Campaign and Program Evaluation

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The most exciting project this new year, is the release of our latest study examining how easy it is for the average person to read and understand animal advocacy literature. Specifically, HRC partnered with VegFund and FARM to evaluate the readability of the most widely distributed vegan outreach pamphlets.

It was her last three days. She woke up, alone in her room, and looked out onto the world. She had spent her days trying to sit up and look happy just in case someone looked through the window long enough to catch her eye. But they never did. She’d go to sleep, wake up, and do it again. It was now down to her last few days. Time was running out. After three more days, she would be dead.

Each year, 6-8 million dogs and cats enter shelters and 3-4 million of these animals are killed due primarily to a lack of space. These animals come from a variety of sources; they may be strays, relinquished by their human companions, or simply lost. Unfortunately, only 30% of dogs and 2-5% of cats entering shelters are claimed by their human companion. Returning more lost animals to their families can help reduce shelter populations and make many cats, dogs, and people very happy.

In 2004, HRC conducted a comprehensive research study for the National Council for Animal Protection (NCAP), a coalition of U.S. animal protection groups. The research involved multiple phases including a large survey supplemented by eight focus groups and fifteen individual interviews. The goals of the study were to understand public awareness and opinions of animal protection activities, including the perceived image, credibility, and effectiveness of the animal advocacy movement in the United States. Now, for the first time, the NCAP research is generally available (upon approval) to advocates and scholars.

Last week we posted the first article in a blog series by HRC board member Anthony Bellotti. This is a series of “ad autopsies” in which Anthony evaluates animal protection advertisements to gauge what is and is not effective. This series reminds us that all social movement campaigns are in large part marketing campaigns. In the animal protection movement, we are “selling” a message that the treatment of animals should be changed. When viewed as a marketing campaign, it becomes easier to envision ways that we can more effectively develop, target, and sell our message.

Why do some advertisements work while other promising campaigns fail inexplicably? In this series of blog posts we will explore this question as we conduct a "post-mortem" analysis of print advertisements from the animal protection movement. Our investigation is driven from a research-based perspective in an attempt to answer what went right, or wrong, in various ad campaigns.