The Campaign Manual
Nine stages, from objective to review. Two tracks: marketing campaigns and influence operations. Two sides of the table at every stage: Active, how to do it honestly, with a gate you must pass before moving on; and Defensive, what that same stage looks like when it is aimed at you and what to do about it. Each chapter has a worked example and a worksheet you can fill in, save in your browser, print, or export as a plan.
Marketing campaigns
Plan and run a campaign that persuades without manipulating: positioning, pricing, creative, testing, launch, and measurement, with the line marked at every step.
Marketing campaigns
Read a campaign from the customer side: why you were targeted, what is information and what is pressure, and how to cancel, refuse, or report.
Influence operations
Plan an advocacy or public-communication campaign on the seven-phase doctrine cycle, held to truthful, attributed, non-coercive influence.
Influence operations
Recognize an influence operation phase by phase: who is speaking, whether the volume is real, whether it worked, and how to respond without amplifying it.
The nine stages
The same spine runs through every track and mode, so you can always flip a stage to see it from the other side.
| # | Stage | Active asks | Defensive asks |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Objective | What change, in whom, by when, and how will you know? | What does this campaign want from me, and who benefits if I comply? |
| 2 | Audience | Who exactly are you trying to reach, and what do they already believe and need? | Why am I seeing this, and what does the sender think they know about me? |
| 3 | Message and framing | What is the truthful claim, and how do you frame it so this audience can hear it? | What is actually being claimed once the framing is stripped away? |
| 4 | Channels and messengers | Where and through whom will the message travel, with the source visible? | Who is really speaking, and how did this reach me? |
| 5 | Creative and content | What will you actually make, and does every element earn its place honestly? | Which parts of this are information and which are pressure? |
| 6 | Testing and approval | How do you find out what works without deceiving the people you test on, and who signs off? | Am I part of an experiment, and how would I tell? |
| 7 | Launch and distribution | How do you put it in front of people at a pace and volume you could defend in public? | Is this volume and timing organic, or manufactured? |
| 8 | Measurement | Did the change you wanted happen, and what did it cost the audience? | How much of this actually worked on people, and how would anyone know? |
| 9 | Review and response | What do you owe the audience now, and what do you change next time? | What do I do about it: ignore, verify, report, rebut, or prebunk? |
What the Active side will not teach
Active chapters cover influence that is truthful, attributed to its real source, and non-coercive. They do not cover accounts or personas that hide who is speaking, covert or falsely attributed distribution, undisclosed paid voices, coordination made to look independent, targeting people in grief, debt, isolation, or cognitive decline, or evading platform rules. Those appear on the Defensive side only, as things to recognize, with the documented cases of how they were caught in the operation anatomies. The reasoning is on the methodology page.
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