Evaluation of UNICEF’s communication channels

Contents & Aims of Presentation

• What is UNICEF (mission & strategic objectives)

• What are UNICEF’s communication channels?

• Evaluation of UNICEF’s communication performance

• Recommendations of enhancing UNICEF’s communication

Methodology Secondary research resources: UNICEF official documents, journal articles and academic textbooks.

What is UNICEF?

• United Nations Children’s Fund

• 1946-2016

• Mission:  survival, protection and development of children• DOC (Division of Communication) C4D

Communication process

Sender Message ReceiverEncoding Decodin

g

Media Media

Feedback

(Schramm’s Model of Communication, 1954)

Interest

Influ

ence

Other NGOs

Employees

NGOs partners

Women & children

Gov’t

Managers

Media

Private companies Individual

donors

Stakeholder Map of UNICEF

Local communities

Description of UNICEF Broadcast media

UNICEFradio

TVDVD

Load speaker

Broadcast media communication channel

Evaluation of UNICEF broadcast media

using

UNICEF Tap Project(US fund)

• Original project 2007 Encourage patrons to donate $1 or more for the tap water they usually enjoy for free.• UNICEF’s Tap Project 2014 challenges smartphone users to launch the Tap Project website on their phone's web browser and then avoid interacting with their device Every 5 mins, UNICEF will fund a child for a day’s clean water

Results of the campaign

2007 campaign:Thousands of patrons at over 300 restaurants help to raise about $100,000 –in NYCNearly $2.5 million funds has been raised -since 2007 in US

2014 campaign: The project garnered over 2.6 million users that spent on average over an hour on the site, raising $1.6 million from a grand total of over 250 million minutes gone without phones.

EvaluationAdvantages 1.Quality of message: Direct, explicit 2.Reach: the mass public in US 3.Reply: awareness of clean water issues; donation and volunteering actionsDisadvantages 2014, ‘reduce using smartphone’, reduce source attractivenessRecommendations:• Internally advocate TAP campaign among the UN staff (Van Riel & Fombrun 2007)• Have a celebrity ambassador to build up the reputation and recognition of

the campaign by having a Increase usage of social media (source attractiveness)• Globalize the campaign

(Cutlip et al 2000)

(Kelman, source characteristics model)

Description of UNICEF print media

UNICEF

NEWSPAPER

LEAFLET

BILLBOARD/NOTICE BOARD

POSTER

BOOKLET

Print media communication channels

Evaluation of print media usage of

UNICEF

An example about booklets in Kyrgyzstan• In Kyrgyzstan, there are seldom Kyrgyz language materials for

children and their families

• UNICEF has published print materials for and about children in the Kyrgyz language. The booklets, which cover themes such as nutrition and hygiene, serve the dual purpose of being reading and learning materials for children as well as information materials for their parents and families.

An example about billboard • Making the invisible visible Children who are victim of domestic violence wait with a sinking heart for their parents to come home in the evening. (Janssen, 2014)

Advantages of booklets and billboardsAdvantages of booklets:• Used pre-testing in representatives of the target region for target audiences • Had good result. Whole respondents said that they liked the booklets very much. • UNICEF also encourages parents to give some suggestion in text box (manage

the communication influences between constituencies)• Culture awareness, satisfy the needs of the audience.

Advantages of billboards:• Simple, visual, clear and catchy to audiences’ attention• Low literacy people

Bernstein’s Research into Billboard Advertising (1997)

Disadvantages and recommendations

•Disadvantages: Some information in booklets are not new or unknown Each booklet has limited “life span” in term of interest value for children. (environmental issues; high cost) Some children did not have the motivation to change their behaviors.

•Recommendations: The same message needs be transmitted through a multiplicity of channels. Bringing together local people with different creative talents and enabling them to work as a cohesive and harmonious team More interactivity and entertainment Integration of local children’s ideas (listen to feedbacks)

UNICEF Online communication channels

UNICEF

OFFICIAL WEBSITE

SOCIAL MEDIA

NETWORKINTRANET

TELECONFERENCE

PLATFORM

Official websiteMessage delivered: Company profileUpdated news (videos, pictures, stories)Reports (annual)

Targeted audience: the public especially private donators Response from the audience: Number of visits per yearThe percentage of returning visitorsAmount of donation

Social media networkMain social media platforms used: FacebookTwitter Google+Instagram Youtube

Message: Updated news; photos; story

Targeted audience: Strong focus on young generations

Response: “likes” & “comments” & “shares”

Example： End Violence Against Initiative• Launched in 2013 in 60 countries

• Liam Neeson (GWA) urged people to speak up against violence when they see it.

• It brought 50,000 visitors to the global microsite (donation)

• 155,000 mentions of the hashtag on Twitter• Photo posted on Facebook, Instagram and

Twitter generated over 21,000 ‘likes’

(UNICEF, 2013)

Strength:• Remarkable effect (internet

access)• Multi-media communication

products (photos, videos, stories, reports)

• Social media: easy to update information;

get response immediately

Weakness: • Not accessible in some

areas• Emotional shock can be

risky as based on interpretation

Recommendations:

• Quality of message

• Hearing from the audience who do not like the communication way

Evaluation & Recommendation

Intranet: ICON Message: • HQ & country offices

publishes case studies• Video-based and text

interviews of the leaders

Targeted audience: employees

Response: • Number of visitors to the

website• “likes” & “comments”

