Author Archives: Jonathan Dearth

1. Another postcard?

   11th December 2007 11:46 am Leave a Comment

   I am a member of more campaigning organisations than is probably good for my health.

   One trend that I have noticed, which is really welcome, is an improvement in communications between these organisations and their campaigners. From small to large organisations, there has been real investment made in developing communications with their supporters, who are prepared to take campaigning actions. So I now receive a steady stream of newsletters and updates – all tailored around campaigning. Excellent.

   Yet there is another trend that I have noticed which is not quite so welcome – the irrepressible campaigning postcard. While it has been great to see more voluntary organisations embrace campaigning as one of their key activities, sometimes this enthusiasm for campaigning seems to manifest itself in a campaigning postcard.

   I just cannot believe that the world needs as many campaigning postcards as I seem to receive month in month out. For some organisations the regular newsletter or update just has to be accompanied by a campaigning postcard. You know the type – a pre-printed postcard, where you sign your name, add your address and send to the chosen campaign target.

   For me campaigning is all about having a burning desire to achieve a particular change. You work out the problem and develop a clear solution. You then assess the political environment, analyse who has the power to implement your change and consider the different influences on your target. You then develop a campaign plan and use the most appropriate methods – media, lobbying, allies, or supporter action – to develop momentum on your campaign.

   I find it hard to believe that, having undertaken the above exercise, that the answer is always a campaign postcard. There may well be stages on a campaign where a mass generated postcard may have some impact. Yet one would need to be clear on the reasons for such a postcard, and not say a personal letter or other activity.

   I am not against campaigning postcards per se – I just see them as one campaigning tool. And just because you have a quarterly newsletter it does not mean that you have to have a quarterly action. Campaigning is about timely action – not regular action to meet printing schedules. It is ok to send a campaigning update without an action – if there is not a need at that time for an action, and if you explain your thinking to your supporters.

   So here is a challenge to campaigning organisations – keep up the great communications with your supporters, but let’s see fewer campaign postcards.

   Let’s ensure that our campaigns are sensitive to their political environment, that we explain our campaign strategy to our supporters, and that we ask them to take action when it is right for the campaign in a manner that is helpful. And if we did that, I reckon we might see less postcards!

2. Marketing campaigns – is it really campaigning?

   29th October 2007 11:47 am Leave a Comment

   Have you ever wondered where marketing campaigns fit in with campaigning on single issues?

   By the term marketing campaign I mean campaigns like Oxfam’s ‘I’m in’ and the NSPCC’s Full Stop Campaign. Such marketing campaigns have been great for awareness raising and recruitment. The success of such campaigns is clear.

   I have run a number of training sessions recently on running single-issue campaigns and there is often confusion about where such campaigns fit in with broader marketing-type campaigns.

   Well for a start I think that there is a clear difference between such campaigning. A single-issue campaign has a clear goal of achieving a policy or practice change such as the campaign to end hunting with dogs or for a Children’s Commissioner. A broader marketing campaign is about raising awareness, recruiting supporters and possibly also raising money.

   I think that single issue campaigns should recognise the value of such marketing campaigns. Just look at the profile of the Full Stop campaign – quite awesome. They can create an awareness and an environment for change,

   Within such marketing campaigns there is a huge potential to run campaigns on specific issues.

   I would not argue against running a broader marketing campaign. They can help to create a very positive environment. But they’re not an end in themselves. I would urge organisations that consider running a marketing campaign to think as well about the issues that they have a burning desire to change. Then they should try use the interest generated by the marketing campaign to channel into a specific issue campaign.

   A marketing campaign is not a campaign as I understand the term. A campaign is about achieving policy or practice change. An organisation that just runs a marketing campaign is not really campaigning, but it has a great opportunity to do so.

   Marketing campaigns can be a great launch pad for a campaign on a specific issue. I think that the test for any marketing campaign is what change has it created for its beneficiaries – if no change was sought then that is a wasted opportunity. So don’t dismiss such marketing campaigns – but I urge all campaigners to capitalise on their campaigning potential.

