One step at a time: executing social movement campaign at the pace of our audience
Bumi Kepanasan (a coalition open-source campaign)
2024
From 2023 to 2024, in collaboration with various CSOs from all over Indonesia, C4C conducted an open-source campaign entitled "Bumi Kepanasan" to instill a sense of urgency among uninitiated social media users about policies to mitigate climate change. This is the lesson we have learned from the campaign.
Many NGOs and activists design social movement campaigns, often conducted online in hopes of reaching a wide audience. However, campaigners frequently find themselves frustrated because campaigns they perceive as "buzzing" don't seem to bring about tangible change. Social change rarely happens immediately; it is a gradual process that requires patience, persistence, strategic planning, and realistic expectations of how humans change their behavior.
Social movement campaigns are more than demonstrations and rallies
A social movement is a loosely organized but sustained campaign in support of a social goal. Campaigns may aim to influence policies, or target specific demographics to push for behavioral change through interventions that shift attitudes and practices.
Social change comes from individual changes
People unfamiliar with an issue need to go through many stages before they are willing to engage in collective action. Using the AIDA model (Attention, Interest, Desire, Action) commonly used in marketing, we can envision how society progresses from exposure to an issue into taking action. AIDA is depicted as an upside-down funnel: the number of people always reduces as we get deeper into the layers, and this is normal.
Engaging with people will always start from point zero
Research done by C4C with Development Dialogue Asia (DDA) indicates that even for issues they care about, our society tends to be reluctant to engage in social movements, though people tend to join when participation poses less risk or effort. In another survey with Kantar Indonesia, respondents preferred messages that are more profile-centric, mentioning their family, religion, and income. Whenever we start a campaign, we should assume the audience does not know or engage in the issue as much as we do.
From zero to hero
Revisiting the stages of societal change within the AIDA funnel:
Exposed to a problem: reach an audience outside the echo chamber using advertising or creative campaigns. This is the longest stage; research shows we need 25% of society exposed to the same message at least 7 times.
Convinced that the problem is relevant: the public needs to believe the issues they face are shared by many others and caused by systemic problems.
Believe that they can help solve this problem: people need to be made aware of their role and presented with achievable solutions.
Joining the action: CSOs need to create various levels of activism, from low-barrier activities (signing petitions, attending events) to more demanding ones.
Campaigners need to decide when to move to the next phase
The only way to know whether our message has caused any effect is by doing periodical research to see if there are changes in our audience's thoughts and actions. The key to successful public campaigns is thorough planning based on empirical data and the realization that each stage has different indicators of success.
