Effective communications Arendal, October 2001. What do you do? Collate and process best environmental information to inform –Governmental decision-makers

Effective communications

Arendal, October 2001

What do you do?• Collate and process best

environmental information to inform– Governmental decision-makers– intergovernmental decision-makers– civic society organisations– media– general public

Stakeholders• Formal beneficiaries

– Governmental decision-makers– intergovernmental decision-makers– civic society organisations– media– general public

• Informal beneficiaries– Staff– Funders

Your mission“GRID-Arendal provides environmental

information, communications, and capacity-building services for information

management and assessment. Established to strengthen UNEP, our focus is to make

credible, science-based knowledge understandable to the public and to decision-

making for sustainable development.”

Q:“What do we need to communicate

well?”A:

“Commitment and knowledge”

What awareness can breed...

Personal awareness

Personal committment

Desire to convert

Talk talk talk

“Oh Gawd what a bore!”

Failure

Communicating for change

Personal awareness

Personal committment

Desire to convert

Listen listen listen

“You understand me so well!I want to trust you.”

Learning

Inform vs. communicate

“I have an issue and I want you to hear about it”

“You have an issue and I want to help you with it”

Foundation for success

Your commitment• Values• Awareness• Knowledge• Information• Skills• Resources• Reputation• ...

Their needs• Primary:

• Better world• Secondary: enlightenment

• Ignorance of issues• Ignorance of solutions• Apathy• Hopelessness• ...

•Tertiary: systemic• Resources• Operational issues• ...

Your commitment• Values• Awareness• Knowledge• Information• Skills• Resources• Reputation• ... ?






Relevance





Aiming for relevance

Your Objective Their need

Communications planning

Communications planning is the process by which a core objective is

matched to the needs of your audiences in order to develop a

communications campaign that will lead to measurable change among

those audiences

A planning frameworkCORE OBJECTIVE

COMMUNICATION OBJECTIVES

TACTICS

AUDIENCES

STRATEGIES

MESSAGES

NEEDS

What are core objectives?• Sell more widgets

• Win funding for a project

• Get her to marry me

• Diminish the anthropogenic greenhouse effect

They are your ultimate goals

Audiences• Sell more widgets

Suppose the widget is a moped• Audiences:

– Teenagers• Boys

• Girls

– Parents– Commuters

• Male

• Female

– Retailers

Audiences• Win funding for a project• Audiences:

– Your board (if the project is a radical departure from accepted activities)

– Your manager (to win the right to prepare a proposal)– Your colleagues (to get their help)– Other staff (to get their support)– Professional contacts (to sing your praises)– The technical evaluators– The financial evaluators

Audiences• Get her to marry me


Relevance





Influencing audiences




•Tertiary: systemic• Resources• Operational issues• ...?Your commitment

• Values• Awareness• Knowledge• Information• Skills• Resources• Reputation• ...

CORE OBJECTIVE


TACTICS

AUDIENCES

STRATEGIES

MESSAGES

NEEDS

T E S T

Audience needs• Moped:

– All• Transport solution

• Good buy

– Teenagers• Street credibility

• fashionable

– Parents• Safe

• Reliable

• Good value

• Project– Employer

• use resources wisely

• grow the organisation

• enhance reputation

• mission-relevant

– Funder• Safe decisions

• Best return

• Be seen to get results

• mission-relevant

• secure future income

Most important audience management tool

Relevant communications objectives

• Sell more widgets– build brand awareness, link to current fashion,

gain street credibility, recognition as most reliable, best quality...

• Win funding for a project– build reputational awareness, seriousness of

procedures, originality of approach, value of consultants...

• Get her to marry me• Diminish the anthropogenic greenhouse

effect

Strategies

Objectives

Resources Insights

Strategies• Moped

– Standard three-wave campaign with refresher

• Wave 1: launch, style mags, reviews• Wave 2: TV, style mags, sponsorships• Wave 3: TV, style mags• Refresher: Point of sale promotion

• Project– Endorser campaign

• Identify & enlist supporters

Messages• Translate your communication

objectives into audience-relevant messages

• Ensure messages fit strategic framework

CORE OBJECTIVE


TACTICS

AUDIENCES

STRATEGIES

MESSAGES

NEEDS

T E S T

Tactics• The creative elements of your campaign• The mix of tools you will use for your campaign:

– Advertising• TV, radio, online, daily, magazines?

– Direct mail– Online– Viral marketing– Public relations– Media relations– Events– Sponsorships– Alliances– Etc.

