What is a social movement?
A social movement is when a collection of people take organised action for a collective goal.
This organised action for a collective goal is also referred to as a campaign.
Tomorrow Movement’s Youth Voter Bloc campaign is seeking to organise people to take action for a collective goal of good jobs, great public services and a safe climate for all. At a time when young people make up 47% of the voting population, this federal election is a powerful time for young people to push governments to listen to us, not big business.
Because we, the 47% of the voting population, have the power to transform our democracy. Money doesn’t equate to power, and it’s time that politicians realised that.
What does a social movement do?
Tomorrow Movement is taking a range of organised action towards this collective goal. This is because all people are at a different stage in their journey of supporting this campaign. One way to visualise this is through the ladder of engagement. People could be at the supporter journey level of:
- Observing the campaign through passively see the information; this could be through paper or online
- Following what the campaign is doing through signing up for personalised direct communication
- Endorsing what the campaign is doing through attending an informative or social event
- Contributing to what the campaign is doing through actively participating in a training, creative or action event
- Leading elements of the campaign through taking responsibility for outcomes of specific actions
To increase the amount of people that are actively aware of the campaign, and increase people’s engagement in campaigns, campaign’s take strategic organised action.
“Organising: People, Power, Change” highlights that action is most effective when it is:
- Strategic: it results in concrete, measurable progress toward your campaign goals.
- Strengthens your organization: it attracts and engages new people; it increases your community’s capacity to work together to make change.
- Develops individuals: it builds the leadership, skills, and capacity of your
constituency
What is the purpose of a banner drop?
In social movements, a banner drop as an organised action can aim to increase the amount of people:
- Observing your campaign, both physically when it happens but also through media that your social movements:
- owns: blog post, photo and media release on your website
- shared: through social media accounts
- earned: through traditional media coverage
- Following your campaign after they’ve observed the banner drop action and resonate with the campaign’s collective goal
- Contributing to the campaign through the creation of the banner and attending of the action event
- Leading elements of organised action, such as coordinating logistics of picking a location and transport to the banner drop, and coordinating of creating media
What are key considerations of a banner drop?
The banner itself!
Materials needed
- Large piece of fabric – lightly coloured is easiest to paint on, calico is the best and can be purchased by the meter from a fabric shop, otherwise bedsheets work really well and you can ask
- Acrylic/craft paint (green and blue and a little white make Tomorrow Movement teal)
- Paint brushes (big ones are good for large areas and small ones for details)
- Old newspaper or dropcloth (alternatively you can paint outside)
- Water
- Pencil
- If you have a projector these can be super handy too!
- Optional (for hanging) rope, eyelets/grommets
Creating the banner
- Choose your message and colours.
- Are you using words or images or both?
- What colours go where?
- Cut material the right size for what you need.
- If it’s to hang up somewhere it needs to be big so you may have to sew two or more pieces of material together.
- For two or more people to hold, usually 1 meter wide is a good width to hold up and a couple meters across.
- If you:
- have a projector:
- project your message onto the fabric.
- Trace out your message in pencil.
- don’t have a projector:
- draw your design small on paper to find how much space you’ll need for each letter, or image – for example how many letters on each side of the centre.
- To space out your message evenly across the banner, fold the banner into half or segments and work out how much needs to fit in each segment.
- You can also do this with a measuring tape, whatever feels easiest!
- Put out newspaper or a drop cloth to go under your banner material
- Mix paint – green and blue plus a little white to make a good Tomorrow Movement teal.
- Paint! Use big brushes for big areas, and small brushes for details and neat lines. Mixing a tiny bit of water with paints can help make smooth clean edges when painting within lines.
- Leave to dry! Do not fold!
- If you will be hanging it up, attach your rope to the banner. If the banner is small and light enough you can cut small holes at least 5cm in from the corner to thread the rope through. Or if it’s quite a large banner, that would rip these holes, you may want to sew a hem to thread the rope through or attach eyelets/grommets to thread the rope through.
Capturing media moments
| PHOTO AND VIDEO TYPE | KEY CONSIDERATIONS | EXAMPLES |
|---|---|---|
| B-Roll Supplementary footage or images that add visual context to a main story, often used to enrich news segments or video productions. |
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| Individual |
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| Group |
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| Banner |
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