Recipe for numbers

Foolishly on a Saturday morning I checked my inbox, to discover what will undoubtedly be another restructuring of a mobilisation department, not because they want bigger numbers but because they want to build a more integrated structure that will naturally attract bigger numbers - by the magic of management. So my first piece of advice would be to stop with the restructuring already – and get on with the job.

But wiser heads than I, are there to advise. So for the sake of a non-specialist opinion and a memory of a pub conversation here’s my recipe for online campaigns that achieve a step change in the volume of people interacting with a campaign. There’s also a nagging something that this is something an organisation gets one go at, and once they’ve had their big splash it’s much harder to do a second – especially if you relentlessly phone those signups for money – but a different diatribe.

1) Great campaigns – If you’re inspired by your campaign then others will be too. If it has a wow factor, of a 'WTF you did what' moment when you explain it then even better. If it’s focused on some technical EU legislation that you don’t really understand then don’t do it. More importantly you need to be able to explain why someone’s support will actually help achieve change - ideally in under a minute. Big companies do listen to their customers; politicians listen to their constituents but artificial constructs and generic pledges don’t really convince anyone and are much harder work. People powered campaigns are only convincing if the people actually have power to effect change.

If you’re running a big petition campaign and you don’t know what to do with the petition then you’re in trouble. If in doubt ask the people who sign it, what they want to do with it – send it by FedEx, or project it on the side of Sydney opera house. Ideally do several things with it, at key milestones and give people an incentive to tell you what to do next and then to get the numbers to that point. Oh and you can probably cost benefit doing big stunts vs the number of fundraising leads. If in doubt crowd source your campaign plans.

2) Capture the moment – either be reactive or lucky or plan to be reactive. BPs deep water horizon create a storm and the right campaign launching at the same time captured the energy of that storm. Organisations like Avaaz, 38 degrees, Get Up etc , do well at this and are optimised for such ambulance chasing – but anyone can do it. Care 2 and MoveOn do it as a buisness model. But ambulance chasing is a mean description, maybe it’s more like hitching your horse to the bandwagon.

The difficulty is in being reactive, and spotting the opportunity. Tools like ControlShift or Greenpeace X, do a good job of grabbing the space for others to create the opportunity. And I wonder if one can have a couple of campaign packs on standby waiting for the hook and theme. i.e. you desging your innovative digital campaign, stick it in a box, and then open the box when you need it. One could probably do most of the build in anticipation.

3) Unity of focus – in my experience the big numbers come from doing one thing well. And this really does mean one thing, so not a priority with lots of little whippets biting at its heels. But absolute unity of focus. And no you can’t do your rapid response, pet project as well - often as not rapid response is simply the argument for poorly planned, and if it is a rapid respone what are you actually going to achieve or is this simply the need to be seen to do something, to justify the salary.

The old FoE Big Ask campaign had this kind of focus and fro what I understand so did the Argentinan forest law campaign. When the office empties to go out on the streets to collect petitions. When the ED is campaigning next to the volunteers, when every single staff member is working on the one big project and all other output is on hold as the comms channels genuinely reflect the urgency of the situation. Then people pay attention.

4) Cool creative shit – clever new ideas like the Turkish fish game go viral because they’re clever. So giving people the space to surf around, looking for inspiration and then the confidence to build it works. Plan something that creates a buzz, by being buzzworthy. Drowning your talent in day to day Facebook updates, competing campaign meetings, dull legal arguments about risks, and awkward sign off processes doesn’t just clip their wings, it breaks every small bone in their bodies. Let them fly and again do one thing awesomely.

5) Long term capacity building – sometimes the illusion of the moment, and the step change in the numbers of people involved is that an illusion. Cf Kony 2012 or the Obama campaign. After years (usually 2+) of legwork, or building groups, and doing grassroots outreach to build a strong, sustainable network of people the moment comes to deploy that network to magnify the issue 10 fold, and attract new people doing so.

The difficulty comes from building and maintaining that network, which despite what senior management believes is neither easy, nor something that sits on a shelf waiting to be used - we do not have a warehouse full of grassroots activists waiting for the call. If you want a sustained network you have to put the energy in to keep, what is after all a collective of people, sustained.

6) Blind luck – sometimes big numbers just happens. You can plan the above, or do something dull and the story changes, or you’re the last one standing when the media come looking on a dull news day – or the phase of the moon generator is working overdrive, or to be honest to make any of this stuff work you kind of need to just get lucky. Reputations are built on one off successes and often lighting doesn’t strike again.

7) The other stuff – ok buy that lists of leads, spend loads of money on a video you want to go viral, adopt every last celebrity you can find, take on that paid ad on prime time TV. Test your tech and emails to death, try the little ideas and do the best practice – with an eye to list growth as a weekly necessity – what are you doing this week. But don’t expect the great leap forward simply from doing what everyone else is doing – but do this anyway.

So I reckon I've got examples for all of these, and maybe this is to be continued, if I ever get that  break from the machinations of management to propose that new vision, instead of doing any work.

