How Garage Sale Trails help co-production of positive environmental and social behaviours in local communities

Learning Points

On reflection, three key learning points were identified in the evaluation of the UK pilot that will help guide the planning of future Garage Sale Trail events.

1. Supporting new behaviours

Perhaps the most pertinent insight identified in the pilot was that there are distinct differences in existing cultural behaviours between Australia and the UK that impact upon public engagement with Garage Sale Trail. In Australia, garage sales are a long-standing cultural norm. Holding your own or visiting other garage sales on a weekend is a common and well established activity, similar to the way the people in the UK may buy or sell at a car boot sale. Although the buying and selling of second hand items is not a new phenomenon in the UK and most of the British residents that Garage Sale Trail UK engaged with understood the concept of the garage sale, and thought it to be a good idea, the UK pilot revealed that the context of buying and selling at a garage sale from one's own household is relatively unusual. Thus, there is still some way to go to before garage sales are firmly established as a normalised behaviour in the UK. This issue was somewhat anticipated and therefore marketing materials were developed to support participants and introduce them to the concept of garage sales. Nevertheless, the learning points that follow will help to further establish Garage Sale Trails in the UK in future years.

2. Start marketing & PR campaign early

The marketing campaign for Garage Sale Trail UK started 8 weeks before the event and coincided with the British summer holiday period. The time of year combined with the short lead-up time meant that many individuals, community groups, businesses and organisations such as schools were more difficult to reach and engage with. On reflection, a longer campaign would benefit future events to give people more time to hear about and understand what the event is about, particularly given the current need to familiarise people with the idea of selling and buying at garage sales, as outlined in the first learning point. In addition, alternative dates that do not coincide with the end of the summer holiday will be considered to maximise the reach of the campaign. 

The establishment of media partnerships with the relevant local media is essential. These relationships need to be established well before the start of the campaign period. Equally important is a strong working relationship with the communications department of the various local authorities. They have a key role to play in raising public awareness in the activation areas.  Also where possible, local authorities should capitalise on existing relationships with local media and rather than managed centrally. Doing so helps to ensure that marketing is locally relevant and appropriately targeted. The third learning point further highlights the importance of this.

3. Clear, consistent messaging in communications 

It emerged that some members of the public were confused as to who can participate in the event and why they should participate. For example, in Hackney, where there was a high uptake of community groups (71 in total), but low household engagement (4 in total). Some members of the public were of the understanding that Garage Sale Trail was an event specifically for community groups. Communications for future events need to ensure that Garage Sale Trail engages with and attracts as many sellers and buyers as possible.  It is also important that future campaign communications have a clearly defined call to action that has a strong resonance with local people.  In particular, it will be important to engage local community leaders to use the word of mouth to reach communities who do not necessarily look at websites or read flyers.

Dr.  Jessica Steele and Andrew Dick wrote this case study in November 2015.