Direct marketing joins the protest movement



10 October 2003, Precision Marketing
However chaotic protests may appear, they in fact require careful planning to drum up the necessary support. As it happens, the direct marketing channel is ideal for getting the word on the streets. Sarah Balmond reports
Mention the phrase protest groups and most people will conjure images of May Day riots and extremists taking part in running street battles. But the rise of direct marketing techniques, most notably SMS and email, is providing a call to arms for a much less radical set of campaigners.
The NUS and the Tories are currently spearheading a protest campaign using direct marketing to rally support against Labour's policy to introduce top-up university fees, which will cap £3,000 (PM last week).
The activity - broadly referred to as the Stop Fees Now campaign - includes SMS, direct mail and petition postcards, and pre-empts the national rally due to take place on October 26. It would seem the perfect strategy to drive the protest message home, but Tony Blair has already announced he will not back down, despite some 80 per cent of people opposing the scheme.
The NUS is still putting its faith firmly in the direct marketing mix and wants to step up pressure on the Government following its disappointing response to last year's push. This time around, the student body has introduced its first ever campaign website, www.stopfeesnow.com. Students are able to register online and receive campaign updates as well as regular e-newsletters. All names will be added to the NUS database.
A spokesman for the NUS says: "There is a huge momentum to this drive, and the website has been crucial. The Government has still not got it right, so we want to create a stronger, more 'impactful' push. The website and direct marketing is a fundamental new pressure tool for us."
The NUS is also encouraging students to sign a protest postcard and send it to Blair. Chris Arnold, creative director at Feel, believes that postcards are an "excellent" method of bringing the general public on board a political campaign as well as functioning as an effective lobbying mechanism.
Christian Aid is currently running a similar drive as part of its ongoing Trade Justice campaign. Boomerang Media is managing the postcard activity for both initiatives.
Boomerang founding partner and sales director Martin Smith says: "The postcard is a relevant and up-to-date mechanism to function as a means of protest."
The Tories are turning to other modern mechanisms - most notably SMS - as a form of protest. The Conservatives' youth wing, Conservative Future, is calling on students to use their mobile phones to join an electronic petition and text the message 'NO FEES 4'. The Conservatives claim it is the first time a political party has conducted a protest via SMS. The activity is being bolstered by other forms of direct marketing, including responsive posters and leaflets.
While the party claims it has no plans to create a student database, the data captured through the initiative could eventually be integrated into the Tory central database. Currently, students can choose to opt-in to receive future messages from the party.
Chris Bourke is managing director of Aerodeon, the mobile marketing agency behind the SMS blitz. He believes SMS' potential as a campaign application is, as yet, untapped.
He says: "This is a natural party tool and is an excellent way of communicating with the target audience. SMS is getting more grown up, and if you consider that some 60 per cent of 35- to 55- year-olds send at least one text a day, this is potentially a massive market."
More significantly, though, Bourke suggests that it is the mobile function of the handset that makes it an ideal tool for both organising and staging protests. He adds: "You can organise an event anywhere. If people are in the wrong place, you can find out immediately and get it right. With the advent of more location-based technology, SMS will be increasingly used as a tool to rally groups around a location and protest."
The true power of SMS protesting can be seen in the extreme example of the Philippines, when in January 2001, hundreds of thousands took to the streets, spurred on by mass texting, and literally bought down an entire government.
Some 20 million Philippines have mobile phones, and messaging jumped from 70 to over 100 million in the space of just a few hours. The end result was the ousting of the then President Estrada and the rise to power of Gloria Macapagel Arroyo. This mass coming together has been dubbed the 'intelligent swarm', and it is this that direct marketers must aim to harness.
Charity and pressure group Friends of the Earth relies on a unique direct marketing mix to encourage both financial donors and supporters to join protests. FoE is currently promoting one of the biggest outdoor rallies, 'Tractors and Trolleys', against genetically modified crops through a cross-mix of e-newsletters and cold leafleting. An online petition will also be presented to the Government, Defra and National Farmers Union. The rally takes place on October 13.
When it comes to everyday campaigning, FoE falls back on the more common form of 'armchair protests'. Individuals are encouraged to send a protest postcard or email to an MP. They can register with FoE's Campaign Express to receive regular mailings instructing them on how to take action. Other pressure groups, such as Amnesty International and Greenpeace, use a similar campaign model.
A spokesman for FoE says: "Direct marketing is one of the most important and effective ways for us to motivate people and campaign, be it at home or out on the street."
Occam, a database bureau and specialist in manipulating and analysing large volumes of data, has worked with numerous charities to develop sophisticated 'armchair' protests, in the form of highly targeted campaign letters. Unique technology allows each mailing to be tailored according to recipients' Parliamentary constituency, to include the name and address of their local MP.
Paul Farthing, managing director of Target Direct, has worked with various pressure groups, including democracy group Charter88. He claims that the secret to an effective campaign mailing is simplicity. "The trick is to link campaigns and fundraising with a simple action," he says. "The nature of the organisation and protest will affect the type of model used."
Global Resistance, one of the largest protest groups in the UK, argues that developing a sophisticated insight strategy is also fundamental. The organisation is responsible for staging some of the most high profile protests, including the Stop The War Coalition rallies and the Anarchist Express train, which took protestors to the G8 Summit in Genoa, 2001.
The group keeps a database - the total number of which it will not disclose - and establishes a regular dialogue with its campaigners through mailings, weekly e-newsletters and viral email activity.
A Global Resistance spokesman says: "Keeping in touch is a big concern. Obviously cost is a major problem for us when it comes to marketing, but the Internet allows us to do a lot of things in a cheap and effective way. Organisation is always imperative."
In this vein, the organisation has spent six months planning the first ever Eurostar protest train, which will take protesters, trade union chiefs and NGOs to the annual European Social Forum conference in Paris next month.
Who would have thought that when founding fathers like Stan Rapp began defining direct marketing, that the discipline would eventually end up in the protestor's armoury? However, even Global Resistance realises that nothing happens without a well-timed and well-executed campaign, and is planning to use targeted door-drops, mailings, leafleting and flyposting. As the spokesman asks: "Do you think chaos really comes that easily?"

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