Movement campaign proposal from early 2012.

1. Movement
Advocacy &
Communications
Copyright 2012 Joseph Serwach

2. Influencing movements:
How it’s worked before
• The Protest March (1st:
Gandhi, 1913. Technique
peaked in the U.S.: 1960s).
• Phone trees (though
phone usage is way down)
• Community organizing
(but definition of community
is changing)

3. Influencing movements
How it works in 2012
• Egypt, Libya uprisings
• Ever-changing GOP
frontrunner
• Coca Cola ‘white’
Christmas cans
• Susan G. Komen
• Pete Hoekstra ad

4. Word of mouth is back
• “We used to live on farms,
then we lived in cities and
now we’re going to live on the
Internet,’’ - Sean Parker in
The Social Network.
• “The world produces as much
content in 48 hours as we did
between the dawn of time and
2003,’’ - former Google
CEO Eric Schmidt.
• Information overload: Just like
Costco shoppers, customers
need and require a referral.

5. • “What we call social media is not media, nor is it even a
platform. It is a massive cultural shift that has profoundly
affected the way society uses the greatest platform ever
invented, the Internet.... Word of mouth is back. When
society cut the close personal and business ties that
existed in older, smaller communities, people became like
ants scattered around a picnic table - really busy, really
strong, but too far apart from one another to get much
accomplished as a unit... the power of social media can
allow all the ants to collectively gather under the table,
and they’re strong enough to haul it away if they so
choose..’’ -- Gary Vaynerchuk in The Thank
You Economy

6. • Today’s movements rise to life online
• And especially on social media

8. How do you break
through the noise?
Context matters

9. Making the case
• MEDC made the case for Michigan with a
``Why Michigan’’ campaign including a 2
minute video (downloadable and shared
with all state fans) and a page elaborating
on the main talking points as well as 3rd
party validation: links to news, editorials
making the same case.

11. Make it simple
• Clicking ‘like’ is easier than signing a
petition or answering a phone
• Make the case quickly (takeaway point)
• Get them everything they need (3rd party
validation, research, news coverage
• Show them their friends are doing it, the
everyone seems to agree

12. Sites can go up in a day
• When MLive broke the news of Wisconsin’s
launching its own ``mitten’’ campaign, we
launched whoistherealmittenstate.com in a
day, allowing people to vote.We used the
site to drive buzz and attract media
attention. The effort attracted national
attention.

14. Making it Stick
• Conflict is by definition the essential
element of any good story and people
share and remember good stories
(particularly come from behind or David
and Goliath stories). So a Flint comeback
story lead to a video that was leveraged
widely, picked up by GM’s blog, NPR and
others.

16. First impressions matter
• Reporters/public officials and voters don’t
have the time to do the research/reporting
they once did. They appreciate it when that
work is done for them and bundled into an
appealing, professional-looking package.

18. Case study
• We pushed out a video on a new MEDC
talent program by emailing it to 28,000
stakeholders, adding several links to
national stories making the case that
Michigan is No. 1 in jobs growth and a
national role model. Result: a Wall Street
Journal reporter called 2 hours later.

20. What’s possible?

21. • SavetheGreatLakes.org
• KeeptheGreatLakesClean.org
• KeeptheGreatLakesPure.org
• All names are available as domains and on
Facebook and Twitter.

22. Plan of Action
• Step 1: Buy domains, build web site and related Social
Media pages (by Feb. 20).
• Step 2: Develop content including a strong call to
action, package 3rd party validation.
• Step 3: Build up list of influencers and stakeholders
who can be targeted with a digital marketing piece
driving them to this content.
• Step 4: Push to media and update sites through
campaign.