This article is the third and last of our series on how public campaigning helped win victory for Trans rights in Spain.
The first two articles detailed how the campaign team prepared the messaging strategy, via in-depth research. This article now focuses on the implementation of the campaign.
Flowers of gratitude
On the basis of their research, the campaign team decided to focus the narrative strategy on the idea of gratitude: giving thanks for the support, empathy, learning opportunities and enrichment that diversity brings. The messaging drew on happy, hopeful or successful stories, which not only inspire but also show how we can offer support. The strategy valued relationships between cis, trans and non-binary people, making cis allies visible to encourage other cis people to identify with them.
The campaign took the name of “Hydrangea Project” (“Proyecto Hortensia”), a flower whose shades from blue to pink are not determined by genetics.
The Campaign was articulated along 3 core streams:
This resulted in moving testimonies, as for example this one from a Trans girl to her mother
The strategy also invited “unusual messengers” (a doctor thanking a patient or a teacher thanking a student for exposing them to Trans realities) to share their gratitude stories on Instagram
In addition, it developed a series of three podcasts, in which trans comedian Elsa Ruiz interviews a mother and a father, an educator and a friend of trans people.
A collective “distributed” strategy
At odds with traditional campaign organizing mode, which rely on a “central command” function, this campaign relied on a distributed action mode. It developed a campaign that has no brand (logos) and offers space for any person or organisation to contribute.
The campaign created profiles for Proyecto Hortensia on Instagram, Twitter and TikTok and a web portal so that content can be shared from them. But interestingly, it also invited supporters to create their own messages.
| “We activated the collaboration of different collectives, organisations, activists, content creators, etc. This strategy is based on the trust relationship generated when we share the results of our research, give workshops, meet with organisations and take care of the Laintersección.net community
There will be people who have a lot of time and want to create their own content, while others will only have a minute to click. With all of them we must share clear instructions and all resources needed (documents, folders with materials, technical instructions, etc.)” |
The campaigns key learning in this strategy is that if a campaign wants content to be shared through accounts of people or other third parties, they have to make them part of the process; if they have created the content themselves, or if they have taken part in strategic decisions, they are more likely to be involved in its communication and the content will be more appropriate for their followers.