OBJECTIVE/BRIEF

• Inform future campaign planning;
• Identify active influencers for potential advocacy and communications partnerships;
• Provide external validation that this strategy would lead to positive outcomes for the organisation.

STRATEGY

In 2012 the World Health Organisation announced an aspirational set of targets to drive progress on diabetes and non-communicable diseases, including the first ever global target to halt the rise of diabetes. This specific target indicated a need for the diabetes community to forge partnerships and advocates outside the diabetes ‘world’.

Informed by media listening, mindful that the debate surrounding diabetes, sugar and obesity was converging, the IDF knew it needed to engage outside of the diabetes ‘world’ (national member organisations, healthcare professionals, academics, corporate stakeholders). By building strategic alliances and partnerships across all sectors – the UN, governments, civil society and private sector – the IDF would strengthen its impact.

The IDF also needed to stake its position in the media debate surrounding diabetes, sugar and obesity, based on informed intelligence. A landscape and stakeholder analysis from Commetric was commissioned to inform the team’s actions moving forward.

EXECUTION/IMPLEMENTATION

Business titles and online sources with a global spread were identified to reflect the IDF’s broad target audience which consists of multiple stakeholders. Commetric’s Influencer Network Analysis methodology mapped stakeholders central to the discussion in English, French and Spanish articles published between October and March 2015.

The research explored the media and stakeholder landscape surrounding nutrition, sugar and obesity, all factors impacting diabetes prevalence. Content analysis identified topics receiving attention, highlighting potential partners for advocacy collaboration. The research also identified themes evident and emerging, to assist the IDF with message formulation.

The communications and advocacy team was keen to tap into the ‘middle tier’ of influencers which sit between global policy making platforms (G7) and front-line diabetes prevention and care advocates (including the IDF’s members: national diabetes associations). They needed a better understanding of the content being shared and discussed by these influencers. The findings would also give structure and focus to future communications and stakeholder engagement planning.

Commetric worked with the IDF to develop a media search strategy to source a relevant coverage sample. Keywords relating to nutrition, consumption, diabetes, prevention and sugar were agreed (and translated), returning 1,401 articles for manual enrichment and analysis by Commetric’s media analysts. This sample was large enough to provide meaningful data, yet focused enough to fit the budget.

Names of individuals and organisations within the discussion were automatically identified using entity extraction software. Articles were read for relevancy, duplicates and irrelevant items removed. Each influencer’s role was identified and coded (healthcare professionals, celebrities, academics, regulators, NGO reps, journalists). Similarly, Commetric identified organisations, sub-topics in the discussion, and coded each influencer’s sentiment towards the discussion (positive, negative, or neutral towards the sugar and nutrition debate). This provided input for network maps and tables illustrating those central to the discussion, what topic they were discussing (providing intelligence for targeted message outreach) and which sources and journalists were promoting/supporting this messaging (aiding future campaign planning).

The study also ranked how central each individual and organisation was to the topic. This methodology, inspired by Social Networking Analysis, an academic discipline developed by sociologists in the 1960s, identifies individuals in a group who are true drivers of change, regardless of where they sit in a formal hierarchy. This means a person or organisation connected with many others in a conversation network, is ranked higher than someone more isolated. If these connections, in turn, are linked with many others in the network, the person/organisation will rank even higher. This insight helps prioritise outreach efforts to target the most relevant and influential stakeholders.

The sentiment analysis, combined with ranking of how central a person or an organisation is to the discussion, provided insight into the advocates, swing voters and critics within the relevant conversation. This provided the IDF with actionable intelligence for comms planning and stakeholder engagement.