6 Signs You Need An Advocacy & Influencing Campaign
An advocacy and influencing campaign is a tool that is used by businesses, brands and corporate entities to advocate for a change in a particular situation. They are launched when there is a need to create awareness around an issue; gather public support or stimulate passion around an agenda and initiative.
Typically NGOs and public institutions are very accustomed to taking this approach so communications professionals in the Development and Public, Policy and Political sectors are well aware of the value and role for advocacy and influencing campaigns. But in the Corporate Sector, this is not as well known.In Nigeria, we have seen very few companies taking the opportunity of this approach to set the agenda for their sectors or operations.
The decision to initiate an advocacy or influencing campaign is not to be taken lightly – especially if the issues at stake are politically or socially sensitive. However, from a communications perspective, it is important to know the conditions under which such a campaign could be useful.
6 Signs That Indicate the need for an Advocacy and Influencing Campaign
- A persistent and potentially damaging issue that requires urgent resolution or attention: A strong marker for the deployment of an advocacy campaign is the existence of a serious and potentially damaging or destructive issue that has proved difficult to resolve through existing mechanisms.
- Existential threat if not addressed: An Advocacy and influencing campaign could also be kickstarted as a means of resolving issues that pose an existential threat to the organization or business. A recent example in Nigeria was when the Dangote Refinery had to go public to escalate some business concerns being faced in its sector. Over a period of weeks and months a sustained media campaign was launched. It became clear that the strategy was to deploy an intensive and integrated media and communications campaign to create awareness; share corporate perspective; advocate for preferred position and influence public opinion and regulatory attention in the required direction.
- Risks do not outweigh the benefits: Your business may also benefit from an advocacy and influencing campaign if all the above are true and the benefits of going publicly clearly outweight the ongoing risks of suffering in silence.
- Strong Legal and Moral Case: An advocacy and influencing campaign may also be necessary if you have a strong legal and moral case on the issue from societal perspective.
- Impact of Media Fall-Out: The ability to manage the potential media fall-out with positive outcomes is an important consideration in determining if to go public on a difficult issue in campaign mode. The potential impact on the perceived opponents or antagonists and the reactionary response also needs to be considered before/while taking action. Power dynamics and context should also be a key consideration.
- Right Timing: The decision to launch an advocacy and influencing campaign may also be triggered by external developments that create the opportunity to insert oneself into the conversation or raise the profile on a burning issue requiring urgent or consolidated solution.
The Role of Communications
The important thing in all of this is to ensure that the communications team has the ability to rise to the occasion to develop the strategy, advise on messaging, platform, spokesperson; identify, mitigate and manage potential risks and follow through to ensure that the desired outcomes are achieved without negative outcomes.
An advocacy and influencing campaign can help reduce pressure on a business, create new opportunities or help to resolve long standing issues, if handled correctly, with the right level of communications expertise and experience. If mishandled, it can cause severe problems for the business and brand or may even backfire.
However if about 3 or more of the markers listed above, apply to your business or brand, it may be time to consider launching an advocacy campaign – either in informative or educative tone or simply as a cry for help. The campaign does not have to be aggressive or combative in tone, it could be conciliatory, collaborative or questioning. The most important thing is the ability to use communications to raise the profile of an important issue and get the desired level of attention necessary to resolve with positive outcomes for the business.