Shards of Imagination

So it’s a funny thing what catches peoples imagination, or at least the media attention which then feeds the public’s sense of what’s important. Today’s action at the Shard certainly did that, and I wonder why? Is the audacity of climbing what is a bloody big building? The idea that all the climbers were woman – not bearded men? Was it the synergy of online and offline activism, and the live streaming Ice Climb – which was well cool? Or was it simply a slow media day?

The organisation has a reputation for dramatic actions, which over the years has grown less newsworthy to a jaded media. Climbing building and cranes, boarding ships and shutting down polluting factories is just as dangerous physically and legally as it was in the 80’s but rarely generated a peep out of the mainstream channels. Is this because the media is bored of such things or is the public (I don’t think so) or is it because our media has slipped into the hands of corporate interests who actively discourage such reporting? And I’d include the Beeb in that camp, who are subject to the most pernicious of establishment and corporate lobbying – the quite chat over dinner.

So why did this resonate? My instinct would be to argue for the digital elements. That anyone could tune in and be part of the protest. And of course the very real concern that they weren’t going to make it – so it was worth coming back for more. One of the conversations on the ground between a friend and some professional riggers who routinely clean the building was that they were simply carrying too much weight – that they couldn’t do it. Including the bloody great big banner and art installation that never got used. His response was that they were failing to allow for determination, and dedication to the issues, which went well beyond the physical challenge.

But the crowds at the base suggested that offline networking still works as well as online. That people hear what’s happening from their colleagues as well as the news and a website. And they feel the need to go be physically present. It seems surreal that the idea of talking to the crowds, or leafleting them, or even signing them up as Arctic Defenders was an afterthought and a last minute scramble. The organisation needs to remember its roots in talking to real people face to face, not just from behind the screen.

And me? Well I was between here and there, back from Ireland and heading to Bangkok to work with an Indonesian forests project. Which put me in a frustratingly non arresatble world running media footage and carrying expensive heavy objects. Which proved to be long, and hard work, compared to deploying ladders or getting arrested doing so – but nothing of course compared to climbing what is a bloody big building. I’m still impressed.

Laboratory experiments in Asia

So I wonder about the sympathetic magic associated with this blog. It started as an argument as to whether digital activism and mobilisation was where my future led, or whether old school organising was still as valid a path to change as ever. Then I ended up working in the digital field.

Now 2+ years later the pendulum has returned, and I seem to find myself back working with offline organisers, volunteer coordinators, network developers and more. With an experimental mandate, and a sack of money (ok a moderate budget), to go out into the world and make good things happen. Folk who believe in chaos theory, the complexities of the modern world, and change management would be delighted by the lack of project plans.

But the challenge is enormous for starters the countries I now working with; India, Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines, ML China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea and Japan I reckon together summarise half the planets population – and I’ve not been to none of them - well not yet.

Equally I’ve been around a while, have an open mind, ask more questions than make assumptions, am scared shitless, think I might have a basic understanding of face, understand some of the uncertainties, and have low expectations that I’m the herald of the revolution so perhaps I can get be moderately useful to people I like – and it’s going to be epic finding out.

Urban Explorers

Over several years the idea of turning ones activist skills; climbing (rope access), boating, the ability to open locked doors quickly, into something as futile as poking around disused industrial sites has had a growing appeal. Finally I tracked down some forums devoted to such nihilistic activities in the form of the UK Urban Explorers Forum.

The link that I followed in was from an idle question about the tunnels under Imperial College, London. Plausibly some speculation about subterranean access to buildings in the area. In a different life I studied there and can attest that there is a range of tunnels running from what was Southside, under the V&A to Queens Tower and beyond. It was a handy shortcut (well a drier detour) to the bar and I can still vividly remember the Victorian brick staircase spiralling down beneath exhibition road, to Neverwhere.

The beginning of the week saw a bunch of us out on the boats, teaching media types (photographers and all) not to do anything stupid in the event of a high speed activity. We ended up out at the sea forts in the Thames estuary, the rusted remains of Red Sands towers, and what was once the lonely haunt of pirate radio stations.

So when time allows, I have some pictures to upload to the forums. Some currency to establish my place in the digital community and perhaps a hook to lure a few folk with the skills necessary to poke around disused industrial sites, to the idea that occupying more useful sites coal power stations and all) has more of a future.

Creative activism

A fair few years ago, various friends got annoyed when Iceland announced it was resuming commercial whaling, with the usual suspects being particularly quiet on the issue.

The creative friend, who used to work for Das Spiegel, pulled together some designs along the lines of ‘Only in Iceland can you eat a tourist attraction’, the practical friend with access to an office printer, turned the designs into A5 stickers, and closer to home the mischievous friend, mobilised some people, organised teams, and spread stickers across Icelandic tourist posters on the Underground.

2 weeks later an Icelandic MP stood up in parliament, to denounce whaling as bringing the country into disrepute, as evidenced by the wave of sabotaged posters he’d seen on his recent trip to London.

The example is not that subvertising works, or that a small group of passionate people can have an effect disproportionate to their numbers, the theme here is the alliance between creative types, perhaps ‘creativists’, and mischievous types, clearly ‘activists’.

