Campaigns Are Not “Fire and Forget”

We Constantly Monitor Our Campaigns, Our Opposition, and the Broader Issue Environment to Make Sure the Plan is Working

So you’ve thoroughly researched all aspects of your campaign, built a strategy to chart your path to victory, put structure to that strategy with proper planning, and have now begun to execute your campaign.

The hard work is done, right? You can just let the campaign execution roll out?

Of course, we know that’s not the case. Campaigns are not “fire and forget.”

Many have heard the paraphrased expression from Prussian Field Marshal Helmuth von Moltke that “no battle plan survives first contact with the enemy”,  appearing his 1871 essay.

Or as the more modern strategist, Mike Tyson, said in 1987, “everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.”

These maxims hold true – very much so – in political and public affairs campaigns.

Your opposition will do something unexpected. Circumstances will change. External events will influence the whole campaign, possibly changing your strategy, your opponent’s strategy, and the tactics derived therefrom.

That’s why the fifth element of a HexaCom Group campaign is constant monitoring and evaluation of the campaign. 

Campaigns with ample research budgets may include nightly polling and tracking surveys. Digital advertising and A/B testing lend themselves extremely well to monitoring whether your ads are having the impact you want.

The feedback from your field campaign provides data every day, and we love it when the door-to-door team hears voters repeat back to them the messages our paid ads are delivering.

Tracking social media conversations also can give insights into whether your messages are being delivered and having the desired effect.

Monitoring and evaluating whether a campaign strategy, and the execution of it, are working has no one simple technique. And this goes for reacting to the opposition or external events as well. It’s subject to the size, scope, nature and budget of the campaign, but in that context, the point is that your campaign – and certainly a HexaCom Group campaign – must have a dedicated commitment to evaluating and measuring all three of whether your own campaign is working, what your opposition is doing (and if it is working), and whether external events are changing the whole landscape.

What we do with that monitoring and evaluation…? That’s up next!