Lesson 1: Public Awareness Campaign Design
Recommended size of the group: from 6 to 30 people
Aims of lesson:
This lesson will give participants tools to learn about elements of a good Public Awareness Campaign (PAC) design starting by the PAC example held in the safety road awareness campaign .We will use the elements of this campaign to create a new awareness campaign about tolerance and respect of the other, promoting a communication to disseminate a positive message. The participant will be able to plan a PAC using also digital tools.
Objectives / learning outcomes of the lesson
After the lesson participants will:
- Have a better understanding of the importance of Public Awareness Campaign in order to promote behaviour change in a person, community, or society;
- Gain knowledge about PACs campaign creation;
- Understand the importance of PACs in the international context;
- Improve the adult educators’ skills and competencies using this awareness campaign as a tool to educate about tolerance;
- Improve positive communication skills to use media tools to promote tolerance in their adult classrooms.
Resources needed:
- Video-Projector
- Computer
- Tablet or mobile phone
- Sound System
- Colourful markers/Crayons
- Internet connection
- Spacious training room with enough space to have people working in groups
Teaching methods:
- Experience-based learning
- Teaching with Visual Aids
- Cooperative learning
- Group work approach
- Case studies/good practice sharing
- Learning through experience
Brief remarks (about learning through experience)
An efficient teaching technique is LEARNING through experience. Therefore, the campaign needs to create enough action to make people find a possibility to cope with the issue and find the solution. This can be achieved through many sources: besides physical engagement, visual aid is also a good tool to use.
Content:
A good public awareness campaign is a well-defined message or concrete call to action presented through a clear story line to a precise target audience in relatable terms. This can be achieved by putting the right components in the right order, action and visual aids. But the most important thing is engaging a simple and direct approach towards the audience.
Some measures directly aim to change behaviour (e.g. NOT USE HATE WORDS, USE POSITVE APPROACH IN THE COMUNICATION, USE POSITIVE IMAGES etc.)
It is important that the message is short, clear and unambiguous. Furthermore, it is important that a campaign make use of different media (e.g. billboards, radio and television, social media, leaflets, etc.), and is repeated several times.
Public awareness campaigns are divided into three types being differentiated with the ultimate aim; some are designed to raise awareness about an issue or to inform, others are created to change attitudes, while the third type is to change behaviour, as part of a package of measures. A number of variables directly influence the level of anticipated changes and are important to take into consideration when attempting to conduct a campaign for changing users’ behaviour. Raising awareness that the threat exists, focusing on severity and susceptibility, while providing evidence that the recommended response will avert the mentioned threat. Among other variables are also physical or cultural barriers and their removal, if possible. The audience should always be reminded of the benefits that it can have in its daily life.
The delivery method
also creates obvious divisions amongst public awareness campaigns. Sometimes,
public awareness campaigns are overly persuasive; other times, they simply aim
to inform and enlighten. However, even though their aim varies,
and different delivery methods are chosen depending on what they aim to
achieve, the purpose of every public awareness campaign is the same: to inform
the general public audience about a certain topic or issue, which will achieve
one or more of the identified aims of the campaign that were mentioned earlier.
Therefore, the final goal is to spread information with anticipation of a
change within the society regarding the specific issue.
As for example, explaining benefits of the immigration, can be seen as an enrichment both cultural and economic.
The beginning, ending and the process of changing behaviour is standardized into 6 stages described below, that the public should experience in order to create a permanent effect. Afterwards, ten core elements of a public awareness campaign can be found, which were designed to elaborate the steps required to create, develop and utilize a campaign with the anticipated outcomes. The information for both segments is based on different documents and sources reviewed, while examining the topics of behavioural and attitude change, as well as the public awareness campaign strategy.
1. Interest - identify a precise target group. Aim at the public lacking expertise on the issue and the most affected population. This allows a more efficient message delivery.
2. Develop Interest – use a clear story in relatable terms, appropriate to a wider public to create a momentum for the campaign. This starts the practical part of the campaign. (Interest is not Knowledge)
3. Concern & Awareness – create circumstances for people to experience the issue through visual aid and other techniques. (Concern is the first step towards awareness)
4. Knowledge - provide Information. Public is willing to broaden their knowledge at this point.
5. Action – public is willing to engage themselves on this issue.
6. Final Stage – results should start to be obvious via behavioural change and the impact that has on the main issue. (i.e. The use of a less violent language approach during public events)
Core Elements – 10 Stages of a Public Awareness Campaign
As mentioned earlier, based on the experience of different public awareness campaigns, they should have the following core elements. The stages are described in a consecutive manner to demonstrate their linear application, while the circular diagram shows the constructive and reusable nature of public awareness campaigns.
1. Research
Identify the target audience and their main behavioural traits and issues – as any preplanning activity, it will save time in further development of the campaign and increase the effectiveness due to precision. Select data/evidence-based material to base the campaign on – such choice of materials is better received by public and has a more long-lasting consequence on the behavioural change.
2. Set the Target
Define problem – it is crucial to identify a specific issue that the campaign will deal with, before actual planning begins, in order to avoid ambiguities in further steps. Determine objectives – another pre-planning step will prevent you from having an open ending to the campaign and aim towards tangible results.
Examine the validity of the cause and approach – being certain that the issue addressed in the campaign and the chosen method for behaviour change has to be approved at this point in order to avoid wasteful activity.
3. Plan the Campaign
Agree on supporting activities – political support is essential both at the national or local levels, depending on the issues. Identify the key interventions required to support the desired change in behaviour and the responsible organizations. Identify a manager – every successful campaign requires an influential leading agency, whose sphere of influence is covering the issue addressed by the campaign, and who will manage the campaign. The credibility behind the chosen agency is essential to grasp the audience`s attention and have an impact on them.
4. Use the Right Skills
Specialists with behavioural and social science skills should design the content of the campaign and identify the target audience and messages. Delivering the message requires marketing, social advocacy and advertising skills.
5. Communications Brief
This element is one of the key components that ties the preparatory and executive parts of any campaign. Summarize the behavioural and social objectives of the campaign, the supporting government/community interventions, the target audience and the scope of the campaign. Outline a communications strategy, based on market segmentation and targeting, and the resources available to support the campaign. The strategy derives from information collected in previous steps and will serve as a personalized guide for a campaign in question.
6. Seek Expertise
In comparison to the leading agency, this segment is concerned with the marketing aspect and the overall design of the Awareness Campaign. Internal or external experts have to be engaged in order to put together a high-quality campaign, but which has to collaborate with the Leading Agency.
7. Develop the Campaign
Research is crucial to developing effective approaches and they are likely to vary for different target groups in different cultures. Other government, community and police supporting actions should be planned in conjunction with the campaign. (Related to the “Successful Public Awareness Campaign” stages)
8. Implementation
Deliver the Campaign – Implement the plan, in a way that the launch of the Campaign is receiving a lot of publicity, in order to get a good momentum for raising awareness about the chosen issue. Utilize “free” media – do not neglect all media outlets, because many of them work.
9. Evaluate the Impact
Measure short-term behavioural changes through a pre- and post-campaign survey. Anticipate long-term behavioural changes over a period of time.
10. Repeat
The process for a new campaign and use the experience from previous one to be more efficient, regardless of the issue.
Evaluation
Peer Quizzes:
The participants will be divided into smaller groups and ask each other some questions about the contents of the first lesson.
For example:
- What are your expectations on the use of the PACs in your educational context?
- The awareness campaign could be a good approach to promote tolerance in adult educational context.
- Experiences’ exchanges and suggestions.