MEDDLE IN THE NEW ZEALAND ELECTION

Short List
TitleMEDDLE IN THE NEW ZEALAND ELECTION
BrandEVERY KIWI VOTE COUNTS (IVOTE)
Product / ServiceNZ ELECTION
CategoryA06. Not-for-profit / Charity / Government
EntrantSPECIAL Auckland, NEW ZEALAND
Idea Creation SPECIAL Auckland, NEW ZEALAND
PR POEM GROUP Sydney, AUSTRALIA
Production SWEETSHOP Auckland, NEW ZEALAND
Post Production LIQUID STUDIOS Auckland, NEW ZEALAND

Credits

Name Company Position
Tracey Lee Every Kiwi Vote Counts Founder
Tony Bradbourne Special CEO/CCO
Michael Redwood Special Managing Partner
Heath Lowe Special Executive Design Director
Rory Gallery Special Head of Strategy
Lisa Fedyszyn Special Executive Creative Director
Jonathan McMahon Special Executive Creative Director
Till Dittmers Special Art Director
Jack Gravatt Special Copywriter
Daisy Conroy-Botica Special Social & Brand Strategist
Bonnie Shum Special Account Director
Sally Lankshear Special Senior Producer
Jo Kelly Special Senior Producer
Hamish Kuka Special Graphics
Matt Holmes Poem PR Manager
Erica Llorico Poem PR Manager
Brogan Lipman Poem Social Media Strategist
Damien Shatford Sweetshop Director
Adam Luxton Sweetshop Director Of Photography
Ben Dailey Sweetshop Executive Producer
Kate Roydhouse Sweetshop Executive Producer
Luke Haigh Independent Editor
Dave Gibson Independent Colourist
Troy Goodall Independent Photographer
Angus Roberts Poem Social Media Strategist

Summary of the work

This is the story of how an unknown not-for-profit, Every Kiwi Vote Counts, mobilised Kiwi around the world to vote in New Zealand’s 2020 election. In July 2020, a non-partisan initiative was established to encourage overseas New Zealanders (‘Kiwi’) to participate in New Zealand’s election. Initially named iVoteNZ, it was founded on the belief that democracy only works if we are all part of it. With close to one million New Zealanders living overseas (nearly another 20% of the country’s 5M population), their vote could have major sway over the election. The problem was, they weren’t voting. Only 1 in 10 voted in the last election. A stark contrast to the 79% voter participation by residents inside New Zealand. Our challenge: How do we galvanise overseas Kiwi’s to vote in New Zealand’s Election? Previous research by ex-pat organisation Kea suggested that while overseas Kiwi were interested in voting, they lacked information about how to. But digging further, we found voting inertia was not simply a practical matter. Our in-depth qualitative interviews and social listening revealed two critical barriers: Insight 1. Overseas Kiwis don’t think their vote matters. ‘My vote is neither here nor there. It’s not going to make a difference.’ Insight 2. Overseas Kiwi don’t feel like they have permission to vote. ‘If I’m not living in NZ, it’s not really my business.’ This told us that overseas Kiwi needed more than to be practically enabled to vote - they needed to be provocatively incited and shown how powerful their voting influence could be. Waking overseas Kiwis up to their collection influence To drive behaviour change we knew we had to break out of the wallpaper of ‘childproof’ electoral communications and seize New Zealander’s attention in a controversial and shareable way. This strategic shift from practically enabling Kiwis to vote to provocatively inciting them led to our big idea. First, we renamed the imitative to Every Kiwi Vote Counts, to alleviate concerns that their vote didn’t matter and show every Kiwi their vote had sway. Then, we launched our provocative campaign where we challenged Kiwi’s to ‘Meddle in the New Zealand Election’. Taping into cultural controversies from elections around the world, we employed our own expert in online election influencing. Viktor, the Russian, led a campaign asking Kiwis to ‘Meddle in the New Zealand Election’ and highlighted that - as 20% of the population - their votes could have “some serious sway.” For 18 days leading to election day, Viktor posted about how he “planned to hack away to convince overseas Kiwis to vote.” He targeted overseas Kiwis on social and through PR, with headlines like “Kiwis are being urged to Meddle in the New Zealand Election” never failing to draw attention. Viktor even appeared on billboards in heavily Kiwi-populated cities like London. The Meddler boldly defied category conventions. It was a world away from sincere Party campaigns calling voters to ‘Change Your Future’. To cut through, enter culture and persuade, Meddler was, by contrast, choicefully provocative, irreverent.

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