One of the hardest things to master is how to deliver a truly effective campaign. 

 

As someone who judges a lot of “Campaign of the Year” awards, it is very easy to spot a bad campaign from a good one.

 

A bad campaign tends to be “here are lots of examples of great things that we produced, including leaflets, videos, press releases and stakeholder comms” with ‘some’ evaluation, which is usually media cuttings and perhaps data on audience reach through impressions and clicks.

 

The content is often amazing – but you will still score badly and, much more importantly, your campaign is unlikely to actually deliver what you set out to achieve. This is because it has not been planned, coordinated and executed in a methodical, carefully thought-through way.

 

Ok, the thought of methodology may not sound like the most exciting thing in the world, but there is a term for campaigns that do not use a clear and comprehensive methodology… It is called “SOS comms” or “Sending out Stuff” and hoping for the best. And as a spoiler - it rarely works. 

 

Thankfully, help is on hand to guide us through the minefield that can be the campaign planning process. It is called ROSIE, or its predecessor, OASIS. They are both virtually identical and have been designed in a way that allows us to think through the planning elements in a logical order where every stage of work informs the other.

 

So, let’s look at the ROSIE in more detail:

R stands for Research. We first need to understand what the issue is that we are trying to solve, why is it an issue and what are the behavioural barriers and motivators for different audiences?

 

All this rich insight will help define our realistic Objectives, which need to be rooted in data. After all, there is little point in launching a campaign unless we can measure its success.

 

The insight will also help us to set out our Strategy. Who are we going to reach and why? And what will make them change their perception or behaviour? These days the most sophisticated strategies are ones that use behavioural insight based on a deep understanding of what makes people tick.

 

At which point we can start to develop our Implementation plan with specific activity within a specific time period, within a specific budget, with specific roles and responsibilities for the team clearly set out.

 

Evaluation then needs to be continually happening throughout the campaign rather than only at the end. This means that we can track performance in a way that enables us to change things based on what the data says, creating a more reactive and fluid campaign that caters to our different audiences’ needs. 

 

There will be a correlation between the effectiveness of your campaign and the level of sophistication that you bring to the planning and execution of ROSIE, which is why the use of ROSIE itself is something that continually evolves as communication and marketing practice evolves. 

 

We will be hosting a 5-day campaign planning masterclass from 10am - 12pm between Monday 17th  and Friday 21st May, where we will delve into ROSIE in more detail and equip you with everything that you need to plan impactful and measurably successful campaigns. 

 

Book yourself on the Westco Academy ROSIE course here. 

How to deliver an effective, award-winning campaign 

Our Executive Director of Communications, Simon Jones, delves into why planning an effective campaign is one of the hardest arts to master - but why with Westco Academy, it needn’t be.