Skill Up #1 Campaigns

SkillUp #1 

Introducing a new mini project of Success In Communication: The SkillUp Sessions

Without a doubt, the Public Relations world can be overwhelming, especially when it comes to combining a plethora of ideas into a single project. I find it mind boggling to even begin to recall the many strategic tools developed for communication effectiveness. This is why I've decided to ad a new section to my blog and to give it the name;

Skill Up...

as hopefully, this is what it will achieve! Easy, step by step, non-daunting and practical mini lessons on Public Relations tools. 

Today's lesson will be on campaign development! We all know campaigns are an essential part of any organisations program, where we aim to change behaviour, attitude or create a social change. Fantastic examples of government campaigns are the speed campaigns, for example, 'Bin Your Butts Campaign' In Victoria a few years ago.

 This campaign set out to decrease the number of butt litterer In Victoria and at the end of the campaign, achieved exceeding results.



 Enough Jibber Jabber: Here is SkillUp #1

Each Campaign will follow a basic RAISE pattern

R- research (archival, descriptive, analysis)

Most PR or communication professionals will begin their research with desktop research. This basically means googling the information, finding what people are saying about it and reading into articles and media. 
Then you might decide to look at previous case studies to determine strengths and weaknesses. Descriptive research falls into the area of focus groups, interviews, surveys and all other types of qualitative and quantitative data. If you are unfamiliar with any of these terms or methods please leave a comment below so I can explain in full :) 
After research has been collected it's time for the SWOT analysis. This covers Strengths, Weaknesses (INTERNAL) and Opportunities and Threats (EXTERNAL). Apply your research to SWOT and you're well on your way.
 
A-adaptation

This second phase allows you to basically pick and choice your themes from your research and  subdivide the problems into goal statements- e.g. 'To decrease the number of butt littering by 30%  in 3 months.'
Next we need to select your target public e.g Are you targeting middle aged women, young children, ethnic groups or a group of professionals etc. This is also a great time to brainstorm 

 
I- implementation  & S- strategy

 Select on of your strategies (strategies should include tactics) and address your public. This is where the design and strategy are put into action and budgets should be clearly outlined. You may also need to pitch this idea to your client during this time.
 
E- evaluation

An often overlooks component of campaigns but a highly essential, if not critical part. You will need to support your campaign by measuring the degree in which your goals succeeded or failed and collect the data needed for this. Often evaluation should not be left to the end of the campaign, and instead, should be done throughout the process to monitor.