It may be difficult to admit to but not all public affairs campaigns succeed. Such failures can happen for a number of reasons but it does everyone good to occasionally reflect and learn. We all want to celebrate success but you can often learn more from failures.
Reflecting on campaigns that haven’t quite gone to plan reveals a few key themes that we can all learn from.
- A lack of buy-in across the organisation – this can happen amongst a senior management team as much as it can amongst different parts of the organisation. This often arises if a campaign is designed without sufficient input from across the organisation and / or fails to utilise the ideas and expertise that exist inside. Another similar failing is not bringing that expertise to bear during the engagement, ie not inviting the right people / internal experts to meetings. This not only makes the campaign weaker but also risks undermining it.
- Too little consideration of a solution – rather than focusing on a proposed outcome, the campaign becomes an opportunity to moan about policy rather than giving stakeholders specific tasks and proposing a way out of the problem. That solution could be a complete U-turn but if that is the case then it will impact on the campaign and the tactics employed.
- Talking to the wrong people at the wrong time – a comprehensive and detailed stakeholder list is essential but if the process of the decision is not understood then it is too easy to speak to potentially relevant stakeholders, but at the wrong time. That makes them the wrong stakeholders for that stage of the campaign so timescales need to be factored in. It is both about the people and the way that the decision is being made or could be made.
- The wrong platforms for change are employed – this is really focused on a potential lack of effectiveness of engagement processes. So even if the right stakeholders are identified, the appropriate methods are being employed to engage with them. The initial stakeholder analysis should also consider the most effective ways in which the audiences can be engaged. Most often briefings and one-to-one meetings are the right way forward. But it could include digital interaction, video content or even large-scale meetings. Using platforms at the wrong time can impact on a campaign as well. Too swift or too early a use of the media can simply alienate audiences, causing bad feeling rather than influencing them positively to your cause or campaign.
- Failure to deliver on promises – sometimes campaigns make promises, sometimes to individual stakeholders, that are then not delivered on. This might not be deliberate but could simply be an outcome of poor management or a failure to keep adequate notes of meetings.
- Failure to maintain momentum – campaigns can start off with a large of degree of enthusiasm and activity but this has to be maintained. That should be part of the initial planning stage with key milestones mapped out covering a period of time but that is not always the case. So bad initial planning or a failure to update plans means that there is simply nothing to say or do that maintains the campaign or the interest of stakeholders. Momentum can also be lost if the campaign does not change over time taking into account feedback or policy changes. Changed circumstances should mean a changed campaign.
- Being side-tracked (internal) – new priorities can take over and as an organisation shifts its focus that can lead to one campaign being abandoned before completion and a new one starting. That may not be the fault of the team leading the campaign but they might need to stand up for it. If an organisation ever gets the reputation for being a ‘butterfly’ then stakeholders will start to doubt its authenticity and ability to deliver. That will lead them to dis-engage.
- Being side-tracked (external) – changes can also come about for external reasons as well. These may be to do with the operation of the organisation but could come about because of media pressure or activity in Parliament. A hit on the reputation of an organisation could lead to a campaign being abandoned quite quickly and / or in a public way as well.
- Teams change – campaign teams can impact as well, positively or negatively. Shifts in personnel might mean that collective knowledge is lost which adversely impacts on a campaign. But often when a senior change happens the new incumbent likes to make a mark and show that they are different. That can mean that the old ways (campaigns) go and new ones come in.
- Your ideas are rejected! There is no disgrace in having failing to deliver on what you set out to achieve. It could be that a slightly different compromise is found or you might simply have crashed and burned. The important thing to consider is whether the campaign and its aims were ever realistic or whether there was a failing in the campaign that caused this. This is where important learning can take place.
These are just a few of the reasons why a public affairs campaign can fail. The critical thing is to be aware so that you can do something about them and not fail into any obvious pitfalls.