Dust off your key messages.
Campaign Refresh.
It’s a new year, and there’s a lot of stuff going on in the world, which means it’s a good time to wipe down, tidy up, dust off, and air out your behavior change strategy.
So far, we wiped down your behavior change goals and tidied up the target audience. The next step is to dust off your key messages for a new year.
First things first: What was your messaging mix last year?
For each campaign you ran (e.g., Plastic-Free July) and topic you communicated consistently throughout the year (e.g., monthly tips for ditching plastic), take stock of the various ways you talked about the same issue.
How many different ways did you describe the call to action? What benefits of doing the desired behavior did you promote more frequently than others?
Your info-gathering process should also include the visuals and images you included with the messages, to explore how consistent or varied they were.
For this refresh round, we are focusing on messages you sent over longer periods (at least 1 solid month), not on concentrated bursts of messaging used for time-bound activities. We covered tips for getting people to show up for those events in the previous round.
Step 2: Assess how the year went.
Guess what?!?! You’ve already completed the assessment for this round. That’s right!
We will leverage what you selected in the first two posts about whether or not:
→ You are seeing momentum from the previous year. (Post 1)
→ Circumstances have changed for your audience this year. (also in post 1)
→ Your audience showed up for the events and activities you hosted last year. (Post 2)
The combination of results you selected will determine how you should dust off and adapt your key messages for next year.
Step 3: Adapt and adjust for this year.
I have three categories of “next steps” for you in this post. The light dusting section is for programs that are going well and could use a slight refresh this year. The other two sections are for campaigns that may be struggling to see momentum or whose audience’s circumstances have been negatively impacted, or both.
Light Dusting
If the project has been going well and the audience is showing interest, AND they are still in a good position to take action, then:
→ Determine which key messages you want to repeat again this year as-is. I hope you’re sitting down for this: you don’t have to create brand new messages and content every year. Some of your messages can be “evergreen,” which means they are helpful and relevant throughout the year. It’s valuable to identify a selection of evergreen messages you can rely on, while incorporating newer approaches.
→ Identify messages that should be refreshed for the new year. You likely have another set of messages that are still relevant but need to be tweaked so they resonate more strongly with the audience. Build on what’s already working, even if it only produced mediocre results last year. Some small changes can make a big difference.
→ Consider featuring members of your audience. Since the project seems to be progressing well, there could be an opportunity to “turn the mic over” to the audience to share their motivations and tips for making a change. Adding a dash of social proof to your key messages can increase credibility and engagement.
→ Check if any messages or positioning angles should be removed from the strategy. As I say at the start of these posts, there’s a lot going on in the world, which means some of last year’s messages may be outdated or stale (especially meme-based ones). Or, you’ve already used those messages for a few years, and it’s simply time to retire them.
→ Look for key events this year that you want to build momentum around. There is still plenty of year left. Look at the calendar to see if there are holidays, seasons, seasonal changes, or social media days you want to plan ahead for and build intentional momentum around. I always kick myself when I miss an opportunity to connect my work with a more mainstream event.
Spray Clean
If you are not seeing as much momentum or engagement as you’d like, then:
→ Switch up the motivators you’re using. Your audience needs a mix of external sparks and internal drive to start and sustain their journey with you. Switching up the motivator mix keeps your messages fresh and prevents over-indexing on one type over the other.
→ Strengthen the visual-to-message connection. It’s possible your key messages are on point, but the audience isn’t seeing them because the accompanying visual isn’t catching their attention. Or worse, the visual conflicts with and undermines your message. Explore the Picture Superiority Effect and how you can use it to strengthen your message.
→ Reframe the message using your audience’s words. Any quotes, comments, or feedback you received from your audience last year hold valuable insight into how they view your program’s offers and activities. Are the values, benefits, and positive experiences they express also reflected in your key messages? If not, that represents an opportunity to prioritize different benefits.
Power Wash
If the enabling environment has greatly reduced your audience’s ability or bandwidth to think about making a lifestyle change, then:
→ Consider whether your campaign should take a break. It doesn’t have to be a permanent break, but there is value to hitting pause on an active campaign (especially on social media) when everyone’s attention is focused on an important humanitarian matter. Taking a short break won’t negatively impact our efforts to protect the planet.
→ Right-size the call to action to match a new reality. As our audience’s circumstances change, so can our calls to action. You don’t have to pivot to a new strategy; instead, explore whether there are related or sub-behaviors you can prioritize that are less expensive and less time-consuming, or that offer more opportunities for joy and connection.
→ As your parents used to say, “watch your tone.” Being intentional about your brand and campaign’s tone of voice is always good practice, and it becomes even more important when your audience is feeling stressed. During these times, you may opt to shift or tone-down your tone so it does not come across as being tone-deaf.
Polish and shine: A refresh exercise
As you plan out your key messages for the new year, aim to flip any do-less-harm messages into do-more-good ones. This recently published research paper (see below) shows that audience members “were more likely to take climate action and felt happier about doing so in the do-more-good condition than in the do-less-bad condition.” The paper includes a helpful table showing how messages can be reframed.
Radke, J., Guan, S., Dunn, E., & Zhao, J. (2026). How do-more-good frames influence climate action likelihood and anticipated happiness. Frontiers in Communication, 11. https://doi.org/10.3389/fcomm.2026.1693311
Congrats! You have now successfully dusted off your key messages.