Campaign It!: Achieving Success Through Communication

by Alan Barnard, Chris Parker

This ground-breaking book redefines campaigning and explains how to create and deliver a compelling campaign that can be applied in any aspect of your professional and personal life.

Based on a claim that is both bold and true, this book introduces and demonstrates a new, unique and complete approach to communication for change - the Campaign It! model. It is a model developed and used by leading professionals in communications and campaigning to create influence and change at the highest levels business, politics and society. It is transferable to any sphere of life. It is tried and tested. And it works.

Simply put: to achieve change and be successful you always have to inform, persuade and gain agreement from significant people and organizations. The Campaign It! model enables you to do this powerfully and positively.

Genres: Nonfiction

240 pages, Paperback

First published February 3, 2012

About the author

Alan Barnard is a world class communications strategist with a vast experience in devising and executing successful landmark campaigns. He made a major impact during his ten years working for the Labour Party and played a pivotal role in their 1997 general election victory. His work as Labour's Director of Campaigns and Elections helped change political campaigning in the United Kingdom. Now, as a founding Director of BBM Campaigns, he is taking campaigning into new territories.

Reviews

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anyone wanting for an adventure or possessing a sense of mission should read this book.

I first came across the work of Alan Barnard and John Braggins & co shortly after I joined the Labour Party in 1994. As a young fresh-faced recruit with time on his hands I quickly became one of only a handful of members in my `CLP' to be given the Party's newly-released General Election Handbook - a snip at £20!

Campaign It! feels like a second cousin to that handbook, though more sophisticated and expanded to include many other areas including a personal approach to facing new challenges.

It was a revelation to me that you could quantify an electorate (or audience) and take graduated steps to promote and develop your campaign to help secure a change in Government or win a seat on the local council. Other people talked of holding rallies in the name of the cause. I wanted to win for it.

I have campaigned every year since then. I still occasionally use the flip charts from 1995 which broke down the electorate into `promises' that needed to be translated into votes. I always use a campaign grid and I always start planning my campaigns from polling day backwards. Campaign It! builds on these principles for all types of campaigns in all walks of life.

Years passed by and I have had the opportunity to work alongside and see first-hand Alan, John & Co's work. I don't wear the badge but I played a walk on part at the centre of reversing the tide of the Far Right in the East End of London in 2010. The Battle for Barking wasn't merely about beating the BNP it was about tackling their cause and gaining back the trust of those who felt left behind and left out. The result was for many people the high point of Election Night 2010. It also paved the way for the possibility of a new beginning in a community that deserved better.

Campaign it! teaches us that the best campaigns are not won on the spur of the moment or just out of goodwill but in the considered calm of the backroom where the battle lines are drawn up with a beginning and ending in mind, put into practice, nurtured, coordinated efficiently and adjusted accordingly. Then and only then, can you begin to contemplate a new dawn breaking.

[Casey Browne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anyone wanting an adventure or possessing a sense of mission should read this book.
Campaign It! feels like a second cousin to that handbook, though more sophisticated and expanded to include many other areas, including a personal approach to facing new challenges.
It was a revelation that you could quantify an electorate (or audience) and take graduated steps to promote and develop your campaign to help secure a change in Government or win a seat on the local council. Other people talked of holding rallies in the name of the cause. I wanted to win for it. Campaign it! It teaches us that the best campaigns are not won on the spur of the moment or just out of goodwill but in the considered calm of the backroom where the battle lines are drawn up with a beginning and ending in mind, put into practice, nurtured, coordinated efficiently and adjusted accordingly. Then and only then can you begin to contemplate a new dawn breaking.