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NATO faces multifaceted threats, systemic competition from assertive and authoritarian powers, as well as growing security challenges to Allied countries and citizens from all strategic directions. The Russian invasion of Ukraine has shown once again the importance for the Alliance to continue to demonstrate and communicate that it stands ready to defend every inch of its territory – to reassure its own citizens and to rule out any space for miscalculation or misunderstanding.

Strategic communications are an integral part of our efforts to achieve NATO’s political and military goals. My responsibility is to coordinate strategic communications across the Alliance. We use information as an instrument of power that is both civilian and military. Our strategic communications objectives focus on communications outcomes achieved through a combination and alignment of actions, images, and words. In response to Russia’s war against Ukraine, we have fully aligned our communications efforts with the political and military actions of the Alliance, using all of our communications tools.

NATO works hard to ensure its audiences understand the Alliance’s policies and activities by engaging with publics and target groups to foster support for the Alliance in the medium and long term. NATO uses all relevant digital channels, public engagement with key opinion makers, civil society and traditional and online media, to build awareness, understanding, and support for Alliance decisions and operations.

Key to our communications, and to counter the stream of hostile information activities we face, is to understand the complex information environment we operate in. NATO continues to deepen its understanding of manipulative behaviours and tactics of hostile actors. This allows us to better anticipate and pre-empt hostile information activities and respond accordingly. Through proactive communications campaigns, strategic communications capability building, and strengthening partnerships with non-government, private, and academia, we seek to build resilience and understanding in our societies to mitigate the impact of hostile information activities in the long-term.

Press Conference by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, Meeting of NATO Ministers of Defence, Brussels, 2022. Photo by NATO.

Ensuring coordinated and proactive joint communications about the Alliance from civilian and military staff is paramount to telling NATO’s story and achieving our objectives. Drawing also on Allies’ considerable communications capabilities, our communications highlight NATO’s continuous efforts to strengthen its deterrence and defence posture, the role it plays in crisis management operations and missions, and the importance of partnerships, which are essential to the way NATO works.

Audience-driven approach

Whom we are speaking to and why is crucial to communication. We ensure NATO communications connects with specific audiences by adopting an audience-driven approach and by investing in research to understand the concerns of our publics.

Relevant insights are shared to inform civilian, military and national communications, helping communicators to select relevant and appealing topics to engage audiences and expand support for the Alliance. While it is important to continue to engage our existing audiences, who already follow NATO’s activities, we also tailor communication to young people and women who know less about NATO than other groups, according to polling data. With the knowledge that most of our audiences will interact with NATO only in digital space, we take a landscape approach to our communication, working closely with the broader NATO community so that our online avatar is that of a modern and adaptable alliance fit to carry out its core tasks.

NATO engages with key international media and strengthens collaboration with civil society representatives, such as youth networks, academic institutions, think tanks, NGOs, as well as parliamentarians, industry, and military entities. These groups constitute important audiences in themselves and can be effective amplifiers for NATO communications.

In April 2022 together with the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA) we organised the 2022 NATO Youth Summit. This high-profile public event brought together young leaders from across Europe and North America, and attracted large audiences across the globe. They explored issues they see as critical to global security, with contributions from diverse and non-traditional voices from activists and artists to tech leaders, together with NATO officials.

NATO Heads of State and Government at the Extraordinary Summit on March 24, 2022. photo by nato

Ambassador Braže with a group of influencers during the 2022 NATO Youth Summit. PHOTO BY NATO

Communications Pillars: Protect, Unite and Strengthen

NATO’s communications pillars structure the Alliance’s external communications, providing a framework for thematic and topical policy areas. The three pillars, NATO Protects, NATO Unites and NATO Strengthens are designed to guide and focus communicators when tailoring content and activities to specific audience segments who have limited or no knowledge of the organisation.

The NATO Protects pillar conveys the military strength of NATO and its cohesion, resolve, and ability to deter and defend against threats to the Euro-Atlantic area from any direction in a multi-domain environment. Communicating the activation of elements of the NATO Response Force (NRF) for the first time in its history for collective defence purposes, in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, sought to underline NATO’s unwavering commitment to the protection of all its Allies. At the same time, continuing to communicate on NATO’s regular and long-planned exercises, such as Cold Response 2022, is key to reassure publics and emphasize readiness, interoperability and defensiveness.

