potter blockbuster.  The 30 sec epic was written, filmed, directed by and starred 14 and 15 year old students from Burnage Media Arts College. The dynamic half-minute commercial is being used to promote the College, the only boys media arts school in the northwest.

It will premiere this Friday just seconds before the opening credits of Harry Potter and The Half Blood Prince and will play throughout the film’s opening week. Burnage’s own Dumbledore, headteacher Ian Fenn, worked with Perfect Circle to help develop this project as part of the College’s commitment to real life learning and had no hesitation entrusting his precious marketing budget to his students.

Wind farm puts region top of the league

On the rolling West Pennine hills, a stone’s throw from Perfect Circle’s HQ is Scout Moor Wind Farm. With turbines spinning in perfect circles of their own, it is the largest onshore wind farm in the country and produces energy to power 40,000 homes. This is helping to put the North West at the forefront of the UKs shift to low carbon. The North West has 140 sites generating renewable electricity, more than any other English region, with Scout Moor Wind Farm alone preventing the release of 160,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide each year.

Energy Minister Lord Hunt said recently The plans we are setting out today include how we are going to reach our target for 15% renewable energy by 2020 and if these resources are harnessed the North West could continue to be the top region for renewable energy sites. The North West is also home to four of the potential sites for new nuclear power stations. Moving from high carbon fuels to low carbon green energy is an opportunity for us all.

His comments came as the Government published the UK Low Carbon Transition Plan setting out how the UK will become the first major economy to convert to low carbon living, and the first to reap the benefits. Regional Minister for the North West Phil Woolas said The North West of England was the world’s first industrial area - that revolution was based on carbon fuels. The new green technology revolution must also start here. It is a big challenge and one that all of us in the North West need to respond to - from making small changes to how we live to embracing the opportunities that it offers us.

We know where and how you live

Here at Perfect Circle we are big fans of Mosaic UK profiling which gives us a deep understanding of our customers target audiences: who, what, where, when, how and why. This can help us to target, acquire, manage and develop insights for social marketing campaigns.

Mosaic is based on analysis of the latest trends in UK society, a wealth of high quality, comprehensive data sources and a sophisticated proprietary approach to cluster analysis, supported by analysis of market research to validate the classification.

So we thought we would apply the profiling to a few guys in our team; Oliver is a type A06: High Technologist, he does love his gizmos; Simon is a part of the Happy Families group, he is type B13: Burdened Optimist, well who wouldn’t be after 3 kids? And Jennie (who was disappointed that we not talking about mosaic tiles) feels she is definitely a type E31: Caring Professional - well at least she tries!

So what MOSAIC type are you?