SUPPORT

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Research & support

Common Cause Australia provides everything from in-depth message testing to custom training programs, conference keynotes, and creative services.

Our focus groups, public discourse analysis and dial testing help you discover the most persuasive values-based messaging to motivate your audience. Our message guides, training programs and consulting services help you put the research insights into practice. And our presentations, webinars and keynotes help to bring your allies and stakeholders on board.

Our creative team can help you craft copy and come up with ideas that both cut through with your audiences and stay true to helpful values and frames.

Whatever you need to use values and frames to motivate change, we’ve got you covered.

CONSULTING

We provide tailored support for organisations to create deep and durable change through values-based team alignment, strategy development, community engagement and communications. 

If you know values matter, but don’t know where to start, get in touch and we’ll show you how.

Our research projects help organisations craft messages that are honest, powerful and persuasive. 

We use a range of methods to help us craft values-based messages that frame your issue in the most effective way:

Discourse analysis uses language data from advocacy, media, academia, political speech and popular culture to analyse the cognitive frames already present in the public discourse. We uncover how experts reason about your issue, how the media reports them, and how the public thinks about them.

Focus group research helps find out why people think as they do, breaking down your issue to uncover where people are - and how they might be moved.

Dial tests are online surveys that include audio messages that participants rate by moving a dial up and down. This revolutionary technique provides a word-by-word view of what is and isn’t working in our messages.

Our research insights and recommendations are summarised in practical message guides and resources. We also offer tailored training programs to help your team and allies put our recommendations into action.

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RESEARCH

Previous Research PROJECTS

We’ve completed over 40 in-depth messaging research projects with organisations working on a range of different issues. Below is a list of topics we’ve explored to date. If you’d like to learn more about any of these projects get in touch.

    • Climate Emergency (councils)

    • Ocean Conservation

    • Responsible cat ownership

    • Responsible dog ownership

    • Safer Speeds*

    • Walking and Bike Riding

    • Addiction Stigma

    • Ageism

    • Australian Aid

    • Disability

    • Drug Stigma

    • First Nations Law & Justice

    • First Nations Self Determination

    • Homelessness

    • Human Rights Act

    • Social Housing

    • Social Security

    • Gender Equality

    • Masculinities

    • Men’s Violence Against Women*

    • Women’s Sexual and Reproductive Health*

    • Active Spaces*

    • Alcohol

    • Energy Drinks*

    • Fast Food Outlets*

    • Food

    • Food (children)

    • Free School Meals*

    • Harmful Industries

    • Harmful Marketing Act

    • Health Equity*

    • Health Promotion

    • Healthy Partnerships in Sport

    • Healthy Workplaces

    • Privatised Public Hospitals

    • Vaping

    • Healthy Eating & Active Living*

    • Immunisation

    • Parental Supply of Alcohol

    • Smoking Cessation Care (GPs, Pharmacists)

    • Smoking Cessation Care (Community Sector)*

    • Smoking Cessation Support (Friends and family)

    • Vaping Prevention (young people)

    • Vaping Prevention and Cessation

*In progress or not yet released

PRESENTATIONS AND KEYNOTES

Our keynotes and presentations are a great way of introducing broad audiences to the power of values and frames in motivating change.

We regularly share our research and insights at national conferences, webinars, network meetings and in-house events across Australia.

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COMMON CAUSE CREATIVE

CCC is the creative communications arm of our messaging activities. We help our partners develop their values-based, evidence-led messages into compelling and effective communications.

We can offer:

Writing coaching - working directly with you as you learn how to turn your messages into compelling copywriting for your campaigns and collateral. The skills you build during coaching sessions will set you up for creating engaging communications in the future.

Feedback and editing - when you’ve got your messages as far as you can get them, let us help you finesse them based on our years of experience, research and real-world testing.

Creative ideation - looking for your next TVC, social media video or ad campaign? Let us pitch you concepts that will stay true to the values and frames that work, while engaging your audience with creative flair and originality.

We also work with freelance designers, animators, videographers and producers who can bring the winning idea all the way to realisation.

What people are saying

“Common Cause excels in providing insight, support, coaching and practical application of values based messaging for a range of complex problems.”

- Zoe Francis, Women’s Health in the South East

 

“Their approach to combining evidence with real-world experience made for compelling and conceptually clear messages.”

— Juan Tello, World Health Organisation

 

“When we first engaged them, we had no idea how impactful their work would be. We found clarity and confidence in areas where we’ve struggled for years.”

- Kirstan Corben, VicHealth

 

“We’ve been incredibly fortunate to have the guidance and support of Common Cause Australia to land the words that work.”

- Adam Knobel, Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education