In this blog, Sam Lockwood from Brand Response and SmartRaise writes about the Manifesto of Mistakes that grew out of a session with a group of campaigners a few months ago. Its all about leaning into reflecting and learning.
We’ve all been there.
The campaign that had everything lined up – slick branding, a smart message, an ambitious launch. People were excited. The vibes were right.
And then… not much happened.
The engagement figures barely moved. The action numbers stayed flat. At some point, someone quietly said it: “I think this didn’t land.”
It’s a moment most campaigners recognise. What’s less common is talking about it.
We’ve built a culture around outcomes. We celebrate the wins – and we should. But we don’t always leave space for the experiments that didn’t work, the tactics that flopped, or the brilliant ideas that came too early or too late. And that means we end up hiding some of our most useful knowledge – even from ourselves.
The Most Expensive Mistakes Are the Most Useful
Take the Harris–Walz campaign. It spent over $1 billion on advertising overall, with tens of millions allocated to digital – one of the largest political ad spends in U.S. history. But despite the scale, much of that investment failed to connect with the right audiences. Post-campaign analysis suggested that a significant portion of the digital spend reached voters who were already decided or unlikely to be moved.
That’s a tough outcome. But behind it was an enormous amount of testing – on messages, placements, formats, and timing. Lessons that could shape future digital campaigns at every level, if they were shared.
Too often, they’re not. Because the campaign is lost, the data gets buried (or ignored). The learning vanishes.
This isn’t unique to politics. It happens in civil society, too. A campaign fizzles, and the instinct is to move on – especially if funders or partners are watching. But that’s exactly when we need to stop and reflect. Ask what didn’t land. Capture what we now know. Make sure the next team doesn’t waste time learning the same thing the hard way.
We Need a Culture That Can Hold Mistakes
To do that, we need to shift how we treat failure – from something to quietly survive, to something we deliberately document.
A few months ago, in a session with a group of campaigners, someone floated an idea: what if we created a shared space to name what hadn’t worked? Not to dwell, not to self-criticise — just to reflect and learn. We started a simple spreadsheet, called it the Manifesto of Mistakes, and invited others to contribute.
It’s not perfect – it grew out of a casual breakout conversation, and it’s still a bit messy. But it’s become a place where people can admit, anonymously, what didn’t land. A tactic, a format, a campaign structure. It’s surprisingly helpful. Reading it feels less like failure and more like solidarity.
Five Ways to Start Learning From What Doesn’t Work
- Make space for honest debriefs.
Schedule time after each campaign to ask: What didn’t work? What surprised us? What would we not do again? Keep it short, keep it safe, and write it down. - Track what actually matters.
Don’t just measure reach. Pay attention to what led to action, built trust, or opened conversation. Big numbers don’t always mean big impact. - Share stories inside your team.
A well-told mistake travels far. Be the person who says, “Here’s something I wouldn’t do again – and here’s why.” It helps more than you think. - Capture learning while it’s fresh.
Even a few bullet points in a shared doc can be gold later. Don’t wait until the memory fades or the team has moved on. - Contribute to the wider record.
Add a note to the Manifesto of Mistakes, or start something in your own network. These don’t need to be formal. They just need to exist.
Getting It Wrong Is Part of Getting It Right
Campaigning is uncertain work. We move fast, try things, adjust. Some ideas land. Some don’t. That’s not a personal failure – that’s what building change looks like. Most successful campaigns are built from the ashes of those that failed before them.
If we only share what worked, we limit the field and trap each other in the same trial-and-error loop. We miss the chance to build a progressive movement that learns as it goes.
So let’s make space for what didn’t work – not as a footnote, but as a feature of the work. It’s one of the most generous things we can do.