When we think about effective communication, timing is everything. After all, there’s no point in having a well-crafted message delivered by the most appropriate messenger if you show up at an irrelevant time.  

When thinking about moments that matter, it’s common for communications to concentrate on major life events – think buying a house, moving or having a baby. For some industries, these milestone moments are critical because these life events are disrupting habits – they cause people to reconsider long-held behaviours.  

Life milestone moments, however, happen infrequently across a lifespan – our recent research has shown just how infrequent these events are for most people – and, when they do happen, audiences are typically bombarded by information, communications and advertising. With so many organisations trying to own this space, it’s easy for messages to get lost amongst the busyness and overwhelm associated with major life changes.

Shifting from a macro to a micro focus

So, what if organisations looked to the less crowded moments that matter?  

We conducted a study to identify the opportunities not just across major life events, but in everyday events too. The smaller, more frequent occasions and milestones. By focusing on the micro-events, there’s a greater opportunity to build stronger associations or prompt a desired behaviour change. This can be achieved through the practice of habit stacking.  

In the field of behavioural science, ‘habit stacking’ or ‘piggy-backing’ is the practice of establishing a new behaviour, a healthy habit, by attaching it to an existing one. Think of it as a nudge. Take, for example, those who are trying to read more. To piggy-back or habit stack, somebody could pair the act of reading with their nighttime routine, such as by reading once in bed. In doing so, they are creating a prompt for their new desired behaviour. Without this kind of prompt, it’s easier not to follow through with an intention – something that’s called the intention-action gap, the gap between what we want to achieve and what we want to do.

So, what are the existing habits or behaviours that we can tap in to? The moments that happen time and time again. To find out, we asked New Zealanders ‘Which life events did you experience in the last year?’.

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The data shows us that the major life events – as disruptive as they are – are not happening for the majority of people.  

Moving to a new city, buying a house, having a child, retiring, having children leave home – these happen for less than 10% of people. We know that these are major moments that matter for people and it’s when their routines and behaviours change significantly. However, if your organisation has a broad-reaching audience, it’s a small cart to pin your horse to.  

There are more frequent micro-moments that occur for a much larger percentage of people. Take, for instance, health-related behaviors. Things like getting a good night’s sleep, eating healthy, going to the gym – more than half of people are taking those actions.  

Organisations can also help people reach their personal goals – getting tasks done, making steps towards a personal goal or working on a hobby. Over a third of people are doing these behaviours.  

Ultimately, micro-moments are valuable because of their frequency. This creates more frequent opportunities for organisations and brands to show up, unlike busy, high-pressure and infrequent major life events.  

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