Strength:• All-levels of employees• Easy, economic in knowledge

sharing• Interactive

Weakness:• Size of workforce • Multi-cultured workforce –

cost of cultural awareness• Different information needs

Recommendation: • Create divisional Intranet (dedicated portals)

Intranet: ICON

Teleconference platform Message:

• Virtual meetings on a monthly or as-needed basis

• Three all-staff meetings with UNICEF’s Executive Director are webcast live to staff globally (more than 120 country offices participate)

Targeted audience: • Employees

Response:• Immediate response • Difference between points being made in meetings and their

implementation in practice by employees

Strength:• No time constraint

• Dramatic travel saving

Weakness:• Not very interactive (one-

way communication)• Hard to measure the

effectiveness of the meeting

Recommendations: • Interactive: (Motivation-hygiene theory)

• Invest in other internal communication platforms (real-time information tool: identity staff’s innovative ideas)

Teleconference platform

UNICEF Traditional communication

channels

Face to Face Strengths: • Strong influential communication channel• Good for complex info exchange• Associated with an ‘open’ communication climate

Weaknesses:• Risk of message distortion (rely on experienced communicators)• Can be costly

Recommendations:• Devise and implement evaluation techniques to regularly measure benefits and

positive influences of face2face communication. This is crucial as this channel is expensive

Mobile phonesStrengths:• Fast & easy way to communicate internally with employees & externally

with majority of stakeholders – main way of private donor fundraising

Weaknesses:• Dependence on network coverage• Limited impact in low literacy societies• Privacy

UNICEF’s Global Communication and Public Advocacy Strategy, 2014–2017: - Digital transformation- Strengthen intelligence gathering and listening capacity

Traditional media (theatre, community meetings, songs, dance, poetry)

Strengths:• Good for hard to reach communities• “theatre for development” (Mlama, 1991)• Communication tool that operates at grassroots level

Weaknesses:• Hard to have significant short term impact

Recommendations: • These media are often thought of as folktales, myths, and other fantasies that

are individual misrepresentations of social events and occurrences and therefore have no or limited educational value

Crisis communication

• UN Wonder Woman - New Honorary Ambassador for the Empowerment of Women and Girls• UN facing human induced crisis as petition signed by nearly

30,000 employees • UN sustainable development goals have undergone image

and reputation damage • Lack of employee participation in UN decision making

Concluding remarks & Recommendations

• Overall, UNICEF has a systematic, integrated, effective communication channel and satisfying communication performance.• It could do better if :

Coordinate internal and external communication; Extensively use prevailing communication channels to

expand its influence; Always keep its mission and objectives in mind

Any questions?

References• Businesstopia (n.d) ‘Schramm’s Model of Communication’, Businesstopia, [Online]. Available from:

https://www.businesstopia.net/communication/schramms-model-communication (accessed: 1Nov 2016). P5• Cutlip, S., Center, A., and Broom, G. (2006). Effective Public Relations (9th edition) Pearson: New Jersey [online] Available from:

http://catalogue.pearsoned.co.uk/preface/0130082007.pdf (accessed: 1 Nov 2016). • Dineen, J. (2016) ‘How the UNICEF Tap Project brought safe water to over 500,000 people’. UNICEF TAP website [Online] Available

from: https://www.unicefusa.org/stories/how-unicef-tap-project-brought-safe-water-over-500000-people/30643 (Accessed: 1 Nov 2016).

• UNICEF (2010) Communicate to advocate for every child: UNICEF’s Global Communication and Public Advocacy Strategy, 2014–2017 [Online] http://amecinternationalsummitstockholm.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/UNICEF-Global-Communication-and-Public-Advocacy-Strategy1.pdf

• UNICEF official website of TAP project (n.d.) [online]. Available from: https://www.unicefusa.org/mission/usa/unicef-tap-project (Accessed: 1 Nov 2016).

• Bernstein, David (1997) Advertising outdoors: watch this space! London: Phaidon.• Janssen, S. (2014) “Unicef: Making the invisible visiable” Creative Criminals, [Online]Available from:

http://creativecriminals.com/billboard/unicef/making-the-invisible-visible (Accessed: 5 Nov 2016)• UNICEF (2013) Division of communication annual report 2013 [Online] Available from: https://www.unicef.org/about/annualreport/files/Div_of_Communication_AR_2013.pdf • UNICEF (2015) UNICEF division of communication annual report 2015 [Online] Available from:

https://www.unicef.org/about/annualreport/files/DOC_2015_Annual_Report.pdf• The Characteristics of Different Communication Channels 2009, [Online]. Available from:

https://www.humanitarianresponse.info/system/files/documents/files/characteristics_of_different_communication_channels_0.pdf (Accessed: 28 Oct 2016)

• Cornelissen, J. (2014) Corporate communication : a guide to theory & practice. 4th ed. Los Angeles: SAGE.• Kramarae, C & Spender, D. (2000) Routledge International Encylopedia for Women. [Online]. Available from: Oxon: Routledge. • Panford et al. (2001) ‘Using Folk Media in HIV/AIDS Prevention in Rural Ghana’, Am J Public Health, 90 (10), pp. 1559-1562. • Kolucki, B., Iskanderova, A. & Grover, D. (2005) “Something to read something to learn, print media for and about young children”

UNICEF.com [Online] Available from: http://www.unicef.org/ceecis/Print_Media_for_and_about_Young_Children._Kyrgyz_Republic.pdf (Accessed: 5 Nov 2016)