When we say the “face” of the campaign, this refers to the spokesperson that becomes recognized by all players as the one who is leading (at least) the public side of the advocacy campaign. Although it often happens that a particular advocacy initiative is closely linked with an individual, the messenger does not necessarily refer to an individual. Instead, it is commonly an organization or a coalition that takes the lead with a team of people who actually engage in the defined range of advocacy activities.
With this in mind, the task of choosing the face(s) of the campaign involves a frank and thorough assessment of your organization on two levels:
- Reputation and standing in the policy network
- Possession of range of skills needed for messenger role
Do a frank evaluation to assess if you are the “right” messenger.
In general, it is nearly impossible to find an individual who possesses the full range of research, analysis, communication, and social skills needed for all stages of policy research and advocacy communication. Hence, in a more basic way, you also need to consider whether your organization has the right mix of people with the right mix of credentials, skills, and style to lead the campaign, and how you can possibly divide advocacy communication activities across their roles to match your organization’s messaging capacity. For example, if there is a media dimension to your advocacy campaign, then the person(s) with these skills could be designated to handle this communication. Finally, this self-evaluation will not only help you identify your strengths, and thereby the parts or functions of messenger roles you are “right” to play, but also reveal your needs and capacity and resource gaps, indicating the roles to be filled by other messenger(s).