“Ada, you communicated well… but you didn’t communicate deeply.”
That sentence hit harder than any performance review.
Kunle’s words echoed in Ada’s head as she stared at the campaign dashboard glowing with green ticks; impressions, reach, engagement, all looking perfect.
She had just wrapped a government campaign that had everyone talking. The hashtag was trending, media houses picked it up, influencers joined in, and the social media team celebrated what looked like a clear win.
Then silence.
No policy shifts. No citizen involvement. No change in public behavior.
Everything Ada built had vanished into the noise of the internet.
The campaign had visibility , but no depth.
“Visibility without connection,” Kunle had said, “is just noise.”
That line would haunt and later, transform Ada’s entire approach to communication.
Ada’s mistake wasn’t unique – it’s the same one many brands make. We’ve seen this pattern again and again, which led us to define what we call the Five Levels of Effective Communication – the path from message creation to lasting change.
Level 1: Awareness : People see you.
This is where Ada started. Her campaign was loud, visible, and exciting.
But awareness is surface-level. It opens the door, but doesn’t invite people in.
For you: Don’t mistake reach for relevance. Align your message with what your audience already cares about. Visibility gets eyes; relevance gets hearts.
Level 2: Understanding : People get you.
When Ada reviewed her campaign, she realized her message was full of organizational jargon, words like “sustainability” and “green economy” that never landed.
The public saw the campaign, but didn’t get it.
For you: Clarity over cleverness. Speak like your audience thinks. Simplify without diluting the truth. If they can’t understand you, they can’t stand with you.
Level 3: Connection : People feel you.
Then finally, Ada changed her perspective on the campaign. She realized that numbers alone weren’t moving people, connection was. So, she did something different.
She stopped quoting data and started telling stories, of a student planting trees, a market woman reusing her shopping bag, a community coming together to clean their environment.
And then, something shifted.
People began to engage, not because they were instructed to, but because they felt something.
For you: Make it human. Give your message a pulse. Facts inform, but emotions transform and it’s emotion that turns awareness into action.
With the sudden shift, Ada felt fulfilled. The metrics were up, engagement was strong, and her campaign finally seemed alive. She had reached Level 3 : Connection.
But like many communicators, she stopped there. The numbers looked good, the comments were flowing, and it felt like success.
Yet, impact begins where connection ends, and that’s the place of Trust.
We’ll pick up from there in Part 2.
Because real change doesn’t happen when people see your message, it happens when they trust you enough to act.