Campaigning on the Frontlines

As borders become more porous, identities more mingled, and ideas more diffuse, organisations find themselves communicating with audiences in new markets and regions. Many of these are politically complex, volatile, and at varying stages of development. Seeking to develop profile, change attitudes or behaviours, businesses, NGOs, and governments all have a stake in influencing these audiences successfully. Nevertheless, the basics of campaigning remain, whether undertaken in London, Luanda, or Lahore. Here are ten practical tips to those seeking to influence in more unconventional places:

1) Know the communications context.

What are the hot topics of the moment? The latest videos of Grumpy Cat, or the latest militant attack in Afghanistan’s Ghazni? Communicating effectively can be a minefield in politically complex areas, with opportunities rife for cultural misinterpretation. Ensure you have a good understanding of the communications environment, and how change happens. For example, in many of the countries, public attention rarely galvanises around “slow burn” issues without a trigger to ignite interest—more often, a perceived injustice. Creating the opportunities for these stories (e.g. a Tunisian vegetable seller having his cart and goods confiscated, thus sparking the Arab Spring; or a child allegedly pushed into the River Ibar in Mitrovica, Kosovo, igniting riots for months) to reach wider audiences can fuel demand for change. As Malcolm Gladwell notes in The New Yorker, this often relies on personal connections (the “strong tie” phenomenon), with information-sharing mechanisms (such as Twitter) merely acting as a conduit.

2) Target the right audience.

In divided, transitory, and complex systems, political actors can change overnight. As Strategem International knows from lobbying in the infant years of the Northern Ireland Assembly and influencing in electorally unstable countries, quite often those in power are only in post for a short time, and are often hamstrung and impotent as they try to keep their fragile coalitions together. Influencing those who will remain in positions of power regardless of the ebbs and flows of politics is crucial—ensuring that civil servants, business leaders, and civil society organisations are on board and pushing forward your agenda. When you do engage with politicians, try to court the outliers and consensus-builders—those who at coalition-making time will have a ‘king-making’ role (and therefore influence).

3) Know your target audience.

Young unemployed men in Somalia’s Mogadishu? Wealthy investors from China’s Yunnan province? Or the Vertu mobile-owning cuicos of Chile’s Santiago? Understanding your audience is crucial. What do they watch, read, listen to? Can they read, do they even have access to a TV? Where do they visit, and who influences them? A local mullah, The Economist, or MTV? What are their interests and needs? Obtaining fresh water or fresh caviar? Research is essential so you can test assumptions, understand drivers, motivations, warning signs and opportunities. Tools such as focus groups, interviews and polling should help you, but there is nothing more impactful or meaningful than getting out and talking to your audiences directly.

4) Know yourself and your partners.

How are you viewed, and on which issues do you have legitimacy communicating? Is it best for you openly to campaign, or is it wiser to work with others better placed to advance your agenda? Who are your local partners, and could working with them be seen as politically sensitive? What are the potential risks to your brand, partners and aims, and how can these be mitigated? While working with local partners can often be difficult due to differing priorities and capacity levels, they are much more likely to be able accurately to gauge local sentiment, ensuring that no red lines are crossed. Be sure to give them clear steers on ‘no go areas’ and aims, and also delegate responsibility as close to the ground as possible, so they can be as reactive and sensitive as possible, scaling up and down when necessary. Rigorously interrogate potential partners’ assumptions and experience, and provide them with support/guidance when they do not have the skills/experience necessary—an all too common situation.

5) Take care in transferring tactics from elsewhere.

All too often, international campaigners fresh off the plane from Western capitals assume that the latest campaigning fad (think wristbands, mascots, stunts), will automatically resonate with audiences elsewhere. In most cases, this type of approach will feel 'foreign' to the audiences, and will automatically generate pushback or scepticism on the medium—rendering the message redundant. Nevertheless, changing attitudes and behaviours often requires a healthy appetite for risk, trying new channels and approaches. Embrace this and recognise that many approaches can be transferable across environments. However, rigorously pilot them in order to identify risks and areas for improvement.

6) Use the right channels.

