In a Network for Good webinar last month, "Campaigns in Nine Steps: How to Succeed With 'Just Enough' Planning," presenter Kristen Grimm, founder and president of communications solutions firm Spitfire Strategies, discussed some of the key steps outlined in "The Just Enough Planning Guide," created by her firm and the Communication Leadership Institute.
The guide is designed to help in the planning of policy, issue, corporate and public education campaigns, i.e., "if you are looking to pass a law, win popular support for an issue, organize a boycott or let a bunch of people know that something is bad for them, this guide is for you," according to the guide intro. But the best practices recommended can be applied to a host of other types of campaigns.
According to Grimm — and based on analysis of dozens of campaigns and interviews with campaign experts — there are nine steps to campaign planning. Completing the nine steps takes roughly two months. Grimm walked attendees through the nine steps and key questions organizations should ask at each step.
Stage 1: Confirm that a campaign is possible
To determine whether or not it's a good idea to run a campaign, as yourself if you have a solution to a known problem?
"For many years I worked on sweatshop issues," Grimm said. "We really wanted to make sure that people didn't buy sneakers, say, from sweatshops. But the problem was we were running a campaign and, in fact, we didn't have a solution. There were very few shoes that we could guarantee were not made in sweatshops."
Good examples of campaigns with a solution, she said, are those intended to offset carbon footprints.
But also make sure that the problem you're presenting is actually viewed as a problem to your audience and that there's urgency behind it.
Other questions to ask are, “Is this the right time, and is there opposition to the campaign?” For example, smoke-free initiatives initially were met with some serious opposition. Bottom line: You should feel confident that you can run and have success with a campaign before starting it.
Stage 2: Set a clear, measurable, realistic goal
Grimm said she breaks this down into the good, the bad and the ugly. The good is when an organization has a very specific goal, like "pass a statewide ballot initiative in November of 2008 that imposes an additional 12 cent tax on tobacco products in California." The bad is a goal like "get legal counsel for more people who can't afford it when accused of a crime," and an ugly goal is "stop genocide." While absolutely worthy goals, the last two are not specific enough.
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