The crucial, but often lesser-known, multilateral political and diplomatic work the Alliance undertakes is communicated through the NATO Unites pillar, which also focuses on the importance of the transatlantic bond as the guarantor of Allied security. Again, in reaction to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Allies swiftly sent a strong message of transatlantic unity and solidarity, amplified by NATO’s own, but also Allies’ communication channels.

Communications under the NATO Strengthens pillar represents the importance of strengthened resilience across all areas. NATO is committed to strengthen Allies and partners’ ability to address contemporary challenges such as cyber and hybrid threats, including disinformation; climate change and security; and terrorism. In this context, NATO Allies have recently launched a ground-breaking initiative to sharpen the Alliance’s technological edge, the Defence Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic (DIANA).

A U.S. Soldier, assigned to 3rd Squadron, 2d Cavalry Regiment, reassembles a M249 Squad Automatic Weapon as part of the testing phase for the Expert Infantryman Badge and the Expert Soldier Badge in Bemowo Piskie, Poland, March 31, 2020. photo by Sgt. Timothy Hamlin

Integrated communications campaigns

NATO uses an integrated campaign approach to engage audiences across all three communications pillars. The WeAreNATO and the Protect the Future campaigns focus on home audiences, in particular young people, while NATO’s Enhanced Communications in Russian engages a range of Russian-speaking audiences.

WeAreNATO provides a campaign framework, for both Allies and NATO entities, to communicate directly to citizens the benefits of NATO and its continued relevance in today’s contested security environment. WeAreNATO is the primary vehicle used to coordinate communications to young audiences and provides the umbrella for specific targeted and time-bound future campaigns aimed at young people, such as a recent reassurance capsule campaign for Eastern flank Allies. Another major programme is the Protect the Future campaign, which was launched in May 2022 and run until the end of the year. What differentiates this campaign from others is the role of influencers from across the Alliance. These young people, with backgrounds ranging from science and technology to sports, will lead the campaign in their national languages and engage with their own audiences, which will expand NATO’s reach. Using their channels, which span YouTube, Instagram and TikTok, we are communicating where our audiences are already present, on the devices they use, with content that interests them, rather than expecting them to come to us. To this end, we will try innovate means of storytelling, including graphic novels and podcasts.

The purpose of NATO’s communications in Russian is to support NATO’s policy objectives towards Russia: deterrence and engagement with selected audiences. Our recent efforts in this context can be seen across our digital @NATOPoRusski channels, one way in which we engage our Russian-speaking audiences under the umbrella of our ‘NATO in Russian’ campaign.

To ensure increasing public awareness and understanding, to build familiarity and trust, and to sustain public support for the Alliance, brand unity, coherence, and consistency are crucial. To address this, NATO has a single organisational brand identity across a wide range of NATO entities. We take creative opportunities to bring the NATO brand to our publics, including through city branding surrounding high-level Summits and most recently on NATO Day, the birthdate of the Alliance.

The best communications activities are only as good as their evaluation and measurement mechanisms. They are an essential contribution to good decision-making and good policy-making. Therefore, during the planning stage we set measurable and achievable objectives focused on designated audiences. We apply performance metrics to measure outputs, outtakes, outcomes, and organisational impact. Key performance indicators are aligned to each communications objective that we track regularly over time.

Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg with a group of influencers at the launch of the Protect the Future campaign in May 2022. PHOTO BY NATO

CONCLUSION

Communications is a crucial part of NATO’s mission: to build awareness and support for the work we do. The invasion of Ukraine means we face an utterly changed security landscape, which requires NATO to adapt and our communications to keep pace with new threats and challenges. We are rising to that challenge. NATO’s communications will always be grounded in our values of freedom, democracy and the rule of law. Current events demonstrate the continued importance of the transatlantic bond for the security of Allied citizens, and the role of NATO as the indispensable transatlantic forum for political dialogue to maintain peace and security. We will continue to tell our story and ensure our citizens understand the critical role NATO plays in safeguarding their future.

Manneken Pis on NATO Day, April 4 2022. photo by nato