Reminding voters about the importance of local council elections
Being trusted to play our part in Queensland’s great democratic traditions was a huge honour for New Word Order when we were appointed by the Electoral Commission of Queensland (ECQ) to handle all creative requirements for the 2024 Local Government Elections. The size and scale of this multimedia campaign was an exciting opportunity for the agency team to flex their creative, production and project management muscles. Undaunted by the challenge, we delivered a campaign that cut through and managed the project to a standard over and above the client expectations.
Challenge
In Australia’s three-tiered government system, local government elections are often regarded as the “poor cousin” and not afforded the gravitas of federal and state elections.
Our challenge was to overturn that mindset and strongly appeal to the Queenslander’s sense of localness, and show how council responsibilities are a key part of everyone’s daily life. Therefore, local government elections are every voter’s chance to have a say in their local community.
Queensland is home to over 5 million people, so naturally there’s a wide range of voters. Of particular interest to ECQ were those voters who traditionally didn’t participate in elections. Part of our role was to find ways to connect with reluctant voters and motivate them to take part in these local government elections.
The spark
Our key strategy was to capture as much of the audience by creating a campaign that was as relatable as possible to the broad demographic of Queensland voters. Simple messaging and reflections of real Queensland life in local communities were the cornerstones of the creative strategy.
We wanted to champion the local perspective and see people living in their local communities but showcase them in a unique and different way so the campaign had instant recognition and memorability.
Creative
Clear and simple usually works best, particularly when you need to talk to a vast range of people from a variety of backgrounds.
Working with our production partners, we set about instilling our creative materials with an authentic representation of local Queensland life. We showed people enjoying and interacting with their local government facilities and services, such as council swimming pools, parks and playgrounds, and even the weekly wheelie bin day.
We connected this everyday imagery with clear messaging about the how local government services and facilities are important to every single Queenslander and therefore voting in the council elections should also be a matter of importance.
Creative materials for the campaign included broadcast television, online video, outdoor, press, digital and social media. Far more than 100 different creative materials were outputted for the campaign.
Outcome
Voter participation in the 2024 Queensland local government elections achieved higher rates than previous local council elections, so the main KPI for the campaign was achieved. We feel proud working on projects like these, when we’re reaching members of our local communities and helping everyone to have their say in our democracy.