Build Campaigns that Engage People to Win Bigger
The Campaign Accelerator blends high-performing campaign strategy tools and collaborative processes with proven methods inspired by design thinking. We’ve found that this hybrid approach enables teams to build campaigns that engage more people in deeper, more powerful ways.
Benefit 1
More powerful campaigns with people power truly at the heart.
Benefit 2
More innovative and creative campaign concepts to engage your key audiences.
Benefit 3
Fully aligned teams ready to move forward together – collaboratively and responsively.
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Benefit 4
Ongoing iteration and adaptation built in to your campaign from the start.
Essential training for any campaigner who wants to make a real difference in the world on the key issue they are working on.
Devadass Gnanapragasam,Totally changed my idea of campaigns! Stop thinking in year long blocks and start doing something now!
Caitlin Ryan,Learn to use the Campaign Accelerator
MobLab leads Campaign Accelerator Facilitation Trainings and can also provide workshops customised to fit the needs of a campaign or organisation. We also make training and support resources freely available.
Let’s set up a chat if:
- You’re planning a campaign, and the team is ready for a new approach.
- You’re part of a multi-stakeholder project, where outside facilitation of a collaborative approach would lead to more productive outcomes.
- You’re a consultant working with an organisation that could benefit from this blend of strategy, cross-team collaboration, and audience-centric thinking
Results: Plan for Moving Forward
By the end of the five day programme, teams generate a project plan with clear next steps based on an analysis of the problem and solution, audience research, and tested ideas that address the campaign challenge.
Participants also walk away with processes and tools for radical collaboration and planning that can be taken home and used with their teams long after their week together ends.
Organisations That Have Participated
The Five Day Process
Day 1: Define
On Day 1, we focus on strategy through a mix of tools to build a common understanding of the challenge. We start by creating a vision for a radically positive future and dig deep into the problem to identify the hidden causes behind the problem we are trying to solve. We look at the whole system and trends to identify existing and possible disruptions that could address the root causes of the problem. We define possible strategies that our organisation can take to create change and identify the people with whom we need to work to deliver solutions.
Day 2: Sense
Day 2 focuses on gaining insight and building empathy with people we want to reach and engage with during the campaign. We do this by defining specific audiences, identifying uncertainties and assumptions we have about the strategy and conducting field research to gain insights into their needs, motivations and barriers. Participants find people who fit our key audiences and then interview them in order to surface patterns or trends. These interviews and observations generate critical insights to inform our next step: creative idea generation.
Day 3: Create
On the third day, the team creates and develop ideas specific to our strategy based on insights from the previous day. We employ a structured idea development process based on creative principles and typically invite external guests to maximize creativity and idea generation. We use agreed criteria to select several testable project ideas that put audiences at the centre of our efforts to bring about change.
Day 4: Prototype & Test
On Day 4, we discover which project ideas resonate with audiences by creating low fidelity prototypes for each of the proposed project ideas and conduct field research to test concepts with key audiences. This allows us to determine which ideas will be most effective and make improvements based on their feedback.
By the end of Day 4, we’ll have an agreed strategy, defined target audiences, agreement on which ideas we will take forward and an understanding of how to improve it/them based on audience feedback.
Day 5: Plan & Pitch
The final day synthesizes everything into a plan we can pitch to decision makers or funders and begin implementing. We develop an outline of the project plan – including the campaign story, engagement strategy, timeline of activities, responsibilities, success metrics, and immediate next steps. Together we define what success looks like and how it will be measured. Finally, we create a timeline with clearly assigned tasks and roles. We also explore how the team will work together to deliver this new plan.
What to Expect
This is an action-based process. We develop ideas and test theories. We get out of the meeting room and work with key audiences. Over five days, the plan evolves and gets refined. Multidisciplinary teams work together–team members contribute equally throughout the process by relying on diverse perspectives and expertise.
Together, problems are identified and solutions tested, building a culture of collaboration that lasts beyond the planning process.
Participants have remarked that there was no difference between roles during the process. Alignment on strategy and plan through the process brings higher levels of autonomy during implementation. Teams are able to focus on the big picture instead of small details.
By the end of the five day programme, teams generate a project plan with clear next steps based on an analysis of the problem and solution, audience research, and tested ideas that address the campaign challenge.
Participants also walk away with processes and tools for radical collaboration and planning that can be taken home and used with their teams long after their week together ends.
Why Design Thinking?
Design thinking has earned a reputation for generating innovative new products and services.
We’re seeing the methodologies spread quickly throughout the international aid and development sectors (“human centred design“), and the NGO / advocacy worlds are beginning to take note as well.
Adapting and including a design thinking approach in campaign planning develops empathy with audiences, challenges assumptions, and helps us better understand people’s challenges and needs.
The process includes field research and interacting with key audiences to uncover what inspires action. Gaining empathy helps remove the barriers between ‘us’ as staff and ‘them’ as people we wish to engage.
Design thinking uses prototypes and testing to gather direct feedback on how and why people engage in and interact with campaigns. The process of prototyping, testing and iterating based on feedback frees teams up to try wild ideas while minimising risks. Free from failure, participants find courage to try new things rather than sticking to what they already know.
Frequently Asked Questions
What makes a good project for the Accelerator?
How does it work?
Who needs to participate in the workshop?
When and where?
Can this happen in a language other than English?
What will you get out of it?
What are some problems that this addresses?
Additionally, the Campaign Accelerator has been designed to address or at least mitigate all of these potential issues we’ve seen:
- General boredom with “traditional” or “business as usual” planning processes, which can result in unimaginative campaigns that feel like they’ve been done before.
- Strategy developed by a smaller team that, even if it make sense, can’t be executed because the full team doesn’t really understand it.
- Campaigns developed where the outputs are completely out of sync with the audiences who are actually needed.
- Campaigns which fail to have the desired impact.
How can I run my own version of the Accelerator?
We’re also running periodic facilitation trainings. Please consider joining the next one!