The Studio's weekly Lunchtime Talks are open to anyone to attend and feature members of the Studio community and invited guests presenting their projects and inviting discussion. attendance at the talks has been growing steadily over the last few months, so we thought it was time to start documenting them for people who can't attend.

On Friday 7th October, Alex Wilks, Campaign Director of Avaaz.org visited the studio to present. Avaaz is a relatively young, Bristol-based organisation with a global reach and vision, and we had invited Alex to tell us the story and share techniques for building an online campaign community.
 
The talk drew a fantastic turn-out, with over half the audience visiting the Studio for the first time.
 
Before beginning, Alex did a quick audience poll. ‘How many of you have signed an Avaaz petition? Contacted your MP because of Avaaz? Attended an Avaaz demonstration?’ Most of the audience raised their hands at the first question, but by the last question the number of hands had dwindled.
 
So the digital reach of Avaaz is very strong, by capturing the opinions and the interests of their 10 million-strong community they influence real change amongst decision-makers.
 
Alex emphasised that although working with different countries and across many cultures requires nuances of tact and tactic, Avaaz always hope to spread one message to reach every country in the world. Their wish is to reinforce similarities, not differences, because they believe there is a set of common values and a world that most of us want.
 
Watch this video, created by Avaaz in 2007 to promote their ideas: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWyJJQbFago

How do Avaaz build campaigns and communities?
 
No Vested Interest
Funded entirely by small donations from individuals, Avaaz has no share-holders or partners with a vested interest in the kind of campaigns taken up. Members know the organisation is intended to represent them.
 
Community of Members
Avaaz’s 10 million+ members often act as scouts to find causes and flag them up. Much of the work done by the organisation is reading thousands of emails, researching the campaigns and deciding as a group whether a cause is appropriate or important.
 
Speed of Response
Responding to a plea from a member or whistleblower within a few days or even a number of hours has ensured that Avaaz have remained at the forefront of online campaigning. Their members trust their speed and ability to react and take action.
 
Test-Campaigns
The organisation tests the take-up of a campaign by sending it out to a smaller cross-section of their mailing lists first, they guage the potential success and relevance of a campaign on the response it receives, and roll it out or move onto the next campaign depending on the outcome.
 
Campaign Statistics
Once a campaign is live, constant, careful monitoring of the statistics means Avaaz know when to push or hold back, and which members are interested in which causes. This sensitivity to member interests means they never risk excluding people with blanket emails.
 
Regular Polls and Targeted Communication
Through regular non-compulsory polls, most Avaaz members provide their postcodes which means communication can be targeted, increasing the relevance and lowering the amount of spamming. Once a campaign moves offline, calls to march can be sent to those who are realistically able to attend.
 
Hopeful Language
Rather than emphasizing all that is wrong with the world, Avaaz craft the campaigns in a language that creates hope, conveying the idea that if we can speak up together it may make a difference.
 
Social Media
The hopeful campaigns excite people to spread the word via facebook, twitter and email, links to which are always available once a petition has been signed. This public demonstration of personal stand-taking always brings more people to the cause, and eventually more members.
 
Citizen Journalists
Avaaz empowers citizen journalists all over the world, to both spread the word of campaigns offline, and report back to keep the organisation’s knowledge, and consequently work, up-to date.