You have to know your audience.

Pretty much anyone who deals with shaping public opinion—whether they’re working on Madison Avenue or a weekly newspaper—understands that knowing your audience is crucial to capturing their attention and influencing their thinking.

The folks at MCA-Mozambique get this.

As part of a campaign to get the word out about the potential benefits of the Land Tenure Project, funded through Mozambique’s MCC compact, MCA-Mozambique is distributing thousands of capulanas, or printed fabric that women often use as clothing.

MCA-Mozambique ordered an initial run of 4,000 of the 1½-meter long pieces of fabric, which sport the logo of the MCA, the Mozambican national logo and a message promoting the project’s ability to help beneficiaries secure land. Women are wearing them as skirts, trimming them down to sport as headdresses or securing babies to their back with them. 

The wraps encourage people to register their parcels of land and receive a legal title to their land, which can protect them from legal claims and protracted disputes with family and neighbors over rights to land.

Such advocacy-centered wraps aren’t uncommon. Politicians hand out the wraps adorned with their faces or the logo of their political party around election time. NGOs distribute them to get across a particular message, like encouraging people to seek an HIV test.
“It’s a good tool to deliver the message to women and young girls—and men too—that they will benefit if they register their land,” said Victor Nhatitima, MCA-Mozambique’s communications specialist.

MCA-Mozambique also plans to purchase another set of wraps for next year’s closeout; those wraps will sport the logos of MCC, MCA-Mozambique and the Government of Mozambique, highlighting this unique partnership and its benefits.

“We’re hoping people will keep this for a long period of time and spread the message,” Nhatitima said.