Setting the file. One moment.
Subchapter 11.3
references/campaign-archetypes.mdMarkdown10 KBView on GitHub
The ideation engine in SKILL.md Stage 2 draws from this catalog. Every campaign run
should generate at least five concepts from different archetypes — not five variants
of the same archetype. The point is to widen the menu before narrowing.
For each archetype below: when it fits, channel tier it leans on, the authenticity hook it needs to work, a failure mode to avoid, and the sectors where it compounds fastest.
Sector overlay. Stage 4 applies the matching sector rider from
references/sector-riders.md on top of the archetype choice. The archetype → sector
fit notes below are defaults, not rules — an NGO can run a founder-story arc, a
personal brand can run a coalition play — but running against the default fit
requires a deliberate reason. Surface the mismatch when it happens.
| Archetype | Best-fit sectors |
|---|---|
| Awareness Push | consumer-brand, personal-brand |
| Launch Push | cohort-education, b2b-saas, consumer-brand |
| Fundraising Drive | ngo, political-civic, cohort-education (scholarship / bursary) |
| Mobilization / Turnout | political-civic, ngo |
| Community-Build | cohort-education, personal-brand, b2b-saas (dev-tools) |
| Counter-Narrative | political-civic, ngo, b2b-saas (category-creation) |
| Referral Flywheel | consumer-brand, cohort-education, b2b-saas (PLG) |
| Founder-Story Arc | b2b-saas, personal-brand, political-civic |
| Coalition Play | ngo, political-civic, cohort-education (multi-instructor) |
| Earned-Media Stunt | consumer-brand, political-civic, ngo |
Fits when: A new product, service, or cause needs to exist in public mind for the first time. Channel tier: Tier 2 (earned media, creator content) + Tier 1 (founder voice). Authenticity hook: A specific, concrete story — a first user, a founding moment, a clear problem description. Vague “we help businesses grow” awareness is invisible. Failure mode: Broad paid reach with no narrative. Impressions accumulate; nothing converts.
Fits when: A defined moment (product ship, policy rollout, campaign kickoff) needs compressed attention. Channel tier: Tier 1 + Tier 2, with Tier 3 boosts on the day-of. Authenticity hook: A visible milestone — something new, something different, something that was not there yesterday. Failure mode: Treating “launch” as a month of social posts. A launch is a moment, not a drip.
Fits when: A campaign (nonprofit, political, crowdfunded product, mutual aid) needs money by a deadline. Channel tier: Tier 1 (direct ask from leader to warm list) + Tier 2 (peer-to-peer sharing). Paid only as retarget of warm list. Authenticity hook: A specific use of funds — “€50 buys a week of X” or “500 more donors unlocks a matching grant.” Abstract “support our mission” under-converts. Failure mode: Broad cold-paid fundraising. Burns the budget before converting anyone.
Fits when: Turnout, sign-ups, or physical action is the outcome — not awareness. Channel tier: Tier 1 heavy (community nodes, local chapters, volunteer networks), Tier 2 for amplification. Authenticity hook: Peer-to-peer invitation. People show up when people they know ask them. Ads do not produce turnout; networks do. Failure mode: Spending on reach when the problem is conversion from interest to action. Fix the ask, the ease, and the peer pressure before buying more impressions.
Fits when: There is a dormant audience (old newsletter list, lapsed customers, former supporters) and the cost of waking them is lower than the cost of finding new people. Channel tier: Tier 1 (direct, 1:1 or small-segment email / DM) + Tier 3 (warm retargeting). Authenticity hook: “I noticed you haven’t been around. Here is what changed.” Honest acknowledgment beats a generic “we miss you” sequence. Failure mode: Treating re-engagement as a drip campaign. A single honest message outperforms a 5-touch sequence.
Fits when: There was a failure, a controversy, a gap between promise and delivery, and credibility needs to be earned back. Channel tier: Tier 1 only. Paid amplification of a trust apology is usually counter-productive (looks like spin). Authenticity hook: Specific acknowledgment of what went wrong, what changed, and what the user will see differently now. No passive voice. No “mistakes were made.” Failure mode: Launching a feel-good campaign before the underlying issue is fixed. Audiences can tell.
