Nano-campaigning

Nano-campaigning refers to an approach within Marketing communications, Public relations and Lobbying which uses personalised and product-specific or issue-specific tactics as the starting point for more extensive strategic campaigns. It is based on the principles of social psychology and is enabled by the application of social media technologies.

First use of the term

The term was first coined by US marketer and blogger, Anne Holland, on her MarketingSherpa blog, in an article[1] of 6 October 2008. For Holland, the nano-campaign was the practical effect of the nano-niche marketing concept.

Wider definition and application of the term

On 19 February 2009, UK campaigns consultant and writer, Dan Fox, in an article on PubAffairs, the Public Affairs Networking blog[2], expanded the definition to cover the broader range of communications disciplines and services.

He defined nano-campaigning as the tactical promotion of ideas and messages, tailored to individuals or select groups, with the strategic aim of encouraging a campaign to grow and build momentum beyond a small, focussed audience, enabled by the multiplying effects of communication technologies and social media.

In March 2009, the term was used on another marketing blog, dm horizons[3] to describe the rejection of television by the team campaigning to promote the Indian-manufactured budget car, the Nano, in favour of, inter alia, chatrooms, news tickers, pop-ups, Facebook, Orkut, blogs, and word-of-mouth. dm horizons described this as "a nano-campaign for the Nano".