What is a CAMPAIGN PLAN?
“Vision
without action is only dreaming, action without vision is only passing time,
but vision with action can change the world.” - Nelson Mandela.
Campaign plan
is a plan to achieve an objective, usually of a large-scale over an extended
period of time. It usually coordinates many activities and uses of resources
involving multiple organizations. A campaign plan could also have subordinate
objectives or intermediate milestones and is often broken down by phases. They
often begin with an assessment of the situation to put the plan in context.
Campaign plans are often created in business marketing, political campaigning and military
campaigning.
12
STEPS TO A SUCCESSFUL PR CAMPAIGN
Campaigns are a significant part of the public
relations profession and should be carried out with meticulous planning and
thorough management. Specific step-by-step measures should be taken when
planning any PR campaign to ensure it meets the objectives set or, in other
words, achieves what needs to be achieved.
Thorough planning processes in PR campaigns
demonstrate that whatever results occur are deliberate or, indeed, have be
taken into consideration. Here I’ll list the 12 stages of planning a successful
PR campaign.
RESEARCH
No matter what kind of PR activity you’re
involved in, research will be at the core of it. Depending on what you’re
doing, different research methods can be used at various times. For example, if
you’re working on a campaign to influence teachers that a school drug testing
program will help eradicate drug abuse among pupils, you might want to find out
their current opinion by carrying out a nationwide questionnaire among
teachers. Or maybe you’re embarking on an internal communications audit and
want to speak more in depth with employees. Initiating a focus group might be a
good means to do this.
Research methods are categorized into two groups:
Primary
This is finding out the information you want
first hand: Questionnaires, one-to-one interviews, telephone interviews, focus
groups, blogs etc.
Secondary
Often called desk research and involves gathering
information from already published sources: Books, journals, papers, libraries,
Internet etc.
SITUATION ANALYSIS
The research you’ve carried out should clearly
define the current situation with regard to the campaign. Depending on what’s
involved, this might include an organization’s current situation in the market,
how it’s perceived by customers or staff or how it’s fairing financially. Going
back to the drug testing in schools example, it might include the current
situation with regard to public opinion on the issue or how it’s been portrayed
in the media. Whatever your campaign involves, you must be absolutely aware of
everything both internally and externally.
From this you can carry out a situation SWOT
analysis to examine Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats of the
current situation, and a PEST analysis to examine the external environment
Politically, Economically, Socially and Technologically.
OBJECTIVES
Once you’re aware of the problem(s) your
organization is facing, you can then define the objectives of the campaign. The
objectives are what is hoped to be the end result of the PR activity. Each objective
must be SMART.
Specific: Are they clearly defined and
comprehensible?
Measurable: Can each objective be measured in the
evaluation?
Achievable: Considering other factors (e.g.
budget and timescale) are they achievable?
Realistic: Are you being realistic given the
resources you have?
Time: When do you want to achieve the set
objectives?
Depending on the situation, sometimes the
objectives set can initially be before the research has been undertaken.
IDENTIFYING PUBLICS
Who do you want to talk to? The research carried
out in the initial stages of the planning process should have identified each
public relevant to the campaign. This is crucial to ensure your key messages
are communicated efficiently as possible. The research also should have identified
each public’s current attitude to the situation allowing you to tailor your key
messages appropriately. Using the drug testing in schools example, publics can
also be sub-categorized into:
Latent publics: Groups that face a problem but
fail to recognize it – pupils
Aware publics: Groups that recognize a problem
exists – teachers, media, parents
Active publics: Groups that are doing something
about the problem – Drug organizations, the Government.
IDENTIFYING STAKEHOLDERS
Once the publics of this campaign have been
categorized, it is then important to identify who the stakeholders are. A
stakeholder analysis is not as specific as identifying publics as it looks at
everyone that is involved in the campaign as opposed to only those who need to
be communicated to. Publics can also be categorized as stakeholders also. A
stakeholder analysis may involve:
* Employees
* Identified publics
* Suppliers
* Senior executives
* Investors
* Etc.
