Strategic Communications Training Budgeting & Costing for Strategic Communications X State MDA

Welcome Note Opening Remarks Programme Information

Participant Introductions Name MDA you represent Job Title What you hope to gain from the training? –Participant priorities

Roadmap for Day Training Objectives Budgeting/Costing for Strategic Communications Breakout Exercise: Budgeting & Costing Q & A Wrap Up & Next Steps Evaluations

Training Objectives Improve: MDA appreciation and understanding of the need for communications budgeting and costing of media relations activities. Ministry capacity to develop and design effective communications budgets to support policy-making or reforms.

Budgeting/Costing for Strategic Communications

Budgeting/costing Process Funding A critical success factor Must be in place as early as possible, or is a constraint– internal comms needs often overlooked; crucial for success of policy Approaches Comms budget is fixed, Strategy written to the budget Strategy is developed.... Funding is sourced EXAMPLE? Sources of funding & how arranged Developing a Costed Workplan Keen attention must be given to communication and outreach Do not underestimate the time needed to research cost factors and make strategic decisions Typically, there is more communications work to do on policy issues than there is money to do it. That makes it critically important to be strategic in our planning and decision-making regarding MDA communications– so that we choose the activites that will have the greatest impact or chance of success. Some sources of funding include: MDA budget it is good when possible to prepare budgets to fit into your MDA’s annual overall submission to Ministry of Finance other MDAs with interest/stake in the policy issue Federal Ministry with interest/stake in policy issue Teaming with private sector or other relevant stakeholders as relevant to fund certain events– in-kind contributions Costing: this includes many, many details, for example: printing brochures– different sizes, paper quality, formats, etc PSAs jingles- production cost, airtime, voice actors, etc. workshops– venue rental, equipment, travel/accommodation/food costs for participants, production of materials, etc It takes a great deal of time to track down all these costs. Yet if not done, the budget will not be accurate. It is best to keep a running list of costs and update frequently to save having to ’re-create the wheel’. That way, each budget can be prepared more easily

Key Costing Considerations Stakeholder research: benchmarking + monitoring Costs for implementation Media “pay-to-play”, Brown envelope seminars for journalists field visits production costs Layout, Design, Printing, Radio, TV production If stakeholder research is to be done, it can be a major expense and needs to be built in at the beginning– as well as at intervals of longer comms campaigns to evaluate progress and neeeds for adjusting messages, approaches, etc.

Key Costing Considerations cont’d Advertising Radio PSAs jingles earpieces/banner ads Roadshows, technical workshops, retreats Rental of hall Print materials Transport Lodging, food Rental of audio-visual Website Development Maintenance hosting fees

Budgeting/costing: Making Smart Choices Never enough $$ to do all that could be done Smart choices maximise results Prioritise stakeholders Who must be reached vs. who is merely useful to reach How best to reach them: Information vs. dialogue, 1-way vs. 2-way comms How much to spend on each approach, target group Target audience and objectives determine the tools and how much money to spend on them Budgetary constraints- to avoid impediments or limitation during the implementation stage, it is advisable to work with in a less ambitious budget; Creating vast programmes and ’big-ticket’ budgets may scare off officials and make it easier for them to reject the proposed comms activities. We cover advantages and disadvantages of different approaches in Module on ”Selecting the Right Tools”

Hard choices: what to think about The amount of money decides what can be done Hard choices = prioritsing stakeholders, best tools for impact Internal + external stakeholders Media vs. non-media communication tools Radio program versus community meeting Jingles or PSAs Geographical balance Combining non-media with media Community meeting + radio broadcast Which non-media approach is best distribute flyers or hold a community meeting Billboards or T-shirts? There are no ’rules’ or right or wrong answers– you have to do the analysis and then make your best judgement. For example, calendars with photos of the Ministry are a commonly used comms approach. Does that mean it is effective for communicating our message? Print materials tend to be expensive– and if you print yet another calendar, it may never find space on the wall or never be read if it does due to so much ’competition’.

Summary Essential-- analyse the targeted audience, messages and the kind of media tools to use when creating a budget Sourcing adequate funding for internal and external comms is paramount to successful advocacy, implementation of MDA policy An independent review is key to knowing the level of impact the communication and public outreach has made = costs to plan for.

Break-Out Group Exercise Budgeting Break-Out Group Exercise

Q & A, Wrap-up & Next Steps

Evaluations & Thank you