Worksheet 4.3: Creating a Campaign Evaluation Plan

Following the principle of “Understand failure/build on success” it is important for the Tech Steward to create an evaluation plan for the campaign.

“Evaluation is primarily concerned with determining the merit, worth or value of an established policy or planned intervention.”

–Hall, I., D. Hall (2004). Evaluation and Social Research. Palgrave. (p.28)

Evaluation of a campaign is essential for the Tech Steward, the community, and sponsor to understand failure and build on success.

Evaluation has three essential features:

• it is a systematic collection of information, distinguished from casual observation and biased reporting, leading to
• an informed judgement about the value of the program being evaluated, providing
• evidence to aid decision making about next steps.

Creating an evaluation plan starts with the Tech Steward asking five key questions early in the pre-campaign phase:

1. What is the campaign goal?
2. When or how will we know if we have achieved it (metrics)?
3. Where will I get information (data) to assess the outcome of the campaign?
4. What methods can I use to collect that information?
5. Who can help me answer these questions? (use the knowledge around you)

From the previous sessions, we know that a well-defined campaign goal has three key ingredients:

A specific outcome for the campaign, for a specific activity with a specific community of practice.

We know if we have achieved the outcome by observing what happens during the campaign. We can measure effectiveness using four categories of metrics:

• Interaction: the amount of activity on the ICT platform during the campaign. How many people joined the group? How many people posted messages? How many messages were posted? What time of day/day of week was activity most frequent? Do you see any patterns in the activity? Can you think of other measures of interaction?
• Engagement: the type of activity on the ICT platform during the campaign. This is a more qualitative measure looking at the content of the interactions, such as the types of messages posted and types of content shared, uploaded, rated, commented on, etc. Can you think of any measures of engagement?
• Influence: the impact of the campaign relative to other methods of interaction and engagement. How many people are aware of the campaign? How many are participating (actively or passively) in the campaign? Has the campaign changed perceptions of ICT use? Has the campaign changed attitudes or perceptions of community members in relation to its intended outcome?
• Behaviour change: the impact of the campaign on observable practices in relation to the intended outcome. Are community members doing things differently? Have they changed their communication practices? Has the campaign led to observable changes in professional or business practices of the community members in relation to its intended outcome?
• Can you think of any other types of metrics that this list might have missed?

The evaluation plan is divided into three phases. Evaluation-related questions are asked and information is collected during each phase:

• Pre-campaign (achieve readiness)
• Mid-campaign (monitor and modify)
• Post-campaign (gather and report)

The Tech Steward should also consider four key influences on a campaign:

• The community members
• The sponsor
• The technology
• The Tech Steward

We combine these elements into an evaluation framework for planning.

The Evaluation Planning Table Sample below (Download PDF Campaign Goal Worksheet 4.3) provides a worksheet for organizing the evaluation plan for a campaign. Use the blank worksheet to organize the evaluation plan for your campaign.

Improve the timeliness and reduce costs of exchanging messages between Extension officer and community members when scheduling meetings and responding to questions from veg. farmers in St. George County

Sample Campaign Goal Worksheet: Improve the timeliness and reduce costs of exchanging messages between Extension Officer and community members when scheduling meetings and responding to questions from veg. farmers in St. George County.

Download PDF (4.3 Campaign Goals):