My next blog post will be about promotion. With the development of our message strategy in our campaign process we want to figure out what behavior do you want your target audience to do, know, and believe. Lets look at some domestic violence campaign’s messages.
First I ask myself when exploring promotion, What do I want my target audience to know? The above message is a good example of that concept. The statistics gives the audience the information and therefore knowledge that 2 women die every week from domestic violence. This gives the audience the knowledge that domestic violence is real, frequent, and we need to be aware.
The next message strategy question is what do you want your target audience to do? From this ad I gather the “do” is don’t be silent with friends you suspect are victims of domestic violence, talk to them, ask them about it. This gives the audience an action for their knowledge. This again promotes the message by creating knowledge about the issue and what you can do about it.
The final concept of message strategy is what do you want your audience to believe? I feel this image is a good example of a message of” belief”. We are saying no to domestic violence as a community and we can stand next to those who are abused and believe we can stop the cycle of abuse.
Some other aspects of promotion are some key creative tips in your message. I have found some message images that I felt contained those creative strengths regarding domestic violence campaigns.
- Keep it clear and simple. The above image has simple statements with an action included. Recognize abuse, respond to abuse, and refer the abused.
2. Focus on Audience Benefits.
The benefit here in this message is that if you seek help early in Family Violence you can avoid destroying lives of all the family members involved, therefore they all benefit.
3. When using fear, follow up with solutions and use credible sources.
The question if your children respect you or fear you is eliciting fear in the parent. Do they think their power is good power? The follow up with resources for men to have the strength to stop domestic violence is credible and a action/solution they can perform confidentially.
4. Try for messages that are vivid, concrete, and personal.
Here we have Kim Kardashian with obvious signs of physical abuse. That is vivid since she is a women in our culture that is looked up to for her looks and power. This message is concrete because it is to the point about breaking the silence of domestic violence is the right action regardless of who you are and that silence is what the perpetrator wants, that is their strength. This message is personal because it states that no woman is immune from domestic violence, meaning it is all women’s issues if it is occurring.
5. Make messages easy to remember.
The NO MORE campaign against Domestic Violence is the same visual of the NO MORE with an image of a celebrity. This is easy for audiences to recognize wherever and whenever they see it.
6. Have a little fun sometimes.
There is nothing funny or fun about violence. However the image of Cinderella as an abuse victim is a little more lighthearted (if you can say that) then an image of a human. However this works as as message because it is someone little girls most likely once idolized and now this is what has happened to their dreams of love and a relationship.
Those were some of the creative tips when promoting your message/campaign that were mentioned in the class reading. I find it interesting to have one visual say so much, and it is nice to have guidelines on what the visual possesses in means of strategy and therefore hopefully giving it more strength and effectiveness. When a message has more effectiveness it can and will reach more people!
IN A PERFECT WORLD 