6. Identify the Audience

The purpose of this exercise is to describe the audience your campaign will seek to address.

One of the most critical requirements of any marketing and communications strategy is ensuring you fully know and understand the audiences with whom you are looking to connect. This is no different for Creative Advocacy campaigns. Since issues and communities are complex, there are likely multiple audiences to consider and new audiences may present themselves throughout the campaign itself.

The Exercise

1. Give a sticky pad and marker to each participant.

2. Introduce the activity by placing a large sticky note or piece of paper in the center of the wall with the campaign issue (and, if determined, the primary campaign goals) written on it.

3. Introduce the exercise by providing some context around the campaign issue.

» Share why this issue is important.

» Share why this issue is important right now.

» Share that you are exploring this issue as a campaign for creative advocacy.

4. Ask participants to brainstorm (one per sticky note) the audiences, organizations, or individuals that engage (or need to engage) with this issue. Allow 20 minutes or so for this step, with natural discussion occurring throughout. When complete, the facilitator should place each sticky note on the wall around the issue, reading each one and consolidating any similar notes.

5. Once this step is accomplished, take a moment to ensure that the group has considered all angles. This includes public individuals and organizations that you may be asking to participate in the campaign but are not doing so already, as well as groups who may be against this issue — this can be a critical audience for consideration. If necessary, refine your sticky notes as a team, adding any other groups that may be important to this issue.

30 minutes

- Large wall or white board

- Sticky notes

- Markers

- Sticky dots

- Online collaboration tool, like Miro (optional)

Notes:

6. Identify the Audience (continued)

6. Add a sticky dot to flag any person or organization that can support this campaign as a ‘creative’. This will help you to note creative assets that could be beneficial to the campaign.

7. With all of the stickies on the wall, discuss as a team how these various audience members should be organized and grouped. You might decide to group audiences by age, education level, geography, degree of sympathy for your cause, occupation, or a number of other possible distinguishing characteristics. Since groupings can occur based on a wide number of possibilities, the most important thing is to ensure that audiences are grouped in a way that makes sense to your team and helps to direct your campaign.

8. Reflect on these groupings and draw a circle(s) around the primary audience(s). These should be groups of people and organizations with similar characteristics and motivations. Label these audiences, as we’ll need them for future steps.

Reflection

Discuss the following with your campaign team.

» How should these notes be grouped around this issue?

» What are any natural collaborations or overlaps that already exist?

» What actions are similar amongst these groups?

» How do these groups currently act around this issue?

» In what ways could they act around this issue?

» Capture the work completed with a series of photos.

Update the Campaign Canvas

Build your plan by completing sections of the Campaign Canvas that have Ex. 6 next to the heading title.

» Campaign Audience Description