Campaigning on Your College Campus: Part I

Are you a member of a student organization? Is your group looking to campaign on campus? Well, you've come to the right place for learning the DOs and DONT's of campaigning on your campus!


1. BEFORE YOU BEGIN CREATING MESSAGES: THINK FIRST

COMMON TYPE OF MESSAGES ON CAMPUS. Choose the best one for you.

• banners (broadcast a message like a billboard; all audiences welcome)
• fliers / handbills / circulars (means the same thing, intended for the message to get passed around)
• petitions / pledges (getting people on your team; looking for commitment)
• literature / pamphlets (leisure reading)
• signs / posters (intended for quick reading / seen from a distance)
• social media (blogs, MySpace, FaceBook; intended for interactive participation)
• promotional items (clothes, bags, stickers, etc.; intended to generate a buzz)
• guerrilla marketing (sidewalk chalk graffiti, symbolic actions; inexpensive, mysterious approach)

MESSAGE STRATEGYMEANS RESEARCH

Know Your Audience
Find out what makes them tick. Whether your audience is colelge students, young women, church groups, governments; whatever it is, the way you approach each one will be differnt. This means, the 'personality' of your message will need to addressed through specific colors, fonts and media. Where do these people hang out? Who do they talk to? What do they wear, etc.

Don't Reinvent the Wheel
If you're tryign to come up with a way to communicate a particular message, chances are, it's been done before. Check with other chapters, and find out what already exists. Take their idea and make it your own.

Think about what you've been exposed to in the past. What made the light go off in your head? What was the trigger point that made you react?

What's the Desired Outcome?
Basically this is the answer to, "What's the purpose?" With ALL marketing and adveritsing, whether you're selling sodas or diapers, the main objective is to create a call-to-action; which ultimately means, the audience will think, feel or do something.

"The purpose of all advertising is to establish
or change someone's attitude."

An attitude is a predisposition to a specific judgmeent to a designated social situation; behavior pattern. The only way to change an attitude is repetition (frequency) and consistency.

This means, repeating the same message over and over again. Consistency means, doing it in the same way, each time it's repeated; i.e. same placement of text, same colors, same logo, etc.

Getting Credibility
When you repeat the same message consistently, over time, your brand will start gaining credibility and trust with your target audience. When this happens, your audience will then be able to recall the name/purpose/campaign and, every creative director's dream, brand recognition.

Recall - remember something without seeing it.
Recognition - see an element of thebrand, and be able to identify what it is.

REMEMBER

1. Always communicate one message at a time. One thought at a time.
2. Your message is not always about looking pretty.
   

Sometimes photos may be better than text, and sometimes illustrations may be better than photos. Depends on the situation, who your audience is, and what you're communicating.