From Black History Month, World Mental Health Day and International Women’s Day to International Hummus Day, National Pizza Month and many more beyond, are awareness days, weeks and months for practically everything.
In September 2022, the PRCA Charity & Not-for-Profit Group invited two expert speakers to discuss a range of questions and issues around these calendar moments.
Find the full event recording on YouTube, or at the end of this synopsis.
In her presentation (you can access slides here), Louise Akers of the Campaign Collective began by urging attendees to carefully consider their aims and objectives before beginning to plan any activity. This must include weighing up the pros and cons of creating your own awareness day (or week or month) or trying to piggyback on existing moments.
After looking through three successful initiatives she has worked on in recent years, Louise’s final slide included a checklist of things to do to make your awareness plans land well. This includes making sure that you have a real news hook, as journalists aren’t interested in awareness days in and of themselves without there being a story attached to it.
James McCollum of Barley Communications began his presentation (find slides here) by urging charity PR pros to consider their potential activity through the four principles of relevance, impact, tactics and tone, to help determine the scale and nature of the activity. He also highlighted points put forward in the 2017 book, The Awareness Myth, which notes that some awareness events can actually be counterproductive by using awareness as an end-point, rather than creating solutions and progress.
James also gave tips on timing activity and the importance of using case studies and lived experience in both planning and execution - something which the Charity and Not-for-Profit Group covered in an event last year. He also reminded attendees of a classic example of an organisation getting the tone very wrong in a post to mark International Women’s Day.
The event then moved to a panel discussion and Q&A. Key takeaways from this part of the discussion included:
● Thinking about how to set measurable objectives and analyse your success in meeting them
● Remembering that trying to piggyback can backfire if your organisation doesn’t completely live the values it is endorsing, looking back to highly effective work on Twitter by the Gender Pay Gap Bot account
● Responding to negativity: make sure you have anticipated potential criticisms and potential critics, and planned how (and if) you will reply or react to them
● Effectively incorporating policy and fundraising goals into your awareness events
● Making sure you don’t reinforce stereotypes, particularly through imagery - with one attendee referring to the Centre for Ageing Better’s image library as an example of a charity trying to bust these stereotypes
● The David and Goliath issue - tactics if you are ‘going up against a much larger organisation whose story might seem more likely to get coverage than yours
● The lessons being learnt during the period of national mourning following the Queen’s death, in which several organisations and brands, Center Parcs most notable among them, have failed to get the tone right
Many thanks to Louise and James for being part of this insightful event. The Charity & Not-for-Profit would be grateful for any attendees who are able to give anonymous feedback through this short survey.
As the event took place during that period of national mourning the Money and Pensions Service, which is a public body, had to withdraw its speakers from the panel. It had been due to talk about the upcoming Talk Money Week, which will take place in November, but wanted to share participant packs (in English and Welsh) for any attendees wanting to learn more.
The event was chaired by Sam Burne James, a freelance communications consultant and member of the PRCA Charity & Not-for-Profit Group.