“ I don’t know what the key to success is, but the key to failure is trying to please everyone”, Bill Cosby.

All communication campaigns start with a rough idea. The boss wants a brochure for fund raising, you need to reach the community with a message, or the old materials are just not working. So, there you sit with a budget and a few rough outlines like “ make Billboards” or “ Program Brochure with poster”. 

 You will need to pass through a series of distinct stages in order to get those rough outlines into real materials. How you approach those stages and how you interact with the others who will progressively enter into their production, will define the success or mediocrity of your project. It will also define the tensions and difficulties you will encounter along the way. Since the final responsibility rests yours, and not the producers, means that your guidance is important.

 So, how do you start?  Homework, homework, and more homework. Before bringing in others clearly define what you want to accomplish, whom you want to target, how you expect to reach them, and what exactly is your message. Sound easy? Then you haven’t done your homework, because it is work - hard work- if you expect to get it right. Remember, if you cannot, or do not, clearly express what you want to do, then how can you expect others to do it for you?

 There are two approaches. How you choose is an important strategy decision. You can go it alone, many internally driven programs are run this way, or you can use the participatory approach, (see the chapter on “Power to the People”). I strongly suggest that you take a deep breath and use the participatory approach.

 The idea behind the participatory approach is to involve the community you work with as deeply a possible in the creation of your program. They understand their problems, and possible solutions, better than anyone else ever will. Using that knowledge insures that your program avoids potential conflicts, and achieves a higher degree of local ownership. That’s a fancy way of saying,” the easiest sell you will ever make is when you are selling people their own ideas.”

 Make a list of all the agencies, government departments, relevant people, and NGO’s who could help your program succeed. You may already have this in the assessment that your program is based on. You want a partnership that represents, as closely as possible your target audience, and their representatives. Word to the wise: Do not forget the villagers themselves.

 Start contacting the people on your list and see if you can put together a coalition of interested parties. That might require a lot of office visiting, and a lot of advocacy work. When you have a good cross section of support then call a meeting and put your problem on the table.

 Ask your partners for feedback and suggestions on how to proceed. Your objective is to get them to define the program in a manner that is meaningful to the community at large. You want them, using their experience, to formulate a viable program for you. Later you will encourage their help in designing and executing that program.

 Campaigns are a bit like planning the family holiday. You spend months doing your homework and making all the advance arraignments for a few weeks vacation. It is the preparatory phase that generates so much excitement within the family. Sometimes this proves to be even better than the actual holiday experience itself.

 The Strategy is your battle plan. It defines whom you want to talk to, what you want to say, and how you plan to deliver the message. A really good strategy can be summed up on a single A4 page and still leave room for a weekend shopping list. A great strategy would only need the top half of the page.

 Why? Because, that would indicate you have a real grasp of the problem and can explain it in a few short, sharp, lines. Getting there will take work on your part. Fortunately, a lot of the really hard thinking has already been done for you. Just follow the steps and your strategy will develop itself, like magic, right before your eyes.

 By now you should have a wealth of ideas and information from your local partners. You should have a good idea of who your target audience is. If you handled the participatory stages correctly then you might even have a fairly well defined campaign. What you need to do now is assess that information and condense it into a mission statement, what do you want to accomplish, who is your target audience, how do you intend to reach them.

 This is a working paper. It will change almost daily as the project develops. Keep it simple and concise. Once you have, what you feel is, a good approach circulate that one page document to your partners asking for comments and additional ideas. You may get a load of spelling corrections, but you may also get some very good ideas. In any case the objective is to have a document everyone more or less agrees on as viable and realistic. With that minor victory in hand you can proceed to the next stage in your program.

 Tip: Most people tend to procrastinate over those documents forever. So always make it clear that if they want their ideas or suggestions included in the campaign you must have their feed back by a certain date.

 Before you can do anything you need to define exactly what you want to do. So, take out a fresh piece of paper, or open a new document and write the word “OBJECTIVE” at the top.

 The objective is where you define what you want to accomplish - and no short cuts here like,” get people to change”,  “ Make Some Brochures” or “Create 3 beautiful Posters”. It means define as in “ make one A4, three fold brochure, full color, photograph of farmers on cover, cartoons explaining good actions inside, addresses and contacts on center back page, happy wives and children on fold in. The backgrounds should be bright, up beat colors. The text should read... Get the idea?

