Introduction to
campaign strategy
and planning
Supported by
Harmit Kambo
Learning and Development Manager
harmit.kambo@smk.org.uk
smk.org.uk
campaigncentral.org.uk
Twitter: @SMKcampaigners
Facebook: SMK Campaigners
About SMK
• We are a unique charity, focusing on campaigners
• Annual SMK Campaigner Awards, to support new
and emerging campaigners
• Events and workshops
• Campaign Central, the online community for
campaigners
• Promoting the rights of campaigners
What do we mean by ‘campaign’?
•Individuals or organisations mobilising to
influence change, or prevent change
•A series of planned activities designed to create
pressure
•‘Change’ can mean policy, practice or behaviour
•A campaign MUST present solutions!
Campaign strategy
You are
here
You want
be here
Your campaign strategy is how you get there
in the straightest line possible
Campaign strategy
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Issue
Aim
Objectives
Audiences
Key messages
Tactics
Activities and timeline
Monitoring and evaluation
The issue
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What is wrong?
What is the solution?
Why should anyone listen to you? (credibility/agency)
What action needs to be taken?
The elevator pitch
Aim
• What is the intended impact of your campaign?
• A simple, compelling and visionary statement
about what the future should look like e.g.
– Children have equal opportunities to succeed in schools
– women are free from violence in the home
– A society without child poverty
• Try to stick to one aim
Objectives
Objective 2
“A network of specially trained counsellors to be
developed to support the unique needs of families
of missing people”
Objective 1
“Every family of a missing person to
be signposted to Missing People’s
free emotional, practical and legal
support services by the police”
AIM
“Families affected by a
disappearance should have
access to support.”
Objectives
Must be SMART
(Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Time-bound)
End homelessness
Reduce single
homelessness in
London by 60% by
December 2015
Audiences
• Core target: Who can make the change you want?
(e.g. Secretary of State for Work & Pensions / Head of Social
Services at Local Authority / Chief Executive of BP etc)
• Influencers: Who has influence on them?
(e.g.Voters, shareholders etc)
• Who are your allies?
• Who are your opponents? How do they see things?
‘Keep your friends close but
your enemies closer” Niccolo
Machiavelli
Key messages
• What will get your target audiences to act?
• Frank Luntz, US strategist and pollster (‘inheritance tax’ > ‘death tax’; ‘oil
drilling’ > ‘energy exploration’)
• Tailor messages for different audiences
• Start from where the audience is, not from where you are
• Use their language, not yours
“These
taxes are
regressive!”
Give evidence to
select committee
Tactics
Respond to
consultation
Get involved
with APPG
Use House of
Lords, instead
of Commons
INSIDER
MP
surgery
Develop dialogue
with civil
servants/officials
Use
Sustainable
Communities
Act
Sponsor a
private
member’s bill
Government
E-petition
Tweet your
MP, nicely
Early Day Motion
OFFLINE
Use
celebrity
Direct
action
Petition
Protest/
demo/march
Freedom of
Information
Complain
Strike
Use legislation:
(e.g. Human Rights
Act, Equalities Act)
Local
Government
Ombudsman
Blog
Judicial
review
Boycott
Work
with the
media
Stunts
Public
meeting
ONLINE
Twitter/
Facebook
campaign
(not so nicely)
Email
campaign
to MP
E-petition (e.g.
38 Degrees,
Change.org)
OUTSIDER
“If your people aren’t having a ball doing it, there is something very wrong with the tactic.”
Saul Alinsky, Rules for Radicals (1971)
Activities and timeline
• Identify key dates and points of influence
• Decide on best mix of activities
• Be clear about how planned activities work
together for maximum impact
Monitoring and evaluation
• What’s working?
• What isn’t?
• Do aims / objectives /
audience / tactics need
to change?
Recap
• Have a strategy (‘fail to plan and you plan to
fail’). Write it down
• Break your campaign down into all of its
component parts & it’s simple!
• It should be a living, evolving document that
harnesses your passion, not a strait jacket!