KEY MESSAGES
Once you know the issue you’re facing, the
current situation of the organization (both internally and externally) and who
you want to talk to, you then have to plan what you want to say. Every PR
campaign needs to have a set of messages that forms the main thrust of the
communication. These messages need to be clear, concise and readily understood.
Key messages are important for two reasons. First of all, they are an essential
part of the attitude forming process and second, they demonstrate the
effectiveness of the communication. Key messages must not cross over or conflict.
STRATEGY
The strategy in a PR campaign is often confused
with the tactics. However, the strategy is the foundation on which a tactical
program is built. It is the theory that will move you where the current
situation is now to where you want it to be. The strategy is usually the
overlying mechanism of a campaign from which the tactics are deployed to meet
the objectives. A good example, albeit a rather gruesome one, of strategy and
tactics is noted in Gregory’s Planning and Managing Public Relations Campaigns
where she describes the US’s plans to move against Iraq following its invasion
of Kuwait:
The objective: To get the Iraqis out of Kuwait
The strategy: According to General Colin Powell
was to cut them and kill them
The tactics: Pincer movement of ground forces to
cut the Iraqis off from Iraq, carpet bombing, divisionary tactics, cutting
bridges and so on.
TACTICS
The PR profession has a number of tactics (or
tools) in its armory. The challenge is choosing the right tactics to meet the
objectives. Again, depending on what type of campaign you’re involved you might
use media relations, lobbying, events, interviews, blogger relations,
presentations, consultations, newsletters, competitions, podcasts, stunts,
websites, conferences, photography, video news releases, etc. etc.
Remember; don’t use a new-fangled tactic because
it’s perceived to be cool, cutting edge or the in thing. Only use the tools
that will best help you meet your objectives. Although, creativity is always
paramount.
TIMESCALE
Now you know the overall strategy and which
tactics you’re going to use, you’ve then got to allocate a time to do it. A
timescale allows you co-ordinate your tactics appropriately and helps you be
aware of certain deadlines. Not only that, if there are certain future events
that relate to your campaign, you can tailor a tactic in your timescale to
coincide.
Take the drug testing in schools example I
mentioned earlier. If you know that 10 July is National Drugs Awareness Week
then you might want to mount a media relations campaign throughout that week.
Or on the flip side, if there are more predominant happenings in the news
agenda you could hold off until things have died down. An example of an annual
planner might look like this:
This campaign tends to drip in the beginning
stages, burst through the middle and then drip toward the end
BUDGET
Allocating the budget is an essential part of a
campaign so all costs should be taken into consideration. The primary reason
for a budget lets you know what you can or can’t do, but it also allows you to
allocate money to the specific areas of the campaign:
Operating costs
Distribution, administration, travel, production,
seminars
Human
Overheads, expenses, salaries
Equipment
Telephones, furniture, computers
CRISIS ISSUES AND MANAGEMENT PLACE
Risk is an inevitable part of some PR campaigns,
so being thoroughly prepared in case a problem does occur is paramount. For
detailed information on devising a crisis communications plan (CCP) see this
post I made earlier.
EVALUATION
The evaluation is an ongoing process particularly
in a long-term PR campaign so it is critical to constantly review all specific
elements. Evaluating a campaign should be done in two ways:
Ongoing
The ongoing review is what will be carried out
throughout the campaign. It is not calculated at the end of all the campaign
activity, but constantly throughout. If certain elements of the campaign are
not working as effectively as thought in the planning stages, it can be
re-focused or re-jigged to fit.
End
The end review will take place after all PR
activity has finished and where the final results will be compared against the
campaign objectives. To do this, the tactics for each objective will be
analyzed individually and critically.
The evaluation is vital to discover which parts
of the campaign were successful and which were not. Not only that, it helps
determine what the current situation is after the PR activity has ended.
The evaluation process is the ‘added value’ of PR
and is something that should not be neglected.
Happy campaigning.
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