Topic 4: Implementing a Campaign Plan in Practice PDF

TOPIC 4:IMPLEMENTING A CAMPAIGN PLAN IN PRACTICE Marwa Mohamed 1 4.1 Apply Tools to Support Campaign Planning Traditionally there are three criteria by which projects are managed: People...

TOPIC 4:IMPLEMENTING A CAMPAIGN PLAN IN PRACTICE Marwa Mohamed 1 4.1 Apply Tools to Support Campaign Planning Traditionally there are three criteria by which projects are managed: People is critical to the success of any project or campaign. Quality If you don’t manage people well, cost, schedule and quality will all suffer. Schedule Cost Marwa Mohamed 2  A successful campaign typically involves the following elements. Breaking down the work into specific tasks. Scheduling the work through network diagrams and Critical Path Analysis. Budgeting. Careful allocation of resources. Monitoring progress against the plan through the use of milestones, for example. Having contingency plans for anticipated and unexpected problems. Marwa Mohamed 3 A successful campaign typically involves the following elements. The foundation of a detailed project plan is a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS). This sets out all the tasks and sub-tasks, which can then be broken down into action steps and sub-steps. Once you know all the tasks that need doing, you can establish what needs doing when, and which are dependent on others, and then set these out on a timeline and assign responsibility for each task to a given individual Marwa Mohamed 4 A successful campaign typically involves the following elements. The scope of the project must be clear, as must who is responsible and accountable for different tasks. Accountability keeps people honest: they know that they need to deliver the task on time, and that if they fail, they need a good explanation. Milestones allow you to monitor your progress towards your objectives and give you the chance to get things back on track if the timetable begins to slip. Marwa Mohamed 5  The role of project managers Project managers often begin by scoping out the project – determining what is needed, who needs to do it, and by when. Once they know what resources (time, money and people) are available they will set out a detailed schedule of how the campaign will be implemented, and communicate this to all the relevant parties. Project managers will liaise with the key decision-makers, the stakeholders, and relevant staff or agencies, to ensure that everyone knows what they are supposed to be doing and understands the deadlines for delivering their particular tasks. Marwa Mohamed 6  The role of project managers Project managers will monitor and report back on progress against the schedule and take remedial action if the schedule slips. A key task for project managers is managing people – getting the right people together and focused on implementing the project plan and achieving the objectives. Marwa Mohamed 7  Critical path analysis Critical Path Analysis (CPA), or the Critical Path Method (CPM), is a project management tool to help project managers work out timelines for the various activities in the campaign plan. It enables the project leader to set out start and finish dates for all the tasks. The tool helps you set out the sequence of activities that form a ‘critical path’ through the plan: if these activities don’t happen on time the project will overrun, causing problems down the line and potentially compromising the delivery of the campaign and its objectives. Critical paths involve developing a network diagram or tabular report that calculates with a high degree of accuracy the start and finish times of each activity. As such, the network diagram is a framework for implementing the project plan. Marwa Mohamed 8  Resource scheduling Resource scheduling is the actions and methodology organizations use to efficiently assign the resources they have to jobs, tasks or projects. You then need to see how that Resources are typically people and money, but can also matches up to the resources you have. be machine capacity or equipment. You develop a If the resources are not sufficient for schedule for each task or project, with a start and end the tasks, you may have to comprise. date, depending on resource availability. But you should recommend the optimal resources you will need to To schedule your resources effectively you need to have implement your campaign plan, and an idea of what resources you need and how long tasks point out the implications of any will take to complete – hence the importance of resource constraints. breaking down tasks into sub-tasks so that you can Time and budget constraints are the properly factor every action into your calculations. most significant; quality and delivery dates are the usual casualties Marwa Mohamed 9  Gantt charts are a very useful project planning tool for delineating tasks, establishing milestones and assigning responsibilities. They are commonly used in project management as they provide a simple diagrammatic way of laying out a project