Elections Ontario is the governing body responsible for administering the electoral process in the Canadian Province of Ontario. Its mission: to protect the integrity and the accessibility of the electoral process and to communicate voting information to a diverse group of stakeholders, including seniors, youth, new Canadians, rural communities, as well as speak to the thousands of workers managing the process.

Our task with this client was a daunting one: to positively affect voting behaviour, but do so in an entirely neutral and provincially legally-compliant manner without appealing to political issues, party personalities or democratic voting rights issues.

Working towards a solution, we audited historical communications approaches across Ontario and the world and found a consistent pattern in communication strategies. Consistently and without fail, election campaigns were founded on the common assumption that the ‘Why You Should Vote’ would move the ‘Who’ to action at the polls. However, looking at the results, this approach simply hadn’t been effective in changing voter behaviour.Our qualitative and quantitative insight work, however, suggested something completely different than the rest of the world and at first sight seemingly obvious. That work strongly suggested the most effective path in changing behaviour was not the ‘why' at all but rather the ‘how, what, when and where’ to vote. Results made evident after the election proved us right.

The starting point for all our creative work was a campaign theme: ‘We make voting easy’. The theme was deliberately crafted in its directness and simplicity to reinforce ease across every touch point.The theme informed the creation of a completely new visual id system, colour palate and graphic iconography that too was simple and easy yes distinctive.The television creative provided highly impactful and relevant examples of how easy the voting process actually was. Print mailers were created and delivered to every household providing full information for voting in the household’s specific area. In addition to creating the main website, URL’s were created to address specific barriers and those URL’s then translated into targeted outdoor and online advertising that drove to the EO webpage to provide information on how easy it was to vote. On voting day itself, signage was created to easily guide people to their designated polling sites.

The primary campaign objective was to influence voting behaviour by ensuring people understood how easy voting is and could be, but do so in a politically-, party-, issues- and voting-rights-neutral way.

Post-election research showed the campaign made considerable impact: 78% of the total voting population now perceived voting to be an easier process, and 75% were aware of multiple ways to vote. Social media activity achieved a total reach of 6.9m impressions and media coverage a solid 70% MRP Quality Score.However, the most significant evidence of behaviour change was seen in advance polls. With the ‘ease of voting’ premise firmly established, the 2011 election achieved a dramatic 38% increase in advance voting versus the previous election. And the rate of decline in voter turnout slowed significantly from declines in 2007 versus the 2007 Ontario election which experienced a 4.7% drop in voter turnout, the 2011 election by contrast saw a mere 2.9% decline in voter turnout.