Prologue

Campaign management is the last module I had to take before I graduate. And it just happened to be the only one in this trimester (which I was quite thankful for)- injuries not withstanding, this was really a heavy subject.

In the beginning of the module, we were told to group up in groups of five or six, and that we’ll be working with a Not for Profit organization (NFP). To develop a communications plan for them, and if the client likes it enough, maybe even carry it to execution.

This is actually the second time Campaign Management was offered. The last conference which happened last year was a lot smaller in scale, since the number of students were also significantly smaller.

This year, there were about 100 students (divided between full/part time students), 17 groups, and 13 NFPs involved including PAVe (Promoting Alternatives to Violence), BMDP (Bone Marrow Donors Programme), DAS (Dyslexia Association of Singapore), LB (Lions Befrienders Singapore), Habitat for Humanity, Hope Worldwide Singapore, Mercy Relief, UNIFEM (United Nations Development Fund for Women, TWC2 (Transient Workers Count Too), SHF (Singapore Heart Foundation), Red Cross Singapore, Care Link and Circus Outreach.

The event was spearheaded by our beloved lecturer Ms Piya Chee, and a group from the full time students who call themselves the expAndables consisting of Candy, Chantel, Hidzir, Philip, Samson and Stella. We did not see all of their work, but what we could see was professional and well done, and I would like to thank them again for this.

The organization my group (Maven Inc) was given as a client was the Bone Marrow Donor Programme (BMDP). While other groups were randomly allocated, we were assigned to this organization as we volunteered to bring the campaign to execution.

There were quite a few issues we had to iron out throughout the campaign period, but other than occasional guidance from Piya, our group was pretty much left to our own to get a campaign proposal done.

Now, its not like we haven’t done up a campaign before throughout the time we spent in Murdoch, but its one thing to do up something imaginary for a shadow organization, and quite another thing to do up something concrete for a real organization. After all, we don’t really want to embarrass ourselves or our organization on the conference itself.

Thus the weeks went by, we did up our various strategies and tactics, did our own research, thought up of various messages and taglines, did up posters and ZO cards, thought up of a ‘gimmick’ (which I thought is much better than a normal exhibition), and so much more.

It was a day before the conference, and I was there checking the slides. And even then, I spotted a few errors. Everyone was really working right til the day itself (no thanks to a rush of good ideas towards the end), but finally the day of the conference came.

Part 2 the actual day, can be found here.