How to Create a Campaign

A guide for Owner, Admin, and Manager to set up and launch a data collection campaign in Folktale.

🎯 Who is this for?

This guide is for the Owner, Admin, and Manager who need to create a new campaign. You must be signed in to Folktale with one of these roles.


Overview

A campaign is the core data collection in Folktale. It contains your questions or story prompts, determines who can respond, and generates the AI insight you need to make decisions.

Creating a campaign takes around 5-10 minutes. The Campaign Assistant guides you through each step, using the context you provide to generate questions and structure your collection.

After completing this guide, your campaign will be ready to review and launch.

💡 Note: Creating a campaign and launching it are two separate steps. This guide covers creation only. See the related article How to Launch Your Campaign to make it live.


Step One: Start a New Campaign & Answer The Campaign Assistant's Questions


  1. From your Homepage Dashboard, click on the Create new campaign button on the left side of the panel.
  2. The Campaign Assistant will open.

The Campaign Assistant is an AI that helps you build a stronger campaign by understanding your context first. Work through each prompt before moving on.


What do you want to learn from this campaign?

  1. Select one or more goals from the options provided.
  2. If none of the options fit, then select the Other button to type your own answer.

Who are your participants?

  1. Select one or more options to describe your campaign participants.

How will you share the campaign?

  1. Select how you will distribute the campaign: via link, via email, through a person, or a mix of all three.

Tell us about your organisation or programme

  1. Paste a link to your organisation's website, or type relevant context directly into the text box.
  2. Add any additional context the assistant should know in the text box that appears.

Confirm your campaign summary

  1. Review the summary options the assistant has generated based on your answers.
  2. Select the option that best fits, or click the pencil icon to write your own.
  3. Edit the campaign title, description, and goals if needed.
  4. Click Continue.


Step Two: Choose Your Campaign Type

Select the format your contributors will use to respond.

  1. Choose either the Stories or Survey format.
  • Stories let people share in their own words, and they allow different types of formats.
  • Meanwhile, the Survey allows you to receive answers as multiple-choice, scales, and text responses.

If you select Stories, you can specify which formats contributors may use:

  • Video
  • Audio
  • Image
  • Text

Step Three: Choose a Template

The Campaign Assistant will generate a question template based on the context you provided.

  1. Select one from the options provided, or you can choose Design it for me to let the AI generate a template for you.
  2. Once you have confirmed your choice, scroll down and continue to review the generated questions.


Step Four: Review and Edit Your Questions

The Campaign Assistant shows a quality assessment for your question set and tips for improving your data collection.

  1. To reorder questions, drag using the six-dot icon on the left of each question.
  2. To edit a question, click the pencil icon.
  3. To remove a question, click the trash icon.
  4. If the questions feel too complex, click Simplify the questions, and the assistant will revise them.
  5. Click Continue when you are satisfied with your question set.

Step Five: Finalise Campaign Details

Set the visibility, timing, and participant requirements for your campaign.

Campaign Title and Visibility

  1. Confirm your campaign title.
  2. Toggle the 'Public Campaign' on to allow anyone with the link to respond, or off to restrict access. If you create a Private campaign, you will only receive responses from those invited to contribute.
  3. You can also allow 'Multiple responses' if you want participants to be able to submit more than once.

Dates

  1. Set a due date and end date to have the campaign stop accepting responses.

Participant Details

  1. Select which data you want participants to provide when submitting (for example, name or location).

Campaign Transparency

  1. Review the transparency settings. These tell participants who they are sharing with and why.
  2. Tick each category that applies to your campaign.
  3. Add a message to participants if needed.

Terms and Conditions

  1. If your campaign requires specific consent terms, use the terms and conditions section to add them.
  2. Upload your own terms document if needed.


Step Six: Review Your Campaign

  1. Review the full summary of your campaign.
  2. Preview to see exactly how your campaign will appear to contributors.
  3. Add a provocation statement if you want to prompt an emotional or reflective reaction from participants. Write your statement and choose a reaction type.

If you want to edit your questions at this stage, click the pencil icon next to the question list. You will be taken back to the question editor.

  1. When everything looks right, click Create Campaign.

⚠️ Important: Clicking Create Campaign does not make your campaign visible to contributors. Your campaign is created but not yet launched. Follow the guide How to Launch Your Campaign to share it.

Done

Your campaign is now created and ready to launch.

🎉 Congratulations! You have successfully created your campaign in Folktale.


  • How to Launch a Campaign
  • How to Share a Campaign
  • Folktale Roles and Permissions