Fits when: A competitor, incumbent, or adversary is saturating a message that is misleading, outdated, or vulnerable to a specific counter. Channel tier: Tier 1 + Tier 2. Counter-narrative is almost always organic — paid counter-ads look like mudslinging. Authenticity hook: A concrete contradiction — a number, a document, a lived experience the adversary cannot match. Failure mode: Mirroring the adversary’s aggression. Counter-positioning works by being different, not by being louder.
Fits when: Long-term retention, word of mouth, and compounding trust are the goals. Slow. Non-negotiable for most B2B SaaS, creator businesses, NGOs with a donor base. Channel tier: Tier 1 (Slack/Discord/Circle/WhatsApp, local chapters, user groups). Authenticity hook: A reason to gather that is not just your product — an interest, a cause, a shared practice. Failure mode: Building a “community” that is a broadcast channel in disguise. If the leader posts and nobody replies, it is not a community.
Fits when: One newsworthy action can drive more press and organic amplification than a year of ad spend. Channel tier: Tier 2 (press, reshares), Tier 1 (founder voice documenting it). Authenticity hook: The stunt must be real — a real action, real consequences, real stakes. Publicity stunts with no substance burn more trust than they build. Failure mode: Confusing “creative” with “newsworthy.” Most creative ideas are not news.
Fits when: The product is something people are already quietly recommending (or would if given a small nudge). Channel tier: Tier 1 (word of mouth, referral mechanics). Authenticity hook: A reward that is aligned with why the referrer actually shares — sometimes a discount, often just status or reciprocity. Failure mode: Paying for referrals that would have happened anyway. Measure lift, not volume.
Fits when: Geography matters — local business, political district, regional product rollout, market-by-market expansion. Channel tier: Tier 1 (in-person, local partnerships, local press). Authenticity hook: A local face, local language, local reference. A national brand showing up locally without adaptation reads as extractive. Failure mode: Scaling localized tactics into national templates. The thing that works in one town is usually the thing specific to that town.
Fits when: The founder or leader is the most credible, most interesting, or most distinctive asset the organization has. Channel tier: Tier 1 (founder personal accounts on LinkedIn / X / Substack / TikTok). Authenticity hook: A specific, non-generic story — why you, why now, what you know that others do not. Failure mode: A brand account that pretends to be a person. Users can smell the “we” in a supposedly personal post.
Fits when: An external date (holiday, anniversary, industry event, election) creates attention the campaign can ride. Channel tier: Tier 1 + Tier 2, with tight time boxes. Authenticity hook: A real reason to care about the date — not “here is a holiday promotion” but “here is what this date means to us.” Failure mode: Jumping on every calendar event. Audiences tune out brands that celebrate every National Day of Anything.
Fits when: Two or more organizations with non-competing audiences can trade credibility. Channel tier: Tier 1 + Tier 2 (joint events, co-written content, cross-newsletter swaps). Authenticity hook: A genuine shared interest — not just an audience swap. The coalition must make sense to both audiences, not just to the partners. Failure mode: Logo partnerships that neither partner promotes seriously. Either commit to the joint push or skip it.
Fits when: The product itself distributes the product — signatures, shareable artifacts, invites, public output, viral loops baked into the core experience. Channel tier: Tier 1 (product as its own channel) + Tier 2 (user-generated content). Authenticity hook: The shareable moment is real and valuable to the sharer — not a forced “invite 3 friends” gate. Failure mode: Bolting share mechanics onto a product nobody actually wants to show off. If users do not share organically, do not force them to.
Fits when: A brand or organization has a real position on a real issue that its audience cares about — and is willing to lose some audience over it. Channel tier: Tier 1 + Tier 2. Paid cause-led is usually ineffective and often backfires. Authenticity hook: A record. You cannot suddenly be cause-led in a crisis; audiences check history. Failure mode: Performative activism during a trending moment. Retreating when it gets hard is worse than never having said anything.
When generating five concepts in Stage 2 of SKILL.md, deliberately mix archetypes to
give the user a shaped menu:
Skip archetypes that do not fit the user’s situation — if the user has no existing audience, re-engagement is not on the menu. The point is range within fit, not box-ticking.