Campaign planning and launch

5

Campaign planning and launch

Develop core messages After the target audience is segmented, selected and defined, then everything that the campaign communicates should be framed in a way that will attract that segment. It is also likely, that other people not in the campaign target audience/group are also attracted to what the campaign is communicating. Messaging language lets the person receiving the message know something about how the campaign’s goal will help them, why they should choose the positive action over other similar “options or alternatives” elsewhere, and/or why the offering is worth spending personal efforts in. It is also important to include clear calls-to-action (e.g., reporting hotline) that are suited for the place the campaign’s target audience are in. To be successful, a social marketing campaign has to reach people with a message that will help them decide to change their behavior. If the message isn’t understandable, if it doesn’t reach its audience, if it scares or offends them too much, if it doesn’t seem to apply to them, or if it simply doesn’t register at all, they won’t respond.

Tips:

• Develop a few core messages that connect the dots between what the campaign aims to achieve and how it relates to your audience. • Develop messages around a single idea. • Keep language simple and use analogies or personal stories to get your point across. • Make your messages believable. Provide evidence such as numbers to increase credibility. Be consistent with delivery. Highlight what is relevant to the issue and your audience, but be sure to include a consistent statement about the campaign. This makes the campaign’s messaging memorable and helps position it in the natural environment of the target audience and in the minds of your audience.

Formulate a creative brief This is a short document, 1 or 2 pages, used as a guide to help produce the materials and states the positioning of the campaign. The brief is a catch-all, summary document about everything that the SM Lite will do and highlights the most important creative issue. As reference, a sample creative brief is included as Annex D.

Formulate the marketing mix: The marketing mix is used as support in developing a campaign strategy. The marketing mix determines the four components namely product, price, place and promotion.

Product: What the audience gets or what you offer; can be tangible items, intangible benefits, or the behaviour itself.

Price: What the audience gives up to get a tangible product; also the costs or barriers to making the desired behaviour change.

Place: Where the audience is located or gathers, performs the desired behaviour, accesses. products/ services, or is thinking or hearing about the MPA issue.

Promotion: Messages, materials, channels (path used to reach the target audience), and activities to promote behavior change and describe the product, price, and place features of the program. Promotion includes communication or education that describes the program’s benefits, product, price, and place. It includes • Messages • Materials • Channels • Incentives

Select channels, design and use of spokepersons In order to make sure that your message is understandable, accessible, and noticeable, the SM Lite campaign needs to pay attention to three areas: • The channels through which you transmit the message • The design elements • The use of spokespersons

Channels

The SM Lite campaign materials need to get your audience’s attention. Put your message where they can’t miss it. If channels are creatively used and mixed well, then the campaign is much more likely to get the message to those for whom it’s intended. The channels have to be ones that the target audience is exposed to. People are more apt to see posters or signs in their neighborhood than elsewhere, and to pick up fliers in places where they’re already thinking about the issue.

Another factor that will influence the choice of channels is what resources you have available. If the campaign has a considerable budget, the choice of channels is obviously wider than if the campaign is minimally budgeted, largely dependent on staff and volunteers and the generosity of community members.There are numerous options, some are listed in Annex E.

Design

Besides the obvious - bright colors, catchy music - the design elements that might be most important here are those which will convince your audience that the message is one that’s relevant specifically to them. The use of images that mirror the target population, for instance, and of situations that reflect those in their own lives, might help to catch their attention. A message in their native language is a must. Colors, unusual visual elements, movements, familiarity of images, font choice, are just some of the factors to consider in designing materials. These factors are elaborated in Annex F.

Use of spokespersons

Many social marketing campaigns employ one or more spokespersons. They may be famous or not, but they become symbols of the campaign, and - if it penetrates their minds - people come to identify them with it. The choice of a spokesperson is one more element that can help to make a social marketing message successful. If the spokesperson is to contribute to, rather than detract from, your message’s effectiveness, s/he has to be chosen carefully. As with any area of social marketing, you can find out whom people will respond to, by asking them.