There is a wealth of examples of creative brains playing with both campaign themes, advertising spaces, and in many cases simply aiming for a mind fuck. From adbusters, to Banksy, to the space hijackers. From the Billboard Liberation Front, to the Church of the Sub Genius and the Discordians, from the Reverend Billy to the Yes Men, there’s a lot of fun to be had here.

So the issue in mind, is how to connect creative types to the folk who are happy to risk arrest turning those creative ideas into subvertising, guerrilla or uncommissioned urban art. There are lots of design students, aspiring artists and bored graphic designers languishing at ad agencies, who I reckon would be up for doing the creative side. But is the existing activist movement, grassroots and otherwise, up for doing the dirty work – literally in the case of stencils and spray paints.

Perhaps an investigation into the communities that exist, the graffiti artists, the design forums, and the activists – well I know most the latter. Maybe a new tool, or better yet an organi online community, with some logistical support. Finally an idea or issue, to inspire, to generate a tidal wave of creative ideas something akin to deepwater horizon to mobilise both the creative and activist communities to jam the corporate mass media culture of advertising and marketing.

I have the skeleton of a project plan here, now I just need to find some cash, and some web developer time.

Email ends in themselves

Decision makers, especially political ones, respond to public pressure. Sending a lot of emails to an MP has an effect, even if they moan about it. Visiting them in person has a much greater effect, but few have the confidence to arrange that meeting, oh and MPs moan about that too. Taking direct action to stop the decision maker making the wrong decision has an even greater effect, but tends to get you arrested, which means that even if you have that confidence, you can’t do it every week. There’s lots of other activism in between.

Next week folk will be debating mobilisation strategies, and perhaps supporter journeys, for the upcoming campaign, and my question is will that debate be focused on email activism as an end in itself. Is the purpose of the campaign to generate a huge amounts of emails to the target, and to use those email participants to recruit more people to email the target, and then to reiterate ad nauseum, and to repeat with different emails to different targets until the internet melts.

An entire industry has grown up around email advocacy, using the tools of the marketer and one wonders why. My prejudice is that it’s a reflection of the over professionalization of the campaigning caste. That somehow by adopting corporate tools, key performance indices, critical path analysis and endless tracking we will effect positive change.

The problem is that this leads us to only do the things that can be tracked. You can split test an emails subject line, to see what maximises the open rate. You can test how likely people are to respond on a Friday afternoon, vs. a Monday morning. You can plot the frequency of emails, to achieve a saturation effect, than is proportional to your unsubscribe rate, but what you can’t do, is to do so with passion, imagination and the insane ambition that we can achieve change.

My prejudice is that sending lots of emails, is simply an excuse to find people who care that can be inspired into doing something more than just sending emails. The thinking is not unique, there are lots of ladders of engagement out there, but we don’t seem to resource putting this into practice.

How does one value offline activism, or deeper online activism, against the clear numbers game of Avaaz and 38 degrees. What is the value of blockading the Department of Transport – the charges have just been dropped – or having 100 conversations with others in your local community?



Email actions lead ultimately to fundraising leads, but as a tool to effect change they become less effective with every one you send. As decision makers become overwhelmed with standard emails, how long before they say enough is too much. One has to assume that donors think the same.

And if we maximise our ROIs measured about the KPIs set by the same digital consultants the targets are using, then it simply becomes the money game that we will surely loose. We are after all vastly outnumbered by the corporates.

So as a tool email gives me the reach to find people to do offline activism, or new things yet

Skeletons in the political closet

It’s cold outside, and for the sake of distraction I seem to be ploughing my way through the West Wing, and romantic tales of political skulduggery.

On Friday Chris Huhne resigned as Energy secretary, under the suspicion that he may have committed a crime 9 years ago. Yesterday 101 Tory MPs revolt against government policy on renewable energy, and the cause of dirty power surges ahead.

Now I’m not much of one for conspiracy theories, if for no reason than I think such things are difficult to keep secret, but I do believe in the establishment. A disorganised network of the great and good, who went to school and university with each other, who play golf, share lodges, port, cigars and the after dinner scheme.

I also believe in both political realities and the advantages of a journalist sitting on a good story, until it becomes worth something. Nine years is a long time for the police to consider whether a crime has been committed, especially when an MP is involved, albeit 9 years ago he was more of irrelevance to the political process.

So someone has been sitting on the story, and the case for 9 years, and now is the time they’ve decided to roll it out. Innocent or guilty, his reputation is tarnished, and the green agenda has suffered. The question is who? And why? And in the coincidence to the Tory MP rebellion is their a hidden hand of the big energy utilities, the nuclear industry? The fossil fuel lobby? Or simply that network of old chums looking out for one another.

I can’t really conceive why anyone would oppose a clean energy future, but that conspiracy exists. Someone, with money and power, orchestrated the hack on the University of East Anglia, and planned a media strategy around those emails in the lead up to Copenhagen. So if one conspiracy exists, perhaps there is some sanity to thinking the events of the last 48hrs, are the work of the same vested interests.

To conclude I’d hesitate to call Huhne a martyr of the energy revolution, but with a list of 101 MPs to play with, and a new list of marginal to consider, we know where the reactionary bourgeoisie might be found.