Summary

In 2017, Australia held a postal vote to determine whether same-sex marriage should be legalised. As the debate wore on it became increasingly negative, with a fear campaign from the ‘No’ side creating uncertainty in the community and increasing the strain felt by LGBTIQ Australians. Our aim was to transcend the negativity, shift perceptions and bring love back to the fore with a unifying message that revealed a simple insight – a same-sex wedding is just the same as any other wedding. Australians love (and love-to-hate) The Bachelor, and few moments get people talking about a single trivialised marriage proposal more than the season finale. Serendipitously, it also happened to fall on the day that the postal vote ballots were to be sent out to the Australian voting public. We created an emotive, positive, and powerful film that showcased the love of same-sex couples using their real wedding footage and aired it during the finale. The aggressive debate and saturated communication landscape of the same-sex marriage debate, alongside sliding support for vote ‘yes’(1) meant we needed to tap into the hearts and minds of people at scale and shift the opinion of undecided voters. Objective 1: Reduce the percentage of ‘undecided’ voters from 11% to 10% and grow the number of ‘yes’ voters from 58% to 59% by the postal survey deadline. Results: From the date the Marriage Equality film aired and through the earned amplification that followed in the two weeks afterward there was a strong correlation with: a) A drop in the number of ‘undecided’ voters from 11% to 7%, which is a -36% decrease(2). b) An increase of ‘yes’ voters from 58% to 61%, which is a +5.2% shift. Objective 2: Help combat the negative mental health impacts on the LGBTIQ community. Results: The groundswell was immediate as social media erupted with positivity (and a lot of happy tears, apparently). It was so powerful media outlets picked up the story, sharing the most entertaining and emotional viewer posts and crediting the film with ‘stealing the show’ (3). A crowdfunding page to re-air the show was organised, blitzing the original fundraising target four times over and raising $106,002(4) to air the film twice more. While it is difficult to quantify social and emotional impact, over 1700 people were willing to put up their own money to distribute the film and its powerful message; with an average donation of $62AUD ($48USD). Objective 3: Reach 25% of the voting public via TV & social media (4M+) Results: An estimated 58% of the voting public was reached (+33% above target), exceeding the objective by +132% (5). The campaign generated a global reach of 20M+, with the total TV reaching over 2M people (6). We achieved an estimated 15.3M impressions across social media with 4.8M social video views (7) as high-profile celebrities, advocates and activists joined the conversation and reposted the film. Thankfully, humanity prevailed and Australian’s voted 61.6% majority to legalise same-sex marriage!