Introduction
The way we engage online is changing fast. Email lists are shrinking, social media algorithms elevate hostile content, and misinformation is rampant. While some of us are struggling to cut through in this fragmented digital landscape, others are seeing promising results.
This resource is based on a panel at Progress 2026 that brought together leaders from Uplift (Ireland), Quid (Brazil), and GetUp (Australia) to compare models, share real-world experiences, and explore what’s actually working in their contexts.
The Progress 2026 conference was hosted by Australian Progress on March 24-25 at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre in Narrm/Melbourne. This article was produced by The Commons Library to enable ongoing learning.
Different tools for different contexts
Throughout the session, the panellists reflected on the way different digital landscapes shape the tools and approaches in their respective context.
In Ireland, Uplift relies heavily on email to communicate with its members. With around 7% of the population subscribed, it has built the largest email list in the country.
In contrast, Quid’s experience in Brazil highlights a very different context. Email has become largely bureaucratic, playing little role in mobilisation. Instead, WhatsApp is their most critical tool, widely used to build communities, distribute content, and drive action within movements.
This shift reflects broader changes in how people engage online. Quid has moved away from relying on websites, recognising that it is increasingly difficult to drive traffic off social media platforms. Instead, campaigns are designed to live entirely within social media, with both the message and call to action embedded directly in content.
Calls to action are typically focused on moving people into open or closed WhatsApp groups, where engagement becomes more direct, relational, and sustained. In Brazil’s context, where WhatsApp is one of the most widely used platforms, it has become a critical tool in organising efforts and in countering the rise of the far right over the past six years.
Digital campaigning is certainly not dead but it is more diverse and decentralised.
Digital campaigning is becoming decentralised
Across all three organisations, there has been a shift away from centralised, highly controlled messaging toward distributed, high-volume content created by diverse voices.
At Quid in Brazil, this has meant moving away from producing a single “perfect” piece of content and instead equipping a network of creators to generate content in their own voice. More than 150 creators have been trained, with a core group regularly producing content that speaks to their own audiences.
This decentralised approach allows campaigns to:
- Reach new and unexpected audiences
- Speak in more authentic, culturally relevant ways
- Respond quickly to emerging moments
Similarly, Uplift supports communities to organise within their own contexts, providing tools and infrastructure while allowing local leadership to shape the message. This model grows both reach and trust.
Two-way communication
A consistent theme was the shift from one-way communication to responding to the needs of your audience.
At GetUp, a renewed focus on engaging supporters through simple surveys and questions has significantly increased participation. Asking people what they think, before asking them to act, helps to create a sense of conversation rather than transaction.
This approach includes:
- Asking multiple questions before presenting a call to action
- Using responses to shape future engagement
- Framing participation as part of an ongoing relationship
Uplift is also investing in real-time social listening tools to track conversations, to help them to identify emerging narratives and intervene early to shape public debate.
What is the story and who gets to tell it?
Strong storytelling remains foundational to effective digital campaigning.
As highlighted by GetUp, if a campaign is not emotionally engaging or motivating, it will struggle, both online and offline. Digital tactics cannot compensate for weak narrative foundations. At its core, effective campaigning still depends on telling stories that resonate with people’s values, experiences, and a sense of hope.
At the same time, there is a growing recognition that who tells the story matters just as much as the story itself. The panellists noted several important shifts:
- Messaging must reflect the language, concerns and priorities of targeted audiences
- Organisations are not always the most trusted or effective messengers
- Influencers and community voices can reach people in ways organisations cannot
As a result, many organisations are moving away from tightly controlled, on-brand messaging and toward more distributed storytelling models. This includes partnering with creators who can communicate with their audiences in authentic and engaging ways.
Shaping the conversation in polarised environments
In increasingly polarised contexts, particularly in online spaces, digital campaigning is being used to help shape the conversation.
Across their different contexts, the panellists reflected on a shared challenge: navigating fractured media environments, declining trust in institutions and the growing influence of far-right narratives. In this landscape, the ability to intervene early, frame issues effectively, and shape public understanding is crucial.
Rather than focusing solely on the scale of reach, organisations are increasingly prioritising creating spaces where people can engage more deeply and shift their perspectives over time. Uplift describes this as building “big containers” for conversation; spaces where people feel able to explore issues, ask questions and reconsider their views. For Uplift this means genuinely engaging with the concerns of communities who are sceptical and resistant. This includes engaging with communities vulnerable to far-right narratives, to intervene early and reshape the narrative.
Final Thoughts
Across Ireland, Brazil and Australia it is evident that there is no single model for digital campaigning anymore.
Success depends on the ability to adapt to changing platforms, localised contexts, shifting audience behaviours, and increasingly complex political environments.
Organisations that are willing to experiment, listen and share power are finding new ways to build people power in a rapidly evolving digital world.
About the Speakers
Paul Ferris (GetUp)
Paul Ferris is interim co-CEO of GetUp, where he is currently focused on re-building and re-scaling the organisation to take on the growing power of the far right in Australia. He moved back to Australia in 2025. Prior to that, he spent 15 years working with political campaigns, NGOs and unions in the US and Europe, including as partner at the 50-person progressive communications and campaigns agency Reform Society.
Ricardo Borges Martins (Quid) | Brazil
Ricardo Borges-Martins is the co-founder and Strategy Director at Quid. His work centers on civic engagement and mobilization within pro-democracy social movements and NGOs. Over the past decade, he has co-created initiatives like Pacto pela Democracia, Advocacy Hub, and Virada Política. He holds a degree in Social Sciences from USP, a Master’s in Social Influence, and an MBA in Government Relations from FGV-SP. He is also a visiting professor at FGV-SP, teaching Advocacy and Public Policy.
Siobhan O’Donoghue (Uplift) | Ireland
Siobhán (she/her) is an Irish based community organiser, campaigner, leader and storyteller. Her experience spans decades of grassroots, local, national and global struggles for justice and equality. She is the founding Director of Uplift, Ireland’s largest people powered campaigning community, connected to 7% of the population.
Prior to this Siobhan was Director of the Migrant Rights Centre Ireland where she led several successful campaigns including rights for domestic workers, criminalisation of forced labour, protections for people undocumented. She has held a wide array of leadership roles across civil society including as lead negotiator in social partnership agreements in the late ‘90s.
Sofia Madden (Watershed) (Moderator)
With over a decade at the intersection of politics and purpose, Sofia has led high-impact campaigns across Australia and the US. She’s delivered work for clients including the Australian Labor Party, AI Impact Lab, Paramount, Spotify, Thrive by Five, and the Equality Campaign. Her work has contributed to marriage equality, a Human Rights Act in Queensland, minimum wage increases, and dozens of electoral and legislative wins. Sofia specialises in storytelling, digital campaigning, AI, and content strategy.
Explore Further
- Digital Campaigning: Start Here
- How to Create a Successful Digital Campaign: Digital Activism Toolkit
- How to use WhatsApp for Campaigning
- Digital Campaigning in Europe: A Series of Articles
- Digital Campaigning and Online Organising Courses with Social Movement Technologies
- Fight Back Against Authoritarianism in Brazil
- How Powerful Conversations Won Abortion Rights in Ireland
- We Need New Strategies to Respond to the Far Right
- Organizing Against the Far Right
- Explore the Australian Progress collection on The Commons Library
- Explore more resources from Progress 2026
- Australian Progress Events & Training