schedule, showing activities (tasks or events) displayed against time. You should begin with the end in mind – what tasks need to be completed by when? Working back from the deadlines, you need to schedule enough time to complete each task. This will show you when you need to start the project if you are to meet your deadlines. Marwa Mohamed 10 The benefits of a Gantt chart include the following: It sets out in one place all the activities that you need to undertake and shows when the project will start and finish. It provides an at-a-glance view of all the activities and where you are ahead of schedule, on track, or falling behind. It helps you to plan complex tasks where various actions are interrelated. It helps you see what resources you will need. It can help you monitor progress, as you can assign to each task a percentage completed – 5% or 80%, for example. It helps you allocate resources, because you can clearly see what needs to be done when and can spot potential problems in advance – for instance, you only have one designer but the Gantt chart shows that 11 three large designs need to be completed in the same week. Marwa Mohamed  4.2 Recommend How to Gain Internal Support and Engagement for the Plan Presenting plans: Clear and realistic objectives :demonstrating that you know what you want to achieve and what you intend to deliver. Evidence :thorough research of your customers, target markets, latest trends, channels your target audience uses, and so on. Plans based largely on guesswork are unlikely to get a green light. Digital marketing is helpful here, because it can deliver metrics on engagement or sales deriving from particular channels or campaigns. Logical assumptions : you can’t know for sure how a campaign will pan out, but so long as the board can see your assumptions make sense, particularly if they are backed up with evidence, they are more likely to put their faith in the campaign plan. Marwa Mohamed 12  4.2 Recommend How to Gain Internal Support and Engagement for the Plan Presenting plans: Return on Investment (ROI) – this is where many plans fail. You need to set out all the costs.The returns on marketing activity are notoriously difficult to predict, because they can be intangible (raising brand awareness, for instance) and take time to manifest themselves Meeting business objectives – show how the campaign supports the organization's marketing and wider business objectives, such as building relationships with key stakeholders, repositioning the brand, or informing the public, for example, so the board understands the wider benefits of the campaign. Marwa Mohamed 13  Engaging support from management and other stakeholders It’s not just board approval you need: to succeed, your plan also needs the support or ‘buy-in’ of management and other stakeholders. You can’t go it alone, and taking the Marwa Mohamed 14  Internal communication mechanisms and scheduling, and ensuring delivery You could deploy a variety of internal marketing tools to communicate messages and information to the rest of the organization: Staff magazines : whether print or digital, these can help communicate the key messages, key staff involved, the results so far. Staff magazines often contain similar elements to consumer ‘lifestyle’ magazines, such as interviews with key members of staff, and their informality is usually more engaging than more ‘corporate’ communication Newsletters – whether printed or electronic, these are a great way of communicating news about your campaign to the whole organization. Digital communications – email is one of the most popular, but blog/vlog posts and webinars can provide greater detail about different aspects of a campaign, key messages and benefits. Marwa Mohamed 15  Internal communication mechanisms and scheduling, and ensuring delivery Dedicated web pages on an intranet can hold all relevant documents, campaign materials, videos, timelines for activities and Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs), enabling staff to find whatever information they need whenever they want it. Staff meetings : if run well, these are a great way to engage with staff directly. There is no substitute for face-to-face contact, which allows you to demonstrate your passion for your campaign plan, show and explain campaign adverts or materials, and answer any questions staff may have. Generally speaking, the more entertaining, memorable, informative and motivational Marwa Mohamed 16 you can make a staff meeting, the better.  Internal communication mechanisms and scheduling, and ensuring delivery Posters and campaign collateral : can act as useful reminders of the campaign, as can campaign-related merchandise for major campaigns. Video conferencing : the growth of home working, and rising numbers of virtual and often multinational and geographically- dispersed teams, makes telephone and video conferencing tools such as Skype essential for holding virtual meetings and keeping everyone informed. Marwa Mohamed 17 Marwa Mohamed 18