There is often confusion about words — was it conflict, war, or genocide? Sometimes that confusion is intentional, and I have little sympathy for that. Sometimes it is unconscious, as with the word ‘campaign’, and then I’m happy to provide clarity. When people hear ‘campaign’, they immediately think of a communications campaign by a flashy advertising agency. You know, the kind of thing that costs a fortune. When we talk about a campaign strategy, organizations think they need to put up nice posters, post something on social media, maybe an opinion piece in Apache, and then hope that you have got everyone excited about your cause. The underlying idea is that your poster will make people change their minds. That usually turns out to be disappointing.
Targeted and concrete
In my view, that is due to a misunderstanding of campaigns and campaign strategy. A campaign strategy rests on the question ‘how can we win?’ To answer that, you need to know what your goal is. And no, sorry, peace is not a goal. It has to be concrete: no arms deliveries to country X, reduction of the defense budget by factor Y, sheltering war victims from country Z. A concrete goal is something you can achieve — or not. At the end of a campaign, you must be able to evaluate whether you have won. Otherwise, it was not a campaign.
At the end of a campaign, you must be able to evaluate whether you have won. Otherwise, it was not a campaign.
So how do you determine whether a campaign goal is concrete enough? The goal must be within your circle of influence. That sounds as if it comes from an expensive management book, and it does. But even the Bible agrees with me. The rule in campaign strategy, but really also in life, is to focus only on the things you can possibly influence. Don’t get worked up about what you cannot change; save your energy for what you can change. Choose a concrete campaign goal where you can build influence. In doing so, take regional, generational, financial, or time constraints into account. Because without influence, you do not have a campaign, but advertising. And with advertising, you cannot win.
Realizing your potential
Once you have chosen your goal, you also have to realize that potential influence. An important means of doing so is strategic escalation. In strategic escalation, you carry out a series of tactics, with each successive tactic aimed not at winning your final goal, but at increasing your resources and number of people. Your campaign strategy is therefore a plan through which, tactic by tactic, you become richer, bigger, and therefore more powerful. That lasts until you have a strong negotiating position. Until you are powerful enough to join the table with the person who has the power or who maintains the current state of affairs.
That series of actions can and must be all kinds of things: occupations, opinion pieces, leaflets, finding influencers… Another crucial principle of campaign strategy: tactical flexibility. If you organize a demonstration every four weeks with the starting point as the only variable, then it becomes too boring, your monthly mailing too predictable, and the whole thing too tame. Variation is necessary, because every action must create friction.
There are endlessly many tactics for taking action. My favorites are still leaflets and the telephone, wonderfully old skool and super effective.
Difficult, but not impossible
Changing the world is difficult. It requires much more than just the will to improve it. A successful campaign strategy requires a team that is strategically strong. You also need creative people and some extroverts who dare to make calls. You need the thinkers and the doers, and alongside all the good intentions, also some hard skills. That may sound like a unicorn or a sheep with five legs, but it is not impossible. It really is possible to change the world.
Today may not seem like the moment to set up a campaign strategy, with the government negotiations still up in the air. But that is exactly why it is. If you wait until there is an agreement, you may be too late. Do you want to have a seat at the table when the coalition agreement moves toward legislation? Then this is exactly the moment to start.
We are happy to help you with that. On our website there is a document with 53 tactics, one that we ourselves constantly return to, and on October 10 a webinar on policy influence is scheduled. On that same website, by the way, there is also a button that says ‘contact us’. Press it and together we will build a campaign that works.