Radio, cartoons and songs are particularly effective with illiterate audiences. Soaps and drama can provide an entertaining format for subtle messaging and product placement; while debates (ideally with phone ins or live audiences) are useful in two-way communication, particularly in addressing political issues. BBC Media Action’s Sanglap (“Dialogue”) is a great example from Bangladesh. Photostories and cartoons can often convey a story well—NGOs often excel at this, especially those wishing to change behaviours (e.g. washing hands, avoiding mines and IEDs, reducing deforestation). When at all possible, use local languages, actors, voices, and images. Use local partners for this, and don’t make the channel or product too polished, or it may appear foreign and strange. Ensure that the medium complements the message—the U.S. military’s helicopter leaflet drops in Afghanistan left peace-inspiring verses from the Quran strewn on the ground covered in dirt; considered blasphemous, this meant that the intended message was rendered impotent before the leaflet had even been picked up.

7) Tailor your messaging.

Do not try to be too witty as humour can vary wildly, and the nuance needed is often lost in translation. Slogans and straplines can play on well-known phrases (although never use religious phrases), and be liberal in your use of images. Ensure that pictures can be understood without accompanying text, as there may be potential for illiterate audiences to misunderstand—a picture of a street devastated by a terrorist bomb can be misunderstood as a drone strike, or a peaceful protest on job shortages can be misinterpreted as a rally to revolution. Again, messaging that is too polished will appear out of place (e.g. grammatically correct English in rural India). Negative messaging or fear-mongering has limited cut-through in deterring voters from supporting a particular political candidate, or discouraging membership of an illegal organisation. Presenting alternative options, their merits, and a pathway to choosing those options is a much more effective and empowering message, with the most “sticky-ness” (propensity to resonate). Messaging tone should therefore be uplifting, inspirational, optimistic and positive—success stories have high resonance, low resistance, are more likely to promote action or change, as they tap into one of the strongest emotional pulls that humans can feel, particularly in difficult places: hope.

8) Use proof points and evidence.

Use images and infographics to show contrasts, trends and projections into the future (e.g. “if we don’t do X by Y, then…”). For huge numbers, which are not easily comprehensible, scale them down to make them more tangible—“every day, X jobs are created by Y oil company in Nigeria”. Instead of using percentages (which many cannot understand), use statements, which chime easily—“One in three footballers use this product”. Oxfam UK’s “Creating Killer Facts and Graphics” provides some useful pointers.

9) Use human stories.

Facts can only explain so much. For a campaign to have real effect, it needs to have emotional pull and generate feeling. Use stories, which will excite the imagination—real people living their daily lives, facing challenges and opportunities. Chinese approval of the human angle, shown in the illustration of the UK’s history during the London 2012 Olympics Opening ceremony, clearly illustrates this cross-cultural synergy. Ensure that narratives are clear and easily understood, and ideally based on typical stories of real people, which are familiar to us, all—hero vs. villain, a normal person overcoming adversity, or a perceived injustice which is righted.

10) Measure, measure, measure.

Use of research is vital. Before and during campaigning, use focus groups, ethnographies and pilots to test content before release. This will enable you to spot problems or opportunities for improvement and modify messaging or tactics accordingly. This continuous feedback loop will help you avoid blowback (unintended consequences which can actually push audiences in the opposite direction of campaign intention). In seeking to change attitudes and behaviours, traditional M&E and ROI indicators are not sufficient tools for impact measurement. This should be independently managed, at the very least quantitative with clear baselines and KPIs (ideally measuring Knowledge, Attitude, and Behaviour changes), and robust enough to withstand external scrutiny. Whilst often difficult to obtain this standard in the most permissive of research environments, a good understanding of local research capacity plus a healthy dose of creativity can often create evaluation tools which are robust. Above all, seek to understand, engage, and only then, influence. This will ensure that your campaign is informed, supported and most importantly, has impact. Ryan Gawn is Director of Stratagem International and a Deployable Civilian Expert with the UK Government’s Stabilisation Unit. He is currently based in South Asia, and was named in 2011 as one of the “Top 99 Young Professionals in Foreign Policy under age 33”. He tweets as @ryangawn. This article was originally published in the Diplomatic Courier's May/June 2013 print edition.