1. Chapter 11
Campaigns
This is PR 11th Edition
Newsom, Turk and Kruckeberg

2. Objectives
• To know the types of campaigns public relations practitioners
typically plan and execute for their organizations
• To understand the campaign process and be able to identify
the characteristics of a successful campaign
• To understand how to prepare a campaign, including
planning, goal-setting, timetables and budgets
• To understand the need for campaign evaluation and be able
to identify types of evaluation appropriate for public relations
campaigns
• To develop a sensitivity toward cultural distinctions
throughout the world and an understanding of how different
campaign strategies, tactics and techniques for different
publics may be needed when planning a public relations
campaign that is worldwide in scope
This is PR 11th Edition
Newsom, Turk and Kruckeberg

3. What is a Campaign?
• Coordinated, purposeful, extended effort
• Designed to achieve a specific goal or set
of interrelated goals
• Intended to move an organization toward a
goal or long-range objective
• Addresses an issue, solves a problem,
corrects or improves a situation
• Changes, modifies or reinforces behavior,
opinion, law
This is PR 11th Edition
Newsom, Turk and Kruckeberg

4. Types of PR Campaigns
• Public awareness
• Public information
• Public education
• Reinforcement of attitudes, behavior
• Change or attempted change of attitudes,
behavior
• Behavior modification
This is PR 11th Edition
Newsom, Turk and Kruckeberg

5. Characteristics of Successful
Campaigns
• Based on assessment of the needs, goals
and capabilities of priority public
• Based on systematic planning and
production
• Incorporates continuous monitoring and
evaluation
• Takes into account complementary roles of
mass media and interpersonal
communication
• Selects appropriate media for publics
This is PR 11th Edition
Newsom, Turk and Kruckeberg

6. Successful Campaign Model
• Definitive mission statement (Values)
• Corporate culture (Shared Values)
• Positive public relationships (Expressed
Values)
• Reputation (Understood Values)
• Selection of appropriate media for each
priority public, with due consideration of
each medium’s ability to deliver the
message
This is PR 11th Edition
Newsom, Turk and Kruckeberg

7. Successful Campaign
Elements
• Educational aspect: always educates, enlightens
its public(s)
• Engineering aspect: ensures that the means to
the desired behavior exist and are readily
available
• Enforcement aspect: provides something beyond
simple incentives to support behavioral change
• Entitlement aspect: convinces publics of the
value of the appeals of the campaign so they
“buy into” the message
• Evaluation aspect: evaluated frequently to
provide a “report card”
This is PR 11th Edition
Newsom, Turk and Kruckeberg

8. Planning a Campaign
• Look at the organization’s mission and the
goals and objectives of the PR program
• Develop goals and objectives for the
campaign that are in line with the
organization's plan
• Decide how you will measure
accomplishments, success
This is PR 11th Edition
Newsom, Turk and Kruckeberg

9. Planning a Campaign (cont.)
• Consider demographics, psychographics of
publics
• Define what needs to happen as a result of
the campaign
• Set a timetable for the campaign and build
in time for glitches and delays
• Determine the campaign’s budget and the
source of the funding
This is PR 11th Edition
Newsom, Turk and Kruckeberg

10. Planning a Campaign (cont.)
• Choose a theme based on what the public
needs to know
• Choose messages and channels for
distributing those messages
• Develop a contingency plan in case the first
theme or message strategy is not
successful
• Sell your plan to management
This is PR 11th Edition
Newsom, Turk and Kruckeberg

11. Implementing the Campaign
• Adapt and apply tactics and techniques called for
in the plan
• Check all elements against your desired overall
strategy and theme
• Adhere to timetable and budget
• Keep management and those involved in the
campaign informed of every development
• Solve problems that arise quickly and positively
This is PR 11th Edition
Newsom, Turk and Kruckeberg

12. Evaluating the Campaign
• Two types: monitoring and postmortems
• Monitoring ongoing during campaign
• May include unobtrusive measures as well
as formal research
• Benefits from a postmortem: a thorough,
honest autopsy of what worked, what didn’t
– Uses formal research
– Only constructive criticism permitted
This is PR 11th Edition
Newsom, Turk and Kruckeberg

13. Evaluating the Campaign
(cont.)
• Evaluate impact on publics
• Evaluate effect on organization’s mission
and goals
• Evaluate impact on attitudes, perceptions of
publics
• Evaluate effect on organization's financial
status, ethical stance, social responsibility
commitment
This is PR 11th Edition
Newsom, Turk and Kruckeberg

14. Changing Behavior with
Campaigns
• Information, awareness only steps toward
ultimate goal of changing behavior
• Changing behavior works best when the
people being asked to change are involved
in formulating the campaign’s behavioral
goals
• Top-down often doomed to failure
• Grassroots, bottom-up more likely to
succeed
This is PR 11th Edition
Newsom, Turk and Kruckeberg

15. Government Campaigns
• Many countries have government agencies
that develop campaigns to deal with social
or economic issues
– Population control in China and India
– Economic restructuring in Romania and
Bulgaria
– Tourism in Mexico
This is PR 11th Edition
Newsom, Turk and Kruckeberg

16. Global Campaigns
• One size doesn’t fit all
• Difficult to coordinate seamless campaigns,
either at home or abroad
• Language barriers, government regulation,
cultural sensitivities make some issues
taboo as well as some techniques, slogans,
appeals
This is PR 11th Edition
Newsom, Turk and Kruckeberg