Why most campaigns fail before the first post

When we look at a failed campaign, the first instinct is to blame execution. The wrong slogan, a weak visual, the wrong channel. Less often do we ask whether anyone defined what the campaign was supposed to cause.

Backward planning means starting where it ends: at the decision that needs to occur in the world. Without that point, every other choice, channel, language, tone, is made blind.

In practice, it means patiently assembling the chain. What needs to be decided, by whom, on what basis. What evidence must be on the table before that decision. Which narratives must be challenged. And only then: what do we do.