5.2 Choose someone else as messenger?

Your assessment may lead you to the conclusion that your organization will not act as the spokesperson for the entire campaign, or only for specific roles or communication activities. In considering who might be the right spokesperson to lead the effort, this may be very obvious from the start if you already have a supporter or member of your coalition who has the strong reputation, network, experience, and willingness to take on this role. In fact, you may not have to look at all; potential messengers may come to you and offer or even suggest that they front the campaign. For example, many international organizations that commission policy research also have established transnational networks of NGOs, academics, civil servants, and opinion leaders, and part of the commission might be to feed the results into and through these networks where the spokespeople or messengers are plentiful.¹

However, it is important to sound a note of caution: just because an individual or organization expresses willingness to take on the messenger role does not automatically mean they are indeed the “right” messenger. This decision entails more than selecting your friend or ally or identifying the most vocal or well-known person or organization in the network: as outlined above, the messenger needs to be well-connected, trusted, and influential in making policy change happen as well as possessing the required communication and interpersonal skills. Therefore, you should conduct a similar assessment of the credentials and skills that you conducted for your own organization to ensure you are choosing a messenger with the right profile.