Campaigns to End Violence against Women and Girls - Virtual ...

law, law-making processes, the institutions involved and ways of influencing these
will be key topics for formative research. In behaviour change campaigns, formative
research examines the prospective target audience, their behaviour and the factors
which influence it. In social marketing, formative research is used to determine the
best ways to reach the target audiences.
Formative research should combine several methods and use different sources of
information so as to take into account different perspectives and cross-check the
data obtained. Where resources are insufficient for large-scale surveys, participatory
research methods, e.g. focus group discussions, can be used to obtain basic
information. See Monitoring and Evaluation in this module for guidance on data
collection.
Example: The Red Flag Campaign run by Virginia Sexual & Domestic Violence
Action in the United States, systematically conducted focus groups discussions to
inform their research and evaluation. In a first phase, they used focus groups to
determine what college students thought about dating relationships, and their
willingness to intervene if they witnessed something that was troubling. After the
initial campaign posters were created, the designers reconvened the focus groups to
ask students if the wording used was appropriate, whether the target audience could
identify with the models, and whether the poster design enhanced the message. The
designers then made changes based on that feedback.
See the Campaign Planning Guide Table of Contents to get a sense of the scope
and depth of preparatory work recommended before implementing the campaign.
Source: Potter, S. (2008): Incorporating Evaluation into Media Campaign Design,
Harrisburg, PA, on VAWnet, a project of the National Resource Center on Domestic
Violence/ Pennsylvania Coalition Against Domestic Violence.
In large-scale campaigns, it is advisable to cooperate with research institutions so as
to ensure methodological rigor, e.g. by conducting a population-based survey to
gather comprehensive data on the campaign issue. But even campaigns that run on
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Campaigns December 2011