1. Strategic
Communication

2. What is it?
 Generally considered to be communication which is aimed at persuading
somebody to do something
 Buy something
 Donate something
 Support something
 Vote for something
 Think in a certain way about something

3. The purposeful use of
communication by an
organization to fulfil it’s
mission
(Hallahan et al., 2007)

4. Five tenets of strat comm
 Intentional Message Design:
 Start with a realistic communication goal for what you’re trying to achieve
 Do you want to cultivate positive brand association?
 Raise awareness of a product?
 Connect with key stakeholders?
 Have a well-defined purpose
 Connect communication goals with the organization’s goals

5. Five tenets of strat comm
 The Correct Platform(s)
 Go where your audience is
 Go to the right platform to find the right people
 This used to be easy. TV station A, B or C. And sit-com or drama or soap or
sports
 Now you can be much more targeted

6. Five tenets of strat comm
 Calculate timing:
 Communications must be timed correctly
 Do not launch a new product campaign in the
middle of a company scandal
 What was the problem with Malaysia Airlines “My
Ultimate Bucket List” campaign?

7. Five tenets of strat comm
 Audience Selection and Analysis:
 Who is your message for? The same(ish) message should be tailored for
different audiences.
 What is the goal of the message? How can I achieve that goal with audience A,
B or C?
 You can now know a lot more about potential audiences beyond gender, age,
location.
 People pay more attention to information that is relevant to them

8. Five tenets of strat comm
 Desired Impact:
 You need to define what success is for a message or a communication
campaign
 Do you want to increase sales? How do you accurately measure an increase in
sales
 E.g. you sell socks, you run a marketing campaign which runs in October and
November.
 In September you sold 3,500 pairs, in October 5,000 and November 7,500.
 Successful campaign?

9. Let’s use an
example
Beyond Meat (Vegan)
burgers
Where would you
advertise these? To who?

10. The Game Changers
LINK

11. An Inconvenient Sequel
LINK

12. What ad would you run during what
movie?
 Ad 1 – Beyond Meat burgers are better for you. They are high in protein. Lower in fat…
 Ad 2 – Beyond Meat burgers are better for the environment. They have a much lower
carbon footprint, don’t require clearing of rainforests…
 So, which ad where?
 Pretty much a no-brainer – duh!
 But this is where you would earn your money
 What would be the types of people you would target with each ad online?
 Would you waste money by making two separate ads?
 Would it be worth making a third?

13. Who would you target?
 Go to this WaPo story (the link is in the class Google doc)
 What do you think would be the 10 categories which Facebook has on
users which would be most useful to help you decide whether to ask
them to show Ad 1 or Ad 2?
 Any categories particularly useful for definitely choosing to advertise
either to?
 Spend about 10 minutes discussing this in pairs/threes

14. Facebook
 Let’s have a look how it works

15. 8 mins

16. Google is pretty handy too (and also
kinda dumb, and kinda smart):
 Why did I get these ads when on the WaPo story about Facebook?

17. Strat Comm skills
 Writing ability
 This still is central to much of the work of strat comm professionals – writing a
press release, ad copy, marketing copy, writing a report, write tweets, FB posts,
blogs, company website
 “Today’s corporate communications practitioners need to be able to sift
through material to develop clear, crisp communications. The written word has
not been abandoned in the business world.” (Carole Merry, Senior VP)

18. Strat Comm skills
 Oral Communication/
presentation skills:
 You may be required
to deliver a pitch to a
potential client
 Explain to a client the
current campaign
ideas
 Explain campaign
results

19. Strat Comm skills
 Analytic ability
 You need to understand
industry trends,
audiences, message
design
 Conduct research
 Understand research
from contractors or
research team
 Facebook / Google
analytics will be in your
future

20. Strat Comm skills
 Ability to work under pressure
 Often involves working against deadlines
 Crisis communication
 Proactive Mindset
 Try to avoid having to do any crisis communication
 Marketing is more flexible than in the past – Xmas campaigns used to be planned in March – but
campaigns still take time and planning
 Adaptability
 Schedules change, goals change, shit happens – but the campaign still needs to run
 Diverse talents
 Particularly in small teams you need to be Jack or Jill of all-trades

21. Writing for strat comm (see, I told you it’s important)
LINK

22. Seriously, it’s important
– here’s some tips
 Knowledge of AP style
 Who knows what this is?
 Grammar and punctuation do matter
 Simple. Short. Sentences.
 Write for a wide audience
 Academic writing is very different to public
relations writing
 Active voice – the Zombie rule

23. How are things changing?
LINK