 Good, because everyone you work with should get a copy of that one page brief upon which they will scribble endless notes, shopping lists, and the occasional constructive comment. Once that is done return to the top of this paragraph and repeat all of the above until the majority of your partners are happy, or at least not mumbling about your sanity.

 When the majority have signed off on the re-re-re-re-vamped brief it becomes the bible for your future production team. There are other advantages to having a clear brief.  It outlines the skills you need to find in order to produce your campaign. For the above example you would need photographs, cartoons, and a graphic designer. Since it will be an A4 three fold, and assuming you know how many copies you want, you can now get accurate quotations for printing. And that’s before you even know what the message and text will be.

 Tip: Actually do get your partners to sign and date their copies then return one to you for the record. Trust me it’s a good idea that can save a lot of problems later.

 I usually start out by giving my strategy a name. Names always sound more efficient and impress the bosses: as well as making it easier to tell the wife what I’m up to these days. Often you will find that the thought process involved in finding an appropriate name for the strategy will help you focus on the actual objectives. Give it some zing, some punch. This is a great place to start looking for slogans or headlines. Names like “ Program for the environmentally friendly recycling of village level waste and bye products” may sound great on official reports, which maybe why no one ever reads them, but are just not on for marketing purposes. Explore the subject. Shorten it up. Make a list like

Why toss out cash

Trash to cash

Garbage to gold

Heroes of waste

Trees love trash

Clean up and cash in

 The trick here is free association. Let your mind wander from connection to connection. As you hit on possible ideas write them down. Then explore where that idea takes you. Don’t worry if some are silly, it’s your list after all, just let the ideas flow. Eventually you will zero in on one concept that seems to express what you want to say in the fewest words possible. That is your working headline. In this case I kind of like “Clean up and cash in”, so in it goes. Now, let’s define the “Clean up and cash in” campaign as simple objectives.

 “Clean up and cash in” addresses the need for better rural village waste control through the recycling of rubbish. By explaining the advantages of recycling waste to rural populations waste control can be improved, environmental degradation reduced, and village hygiene improved. As an incentive villagers are shown how to recycle waste to their economic advantage. We will communicate this message through posters, community groups, and “T” shirts, as suggested by our Participatory partners. Community advocacy groups will lobby government representatives for better waste disposal facilities.

 That’s it! That is the bare bones strategy, and if I wanted to I could cut it down even further.  Actually I should have, but I’m lazy.

Tip: A good strategy has four main components:

1. It responds to a clearly defined need. (Assessment)

2. It informs and entices the target audience to adopt the proper behavior. (Communications)

3. It insures the proper environment for the adoption of that behavior (Environment)

4. It rewards the target audience to for continuing with that behavior (Motivation)

 An additional element is present once a strategy is up and running. That is Evaluation and Refinement. Based on the evaluations of the running campaign refinements are made to the assessment and strategy that are reflected as changes in the communications, environmental, or motivational aspects of the campaign.

 Those modifications then form the basis of the follow on campaign. Warning: Unless you make some really earth-shattering mistake never tinker with a running campaign. That is usually a guaranteed formula for disaster. Let this campaign run its’ coarse then employ what you learn along with any new ideas in the next campaign.

 Advertising agencies make their money by spending yours. They get commissions, as well as the fees they charge you, for production and media purchases. It is in their interest to sell you new ideas as often as they can. Why? Because new ideas are fun for the creative people and make more money for the agency. Maintaining a running campaign is boring stuff. Yesterday’s news. And not as profitable for the agency.

 If you have a campaign that is working well: let it run it’s coarse. Use that time to plan your next campaign based on feed back from your current campaign and all those new ideas that are flowing in.

 Take your time. Be patient. With one campaign running you have the time to do an even better job on the next campaign. That said use that time. Do not. I repeat DO NOT, wait till the last minute to plan the next campaign.

 Tip: Most major companies have one campaign running, one ready to go, and one in preparation. It’s all part of their strategy to keep advertising as headache free as possible.