2.1 Messages
The second step of the narrative change campaign planning process – Build out the elements - consists of eight elements that guide you through the development of the campaign tools and approach. On this page, we focus on the first element – Messages.
- Messages
- Stories
- Slogans & hashtags
- Evidence
- Visuals
- Messengers & supporters
- Threshold forum/publication
- Action plan
While the elements in the table above are presented in a series, the reality of this step is that you need to iterate back and forth among the different tools through the campaign build out process.
To begin the build out process, you should start by putting together the driving/overarching ideas that you wish to communicate in the campaign. This involves two main tasks:
Develop your core messages as a set of simple and memorable sentences.
What are campaign messages? Put simply, these are short verbal expressions of the core ideas you want to get across to the target audience, and are expressed normally in two to five simple short sentences. These messages will be used in longer and shorter form throughout the campaign and drive and inform all the campaign elements you will build out. The reason for ensuring your messages are expressed in short simple sentences is that they should be clear, engaging, easy to remember and easy to repeat for both your messengers and for the target audience in their sharing and retelling of your messages – i.e. be portable.
An example of such messages:
British Future in their poppy hijab campaign had three main messages:
- Not a lot of people know that over 400,000 Muslims died fighting for Britain in the First world war and we need a way to remember them along with all their fallen comrades during the centenary celebrations.
- As 60% of British Muslims wear the poppy, we hope that the poppy headscarf gives them a new way to mark Remembrance Day and raise money for the Poppy Appeal.
- It’s a simple way to say that you are proudly British and proudly Muslim.
To provide more ideas on the types of messages used in reframing campaigns, four examples of campaign messages seeking to engage the middle in the migration debate are included in the table below:
|
Campaign
|
Main Message
|
Value Appeal/Frame evoked
|
|
| 1. | #WeAreAllEngland/British Future (Euro 2016 Football Tournament Campaign) | Get people from all backgrounds in England to come together to celebrate our shared identity. | Low-bar patriotism & community affiliation |
| 2. | A fair deal on migration for UK/Institute of Public Policy Research (Polling to test a fairness message in the public) | If migrants work hard, pay in to the system, and uphold British values, we should welcome them to the UK. | Fairness, hard work, contribution and integration |
| 3. | Welcoming America – Stand Together: Messaging to Support Muslims and Refugees in Challenging Times |
Freedom of religion is a founding principle and now, people of all faiths needs to unite and stand together with open hearts and compassion in welcoming new arrivals. | Freedom of religion, humanitarianism and compassion |
| 4. | Frameworks institute – Finish the story on immigration (Research on messaging in the immigration reform debate) | Immigrants should be treated with compassion, but we need real solutions that offer a citizenship perspective, so that we can all benefit. | Humanitarianism, pragmatism and shared prosperity |
As has been the experience of our German participants on the Narrative Change Lab, it usually takes a few iterations and consultations with the campaign team to come to these succinct and clear statements of the core ideas. We often ask participants to have the following scenario in their heads as they work on this drafting: imagine you are being interviewed by a journalist for two minutes about the campaign. Think about the core ideas you want to convey and write these down. Through a process of sharing and comparing the individual ideas among campaign team members, the team can come to an agreed set of core messages.
Ensure your messages achieve the right balance of resonance and dissonance.
As evident in the examples above, campaigners are following the principle of developing messages with a balance of familiarity/resonance and dissonance/challenge. In choosing to focus on appeals made to values such as patriotism, right to worship, humanitarianism and pragmatism, the campaigners are building on an overlapping and familiar value space with their more conservative middle audiences, but they then connect these values to something challenging. The following example illustrates the skilful balancing act of getting the message right:
Taking the messages from the Hope not Hate campaign above and breaking down the approach:
|
Message
|
Resonance
|
Dissonance/Reframe
|
| 1. Support people’s right to workshop as they choose. | Right to worship is a core conservative value and hence, is very reassuring for the conservative councillors that were the audience. | Applying this right to a Muslim minority group from their local community is not something they would have considered. |
| 2. We are decent, hard-working traditional conservatives, not like those protesting, hard line extremists. | As a conservative town, decency, and a middle of the road commitment is a basic. | There was a public demonstration by neo Nazis and there may have been a temptation to go along with their anger and hatred. |
Getting this balance right is normally what we call a “reframe”. Remember in this messaging approach you are trying to start a different kind of conversation or at a minimum create some kind of doubt in an “us versus them” view of the world.
Step 2.1 Campaign messages
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What are the core ideas you want to communicate to your target segment? Write them down in two to five simple sentences and negotiate them with your campaign team.
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How to you think your target middle audiences will react to these messages? Will they create a warm response? Do the messages have the right balance of being engaging and thought provoking?
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Are the messages easy to remember and retell?
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What is the reaction of others outside the campaign team to the messages? Get feedback on your draft messages.