3. Anita Roddick – did she have the right ethos?

   8th October 2007 3:27 pm Leave a Comment

   Last week the memorial to Anita Roddick was held at Westminster Central Hall in front of 1500 people on what would have been her 65th birthday. I’m sure many people reading this article that work for campaigning organisation will have a story to tell about her. She played a major part in the funding and campaigning support of so many organisations.

   Is it too cynical to suggest that her involvement was all part of the building of the Anita Roddick brand? That she did so much just to position herself and the Body Shop in order to develop such a Unique Selling Point of being a highly ethical business. This certainly has attracted a significant number of her customers over the last three decades to turn her into a multi-millionaire, as they wanted to buy into the ethics of her and the Body Shop.

   Before you answer, let me just say that yes, I think it is too cynical.
   Anita Roddick was a woman who used her position and wealth to try and improve our society and the world. She was a business woman first and foremost. You have to be that single-minded to have her success. But what she did with her wealth and profile, often quietly and without excessive ego, was admirable.
   When I was at the World Development Movement, she recorded a BBC Radio 4 appeal for us. She was easy to deal with and did the job that we asked of her, trusting what we asked her to read. This on top of “organisation-changing” sized donations from her foundation.

   I believe that Anita Roddick was someone who demonstrated time and time again that her motivations were not cynical, but very healthy and that she had the right ethos.

4. Is campaigning a global activity?

   20th August 2007 11:48 am Leave a Comment

   Is campaigning a global activity? Can campaigning ideas be shared across the globe? Recently I had the chance to find out as I led a day at the International NGOs Training and Research Centre’s (INTRAC) summer school on advocacy.

   In the room that day were an impressive array of campaigners from across Europe, Asia and Africa. They were united by two things: their ability to speak English and their burning desire to campaign to change something.

   I had been asked to lead a day on my book, which looks at how you cope once you have achieved a breakthrough on a campaign. I had done similar sessions in the UK, but this was my first international audience. Would my ideas resonate with them?

   I started with a degree of trepidation. I talked about how very often a breakthrough comes and campaigners aren’t ready for it – that was certainly true for me. How you need to plan for success and even after you have made a breakthrough you need to keep making the case for change. I talked about how relationships with your target, especially if it is the government, will change, as will your relationships with the media and your allies. We also covered the prospect of being campaigned against.

   These messages had all come from my own learning from campaigning and the mistakes that I had made as well as the case study campaigns that I had interviewed for the book.

   Slowly across the room I could see the delegates engaging with these issues. The lessons that I had reflected upon in a UK perspective seemed to echo with campaigning across the continents. ‘We had never thought about planning for success’ said one delegate. I had to confess that it had never occurred to me either until I had been caught out by not doing so.

   This day had a profound impact on me. Yes, there are cultural, social and political differences in campaigning around the globe, but there are some key principles, which seem to apply wherever you are based. Campaigning truly is a global language.

5. Charities campaigning….are they having a laugh?

   1st August 2007 3:27 pm Leave a Comment

   Over the last five to ten years, charities have moved into campaigning and started getting political. They have entered territory where previously only more politcal campaigning organisations would venture. Organisations such as Amnesty, Greenpeace etc. set up purely to campaign have been joined by their charity counterparts in the arena of campaigning.

   Or are they really campaigning? Has it been a genuine strategic move by charities to affect long term change in society? Or has there been other motives at work…money, or fundraising to be fairer.

   I’m talking in general terms of course, I truly believe that some charities have started campaigning and done so for the best reasons. They are employing some of the top campaigners in the not-for-profit sector and are making real political change.

   However, as a recruitment consultant some campaigners have told me that they’re leaving their roles because they don’t believe the charity’s heart is really in long term change. That when the charity use the term “campaigning” that they really mean “brand positioning” or “brand awareness” in order to support their fundraising from their individual supporters. And that charities set unachievable campaign targets with no real hope of achieving them but just to be out there, somewhere in the campaigning arena.

   Is this true what people are saying? And is it just charities? Or are campaigning organisations themselves guilty of this? Is there anything wrong with the tactic of using campaigning to strengthen the brand?