Some examples

Preventing a merger• Client: Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu• Objective: prevent big 6 mergers• Audience: EU and US competition authorities• Needs: respect for decisions• Comms objectives: these mergers will be anti-

competitive• Strategy: Enlist CFO opposition• Message: “will you be audited by your

competitors?”• Tactic: CFO market research, media placement in

press read by Van Miert and Kantor

Raising public awareness• Client: Tacis• Objective: raise environmental awareness of

general public• Audience: general public• Need: high quality TV escapism• Comms objective: combat apathy• Strategy: help TV programmers source cheap

programmes• Message: “you can change things”• Tactic: source, dub and distribute specially

selected films through network of video libraries

Marrying Mammon and Greenery• Client: Unilever Zhongguo• Objective: best position to sell in Chinese hinterland

once villagers have money (est. timescale 3-6 years)

• Audience: non-coastal Chineses public• Need: help with “great leap forward” consequences• Comms objective: Unilever cares for China• Strategy: Support tree-planting efforts in eroding

watersheds• Message: “Green mountains for clear water”• Tactic: working with CEPA and SSB to source and

plant 100,000s of Unilever-labelled seedlings

Marrying Mammon and health• Client: Smithkline Beecham• Objective: sell more nicotin-replacement therapy

products• Audience: smokers aged 18-35• Need: a good reason to quit• Comms objective: cigarettes have immediate

drawbacks to your sex life• Strategy: 360° campaign highlighting link between

smoking and impotency, infertility etc.• Messages: “Can you still get it up?”• Tactics: sexy celebrities, boomerang cards,

alliances, free condoms with NRT packs...

For example…industrial automation (!)

COMMUNICATIONS

OBJECTIVES

CORE OBJECTIVE

AUDIENCES

STRATEGIES/MESSAGES

• Increase sales

• Build brand awareness• Establish best-in-class reputation• Serious, reliant on objective data points and analysis• Productivity-boosting business consultants

Operation, IT & plant managers

Senior executivesEngineers & eng.

mgmt

TACTICS

• Competitive advantage • Proven best in class

• Productivity-enhancing• Biggest change in mftg

in decade• Supported by research

(sponsored)

• Senior RA exec contacts• Senior partners

• Biz press• Events (WEF etc)• RA exec events

• 3rd party endorsers• Sector-specific

expertise: consultant reports

• Productivity• Reliability• Integration

• Support• Sponsored research

• Reliability• Maintenance• Installation

• Control• Support

• Peer contacts• Biz press• Partners

• Trade press• Trade shows

• Seminars• VFT

• 3rd party endorsers• Sector-specific collateral

• Trade shows• Trade press• Sales force

• Partners• Training events

• Demo visits• 3rd party endorsers

Sales force & SSG sales

• Significant evolution/ radical

change• Integrated business

solution • Best-in-class

Sector-focussed training

• “Consultant” development

• Sector-specific collateral

• Online chat & support

So, in practice• Communications team:

• Project manager

• Creative

• Traffic controller

• And,if needed,specialists– Media buyers, schedulers, copywriters,

etc.

The salesman’s tricks• Reciprocation - “A present? Thanks! Now I owe

you something.”• Consistency - “I promised you something. I must

keep my word.”• Social validation - “what is that fool doing?” versus

“Oh. I wonder what all these people are doing.”• Liking - “gee, we have the same birthday!” or “he

complimented me on my tie” or “he worries about my environment”

• Authority - that tie…• Scarcity - the rarer the item, the more people want

it. Exclusivity…

A planning frameworkCORE OBJECTIVE Reduce the transport footprint in Arendal


Freedom & independ.Options

Unique environment satisfies citizens and attracts unique

people - ensure transoprt strategy preserves this

Safety and opportunity

TACTICS

•Indirect (media, mkt research)

•direct lobbying (expl., site vists)

•create activist coalition

•Mkt research & media (developers)

•direct (maps (bus/bikes/foot))• accessibility guidance (real

estate agents)

Hard data (univ)study tours

ed campaignmedia relations

ecolabel

AUDIENCES 16-18 yr oldsfamilies

Politicians For-profits (retailers, transporters, employers)

STRATEGIESSupport bikes, night buses etc

Demand accessEnlist CoC

Lobby

Educate bizIncrease user demand

MESSAGES

“do you want your mom to pick you up?”

Keep A attractive for the best workers & tourists

centre good for bizclean transport too

NEEDS Accessibility

Get re-electedKeep jobs & status in A Make money

EVALUATION

•European Common indicators per capita,

weighted by demographic info

•Transpor satisfaction survey• map impact survey

•Survey on biz awareness

Cost-benefit analysis

Thank you

[email protected]

33 rue du Progrès

B - 1410 Waterloo

Tel +32 495 24 46 11

Fax +32 2 545 6610

Documents

Effective communications Arendal, October 2001. What do you do? Collate and process best environmental information to inform –Governmental decision-makers