awareness campaigns

Change, Policy and Research

C.A.M.P.A.I.G.N.Awareness – Liberation and counter-

cultural


• To work in an organised and active way toward a goal

• It’s WORK• It needs to be ORGANISED• It needs to be ACTIVE• It needs a GOAL• The GOAL has to be achievable – and you have to

be able to say “yes, we got there” at the end.

What is a campaign?


• It started as a rather forced acronym...• It has become a lens, a way to look at the various

parts of campaigning in order to make campaigns more successful.

• It breaks down thus:-– Create the concept– Aim the Message– Produce the campaign– Assess your Impact– Grasp the Nettle

What is C.A.M.P.A.I.G.N


• Whilst it isn’t absolutely necessary to get tied up in planning using a Gantt chart or setting SMART goals they do help– Gantt Charts allow you to visually track a project and

break it down into manageable smaller projects and events

– SMART objectives are ones that are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time-bound

• The point (rather than getting tied up in process) is...– To make sure you know exactly what you want to

achieve– To make sure you can measure your achievement– So that you can prove you’ve actually achieved it

A quick point on goals


• This is where your goals matter most• Both SMART goals and a Gantt Chart are very

useful– Not essential, you can succeed without them– But it’s much harder to keep track of what’s going on

• Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time-bound

• Gantt charts allow you to map every single part of your campaign– And break it down into stages or events, each of which

can be broken down into individual tasks – multiple ‘to do’ lists in one place.

Create the concept


• What do you want?– When do you want it?– How will you know when you’ve achieved it?– What does your local goal look like?

• Who’s on your side, and who’s against you?– How do you win more friends, and lessen the impact of

your opposition?– How do you do that, when there’s wider structural

marginalisation?

• Who holds the power that you require to reach your goal?– Unfortunately, you’ll need to centre the power and talk

to it in your campaign – that’s why liberation is hard!

Create the concept (plan)


• What do you want?– If what you want is a ‘policy on...’ something then you’re

looking in the wrong place– If your problem is systemic then a ‘policy’ within the

system you want to change will change nothing– Audre Lorde: The Master’s tools cannot be used to

destroy the Master’s House

• Make change happen against the system– Liberation and awareness campaigns require active

goals with active participation– If you don’t actually create the change, then it won’t last– Systems always reset to default – you need to change

the default

Create the concept (plan)


• Power...– Centre your personal experience; your lived reality– Gather evidence that your experience is wider than just

you– You’re speaking truth unto power – you need a very

strong message to do that.

• Control...– What structural power exist, what effect does that have?– What individual power exists, and how do you address

the person?– What messages can you have absolute control over?

Aim the Message


• Power...– Use what power you have, in the ways that it can be

used– As a student, a resident, a democratic member– Break down your audiences at whatever level is

necessary – think about who benefits from how things are, and how you need them to change – and how to ask them to accept that change is needed

• Control...– The people who control what you want to change are a

separate audience – and you have to talk to them too– Specific and Measurable goals help target your message

– think about the system as well as individual people

Know your allies and your foes


• Production is the ‘getting the message out’ stage– i.e. Posters, Events, Student Ideas, Petitions, active

campaigning– Producing the campaign is getting the messages you

already planned as a part of Aiming the Message to the people you selected

– Production also includes countering or answering criticism and ‘status quo’ opposition

– Production can also include measuring; number of signatures, strength of feeling, social media has-tag engagement – anything that assists in proving your point

– Production can also be counter-cultural

Produce the campaign


• Counter-cultural production– Direct action: is one form of counter-cultural production –

it is certainly the most disruptive, but it is also the most likely form of protest to get opposition, and ‘strengthen’ arguments against marginalised groups

– Counter-systemic action: rather than protesting that (for example) there are too many male speakers at an event, organise a counter-event which includes speakers like those you would have wanted to see – publicise it, encourage engagement and then show-case the outcome as a cultural polarity to the event you were protesting.

– The best way to win an argument of marginalisation is to de-marginalise yourself – refuse to engage within the marginalising system and produce your own system to show the difference.

Produce the campaign


• This is the evidence stage– It may not be a single stage– You may gather evidence before you start, during

Creation, when Aiming the Message, when Producing your campaign

• But– All evidence you have should shape your ability to

measure– Change – and the appetite for it– Opposition – and the arguments they have against you– Support – and the various reasons why people agree

with you– Quantity – how many supporters/opponents do you

have?– Quality – have you been given better arguments and

evidence?

Assess your Impact


• The reality check of every campaign– Did you actually reach your goal?

• You’ve reached the goal...– Does everyone know you reached the goal?– Can even those who disagreed with your GOAL see that

you have reached it?– Your GOAL is being actively carried out, and you have

proof of that.

• You didn’t reach your goal...– Not every campaign is a success.– Especially awareness and liberation campaigns – this is

the hardest work you’ll ever do, and it never ends– It is also the most worthwhile – you are changing lives

Grasp the Nettle


• The absolute reality of campaigning is that it never ends

• Something you achieve today will be changed – possibly not in the next few years, but nothing stays the same forever

• Even if you lose a single campaign you still gained:– Experience in running a campaign and planning it at all

stages– If your planning was weak, you should have learned to

improve it– If your planning was strong but the message wasn’t

aimed properly then you’ll have evidence to help you change delivery next time

– If you couldn’t counter an argument, then that will help in framing audiences and producing a better message for your next campaign

• Plan to win, but don’t be afraid to fail

Succeed or Fail…

awareness campaigns

Education

research power

active goals

smart goals

structural power

individual power

active way

goal itswork

local goal