Working together without forgetting your audience

When organising a common campaign, be aware that there can be elements of the campaign that don’t suit everyone. In this case, it is good to have a discussion about it, and if a compromise cannot be reached, it is up to you to decide if  you can be flexible with it or if those elements cannot be changed.

For example, you are organising a promotional campaign for new workcamps, to encourage more people to volunteer in the projects. Your main message is that workcamps are a volunteering experience that help you learn.

If one organisation would like to change the message to “workcamps are a volunteering experience that allow you to travel at low cost”, you would not accept this change because the nature of the message is completely different and against your values.

However, if an organisation would like to refer to “workcamps” as “volunteering camps” because in their country the word “workcamps” has a negative connotation (reminiscent of the Nazi concentration camps), you can be flexible here. In this case, organisations whose audience easily and positively recognise the word “workcamp” can use it, and organisations whose audience is put off by the word “workcamp” can change it in order to be more successful in the promotion. The core message would still be the same, but adapted to the specific audience.

SCI-specific: note that the discussion about the use of the word “workcamp” is an ongoing one in SCI and the larger International Voluntary Service movement. Some organisation are attached to the word for historical reasons and they don’t have negative feelings towards it in their language, but other organisations will avoid using it at all costs because in their language it is too reminiscent of the labour camps of the Nazi era, and people would not volunteer in projects called “workcamps”. Discussions to find another word are ongoing.

ACTIVITY

Checklist for campaigns:

• ✅I identified the organisations that I want to collaborate with.
• ✅I sent a draft proposal or an idea for a campaign concept.
• ✅We defined roles and a timeline.
• ✅We co-created all the material necessary:
• ✅Concept description with details for implementation (goals, audience, dates, platforms, …)
• ✅Texts.
• ✅Material (designs, pictures, videos, posters, flyers, presentations, …)
• ✅Templates.
• ✅Visual identity guidelines if necessary.
• ✅Links.
• ✅Tags.
• ✅Hashtags.
• ✅I prepared an easy-to-use communication kit.
• ✅I shared the communication kit with my collaborators and others that I want to involve.

ACTIVITY

Checklist for promotion:

• ✅I identified the channels I want to use for promotion.
• ✅I identified the stakeholders that can support me in promotion.
• ✅I gathered all the information that others need to promote my activity/message.
• ✅Title of the activity.
• ✅Dates.
• ✅Place.
• ✅Short description.
• ✅Links for more information.
• ✅Relevant, good quality picture, free of copyrights.
• ✅I shared the information in a ready-to-use manner.