The Tully Message Box for Advocacy: Not Just for Political Campaigns Anymore
The Tully message box is a versatile tool that we love to use for advocacy campaigns. In this post, we will go through the origins of the Tully message box and how to use it to develop an advocacy message. We will talk about the importance of having the right folks around the table as you facilitate this discussion, and how to use the different boxes to enhance your advocacy message and strengthen it against opposition messaging.
What is the Tully message box? It's a core tool for advocacy message development. We think of it as a coalition facilitation tool where we bring partners together to discuss the message of an advocacy campaign by sitting in a room and discussing their campaign for 90 minutes. In this time, we can uncover and reach an agreement on what the likely advocacy campaign dialogue will be.
The Tully message box was named after Paul Tully, the former Political Director at the Democratic National Committee, and it has been used in multiple campaigns for both advocacy and electoral politics for decades.
It is a simple tool that defines an advocacy campaign in under 90 minutes. Simplicity is its power. To accomplish this, you just need a coalition, your clear knowledge of the advocacy dialogues, and some focused time.
For a fast-moving advocacy campaign, you may not have the time or resources to do a new poll, or one at all. So, using a tool like this can get you community buy-in and agreement. It is also stellar for uncovering a plethora of messages, some of which your coalition partners may not have previously discussed or had agreement around. Having a defined message framework in advocacy is critical because, in public affairs, the proponents and opposition forces are saying similar things. This allows you to look at all of it in one place and see what your opponents are saying that you should be saying.
How is it a resource saver? Understanding where to focus your message and time is a critical thing. The message box exercise, when done right, helps you assess where to focus your message and prioritize what specific messages are most important.
How can it bring a coalition together? Conversations about coalition messaging don’t usually happen organically. Having a conversation around a message box allows for a defined framework for open discussion and challenges around messages.
Does it take the place of paid research? A Tully message box will never take the place of paid advocacy research, but it provides a powerful framework for messaging and is a good starting place for polling.
The core steps are to tackle timing, coalition partners, and research. Here is how we suggest you pull this together:
- When do I build a message box? The earlier the better. Once you have a clear goal and a clear coalition, build your message box. You can always meet and do the process again; the biggest mistake is to go too late vs. too early.
- Plot out who needs to be in the room. Make sure you have the right people in the room to do this exercise, especially those in impacted communities. This is extremely important from a race and equity standpoint; it will make your campaign better and clearer.
- Do your research. Before you have the message box discussion, organize your existing resources and look at the four boxes to make sure you task all potential participants to come with clear information about each box. Task coalition members to look specifically for information about what the opponents say.
The Tully message box is made up of four distinct boxes: what we say about ourselves, what we say about them, what they say about us, and what they say about themselves.
- Q1: What do we say about ourselves? Use this to define our advocacy message as clearly and concisely as possible. Remove jargon and nice-to-have messages. Focus on what folks really need to know, and make sure you prioritize your strongest points.
- Q2: What do we say about them? Show how we will define our opposition. Make sure you do your research and fill this out completely. Often coalitions skip this step. It is important to be able to define the opposition, their message, and motives.
- Q3: What do they say about us? This is the opposition’s defined advocacy message against us, and what they think of our issue and coalition. List all their attacks and be self-critical. A detailed discussion here will help you make your own message clearer.
- Q4: What do they say about themselves? This is the core message for your opposition. It is important to look at your opposition messages, define them clearly, and see if you could be making the same arguments stronger in the “what we say about us” box or refute them in the “what we say about them” box.
The message box can work for any kind of advocacy campaign across all kinds of issues. We have also used it for accountability and corporate campaigns.
TL;DR:
The Tully message box is a great advocacy tool. Topline benefits include:
- Has clarity and simplicity
- Saves time and money
- Helps enhance existing research by organizing information
- Is great stand-alone research for advocacy campaigns that have no polling
- Works for advocacy, accountability, and member campaigns
It can help you define an advocacy message quickly and thoroughly by mapping out the likely dialogues in a campaign, pushing an advocacy coalition to confront its weaknesses and strengths. The Tully message box can be a great starting point to a campaign or an addition to existing resources and assets that have not been holistically organized.
Need help with your advocacy message? Have questions about developing messages for an advocacy or membership campaign? We help clients hone their advocacy messaging and facilitate messaging exercises, including the Tully message box, for advocacy groups. Get in touch!