Countering polarization in education using youth survey and search listening
Countering polarization in education using youth survey and search listening
In short
Discussions or conflicts in the classroom around diversity, us-vs-them thinking and radicalisation. How do you tackle that? Research by KU Leuven showed that teachers and young people are insufficiently equipped for this. Therefore, Onderwijs Vlaanderen needed a partner to change this. Propaganda Group was able to secure the project. Managing partner/Strategy & Operations Kimley Briesen explains how they approached this with a strategy - both digital and content-wise - and its activation to three target groups. Propaganda Group outlined the concrete goals, helped steer the working group and closely monitored the results.
"To get a good understanding of the context, we dove into KU Leuven's research with focus groups and a youth survey," Kimley says. "We also did search listening, influencer and desk research and talked to a number of stakeholders. After all, we wanted to first outline the framework and then further guide all teams through the entire campaign. Based on this broad exploration, we wrote a well-founded strategy both in terms of digital and content.
Objectives
We defined the goals of this "No Cap" campaign in very concrete terms. Having goals is essential for setting direction and checking afterwards to what extent you have achieved them. We set social goals, project goals and goals per target group. Socially, this campaign wanted, among other things, to support teachers in defusing potentially conflict situations at school and put young people on the path to solutions when faced with polarization and radicalization. At the project level, 'No Cap' wanted, among other things, to increase teachers' knowledge of nonviolent communication, provide insight into the processes that lead to polarization and increase their digital knowledge about gaming and forums. We wanted to inspire, inform and encourage young people to participate in at least one of three livestreams.
The strategy focused on three target groups, of which secondary school teachers in Flanders and the Flemish periphery around Brussels were the primary target group, followed by the school board and management. Students in the same region from 15 to 21 years of age made up the third target group. In order to work faster and more focused, Propaganda Group created three project teams: one for each target group with a mix of content experts, strategists and a team lead. Each team member was assigned a title and role to ensure smooth content governance and maximum efficiency.
Our role
Supporting teachers
We wanted to direct teachers to three online training modules on polarization, radicalization, new media and connecting communication. And to downloadable lesson plans and online live Q&A. Among principals, who can support teachers, we wanted to raise awareness. We did that through a poster, a self-scan tool that can inspire their policies and a series of articles and videos created by Klasse. The communication of the campaign took place in three phases through the channels of Onderwijs Vlaanderen and its partners, newsletters, social media and paid online ads. We invited educators to sign up through a landing page. Propaganda Group also took care of this super user-friendly landing page.
Influencers in conversation with experts
To reach young people, they devised a strategy through Instagram, Facebook and TikTok influencers. Popular media for young people, which teachers are not as familiar with. Propaganda Group did the selection, contact and negotiation for this. From there, the experts at Klasse, Mediawise and Cirra provided the right content. The five selected influencers - a diversified mix - received a short 1-on-1 training. Through Instagram Live, the influencer engaged in a conversation with an expert, for instance.
The solution
A strong name for the campaign
To stand out properly, this campaign needed a strong name. Kimley turned to a keyword tool and, after careful consideration, came up with No Cap, slang for "not lying, really true, no joke". You usually use it at the end of a sentence as 'that's how it is.' No Cap was even shortlisted for Youth Word of 2020. That was confirmation that this was a good name for the campaign. Propaganda Group also co-developed No Cap's logo and visual style in collaboration with the project group.
It is refreshing to be able to contribute with our approach to responsibility and connection in general, and deradicalization in education in particular.
The results
Principals read the articles
On Facebook, the campaign aimed at school principals had a total reach of 331,333. A video on how to use movement to voice your opinion was particularly popular. The average engagement rate of 0.54% exceeded expectations, considering the benchmark is 0.24%. The articles generated 16,905 unique page views, 12% of readers clicked through. For the 14 newsletters, we recorded an average open rate of 47%. That means 234,547 info was received about No Cap, with a total of 4,900 clicks on the No Cap message.Teachers signed up for the training
In total, the landing page received 5,836 visitors who accepted the minimum cookies. 1,712 teachers registered, good for an average conversion rate of 22.71%. A figure that exceeded all expectations, reaching 46.64% even in the pre-registration phase, without paid ads. This means that almost half of the visitors to the landing page registered for the online sessions at that time. For your information, we already speak of a successful online conversion at 1% or less! After a small drop off of 2%, 1,681 teachers started the training. 1,041 of them (representing 62%) actively participated. We thus achieved the best case scenario of the three avenues we had mapped out in advance.Students liking and sharing videos
Salahdine Ibnou Kacemi's video on Facebook received an engagement rate of 13.88%, which is 57 times higher than the average! On Instagram, we assumed that over 6% is a very high engagement rate. We even reached 15.5% with Elias Verwilt's video! On TikTok, we were hoping for an average engagement rate of 13.5%. Two of the 4 videos effortlessly exceeded this.
The challenges
Getting everyone on the same page was the first challenge: to unite and establish a deep collaboration with six partners. Reaching the three target groups was our second challenge: a broad spectrum in other words, each with their own content, creative expressions and media. Finally, web analytics and detailed tracking are indispensable in this digital project. Therefore, Propaganda Group gave all involved a training course in UTM tracking and SEO.
The takeaways
The results of this No Cap project with long-term thinking and a content first approach exceeded all expectations, as you can read above. Here are the takeaways:
Training modules without an expiration date
The training sessions are still live, even now that the campaign has ended. That was the intention from the beginning.Owned media and those of partners
We mainly used owned and rented media through the network of our partners. This way we scored maximum impact with a limited media budget.User experience, everything for conversion
On the No-Cap.be landing page and training modules, we left nothing to chance in order to generate maximum engagement. The text, video, the form, everything pushed the visitor effortlessly towards registration.
Average
open rate
Of the teachers
actively participated
Average engagement
rate on TikTok
