Developing Your Own Media Campaign

Working with the media is an effective way to influence attitudes and opinions about your program or issue. There are two general forms of media campaigns – social marketing and media advocacy. Social marketing uses traditional advertising methods to influence individual behavior and requires purchasing television, radio or print ad space. Media advocacy involves garnering media attention about an issue by developing relationships with television, radio and print reporters. Media advocacy is often used to influence public policy by sending a message to legislators through the media.

Your desired outcome can help you to decide whether social marketing or media advocacy will work better for you. If you want to affect individual behavior, social marketing will probably work better. If you want to affect public opinion or the opinion of legislators, media advocacy is the way to go.

Once you have chosen a path, you need to have the tools to implement it. There are several helpful web sites with step by step descriptions of how to craft either a social marketing campaign or a media advocacy campaign. Check out the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy and Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs, and Covering Kids.

Here is some basic information on crafting your media campaign.

Develop a communications plan

  • Define and study your target audience
  • Determine your desired result
  • Develop your core messages
  • Select the most appropriate media channel for each audience
  • Monitor your progress

1. Define and study your target audience

Basically, this process allows you to segment the general population into the people you are interested in, and profile that portion of the population.

To define your target audience you have to answer the following questions:

  • Whose behavior or attitudes do you want to change?
  • A needs assessment can be helpful in answering this question.
  • What are the characteristics of those people?
  • These characteristics should be both demographic (geography, age, gender, etc.) or psychographic (religion, cultural affiliation, political affiliation, level of education, etc.)

To study your target audience you have to become aware of their knowledge, attitudes and behavior. Questions to answer in this process include:

  • Whom do they trust?
  • What do they already think about your issue?
  • Where do they get information? This question is particularly important because it will guide what media channels you choose?

2. Determine your desired result

What do you want to accomplish through your media campaign? Answering this question thoroughly and specifically is essential to your success.

After completing this part of the process you should be able to say with certainty what specific action or awareness you want your target audience to adopt.

3. Develop your core message

The core message is the essence of what you want to convey with your campaign. The core message is the guiding force for all events, slogans, advertising and materials.

The development of the core message should be iterative, resulting from brainstorming, discussion, testing with the target audience and revision.

At this stage, focus groups (have a hotline from here to the focus group stuff) or surveys will be necessary to test the core message with portions of the target audience.

The message should position your desired result so that it is unique and appealing to the target audience.

4. Select the most appropriate media channels

Your information about where the target audience gets their information is essential in this step. There are several options here:

The news media – The news media will be your top choice if you are doing a media advocacy campaign, or if you are trying to affect the behavior or opinions of individuals who rely on the news media for their information

Public service advertising – Public service advertising will be your top choice if you are doing social marketing. Public service advertising involves developing print, radio, or TV ads or billboards/bus boards. In order to have effective reach of your message, you will likely have to pay for some or all of the advertising space. Free ad space is generally placed in undesirable time slots or locations.

Public affairs work and special events – Public affairs and special events involve face-to-face communication with the target audience. This category might include giving speeches, meeting with legislators, writing articles, and hosting workshops. Public affairs work is an essential component of any communications plan.

5. Monitor your progress

At the very beginning of your campaign, before you have spent the first dollar, you should develop a plan for evaluating your program. If you plan evaluation early, you will know what information you need as you go along and will save time and money in collecting data.

Evaluation techniques that will be useful for your communication campaign are process evaluations (how is the implementation of the plan going? Are you meeting benchmarks?) and outcome evaluations (Did you reach the desired number of people? How many media pieces were placed?)

More in-depth evaluations can be completed in conjunction with a university or private evaluation firm if you have a larger budget.