The success of Up The Vote hinged on using data to show that voting is just as impactful offline as it is on Reddit. To encourage voter registration and shift brand perception, we illustrated the power that a small number of votes can have. Hence, the entire campaign was centered around comparing user-generated post performance data (i.e. upvotes) on Reddit to hyperlocal election results from races won by slim margins in NYC, Chicago, LA, and Houston — demonstrating that the same number of upvotes on a silly banana meme on Reddit were enough to determine a legitimate election outcome.

Reddit started 2020 with the intention of launching their first ever marketing campaign to legitimize the brand in the eyes of consumers, but somewhere in the midst of a global pandemic, massive civil unrest and a looming Presidential Election, priorities shifted. With American politics and the 2020 Election dominating nearly every facet of Americans’ lives, Reddit was faced with the surmounting challenge of still needing to improve brand awareness and shift perception, while breaking through the political noise and remaining relevant.

Amidst all this, trivial things were receiving a vast number of votes on Reddit — which could’ve made a significant impact in real life. Reddit chose to use the act of voting during election as a conduit to help current and potential users understand the positive impact of Reddit’s online communities. Creative messaging and media were tasked with balancing impact and authenticity.

People are historically indifferent and resigned to voting in US Elections because they don’t believe their vote matters. It’s inherently difficult, and voters see themselves as literally one in 158.4M ballots, so what’s the point?

And yet, users literally “upvote” things on Reddit an average of 165M times a day.

The truth is, people believe their voice carries more weight in the digital world than the real world. 2020 forced people to live virtually and in an online bubble, where it’s easier to feel heard and recognize the immediate impact a few upvotes can make.

But Reddit believes the act of voting is as powerful offline as it is online. Up The Vote focused on putting election results determined by slim margins in context to help people realize the power even a small number of votes can have in real life.

Up The Vote targeted potential new Reddit users (a.k.a. Snoobies) while they consumed news, election and political content. Snoobies are frequent internet and social media users ages 18-44 interested in learning throughout all aspects of their lives.

Given Snoobies’ propensity to be more likely to find online ads annoying, irrelevant or intrusive compared to the rest of the US, it was critical the campaign breakthrough impactfully and stimulate authentic conversation. (Source: MRI Simmons, 2020)

OOH led the media mix, driving impact and sparking conversation about Reddit in high traffic areas. Retargeting people within the vicinity of billboards (geo-fence) amplified messaging and extended the range of OOH. ZIP-level and contextually targeted digital units broke through ad clutter to reach Snoobies in environments they’re most engaged. Contextual relevance extended to print via insertions in election editions. All media drove to voting resources on Reddit where people could register to vote.

To achieve message and market relevancy, hyperlocal election data and UGC content from Reddit was used within OOH and digital units. Sourcing from the Associated Press and state/regional election boards, we gathered results from close races down to the ward/district where applicable, and ensured our billboards were in areas where those races were determined by less than 100,000 votes. We then juxtaposed these slim election margins against popular Reddit posts within the last year that had received a greater number of upvotes.

One billboard in particular, with UGC from the subreddit r/breadstapledtotrees, generated significant attention from Snoobies and engagement on Reddit, which compelled us to get creative with our use of data to further positive brand sentiment. Mid-campaign, we found a new locally relevant election stat to update the billboard with and created a “meta” billboard in real-time, which drove an additional 100K upvotes on Reddit.

Up The Vote convinced Snoobies their vote matters, by driving 332K+ attributable clicks among those looking to learn more about voting or interested in taking steps to ensure they were registered.

Mobile banners retargeting users within the OOH geofences were particularly successful in reinforcing our message, driving 1.3x higher CTR than non-geofenced banners via Google. Contextually targeted banners and videos on Vox exceeded CTR and Completion Rate benchmarks 1.5x and 1.6x, respectively. (Source: Agency Benchmark CTR: .08%, Vox :60s video: VCR: 55%).

Campaign conversation garnered 79% positive/neutral sentiment, drove a statistically significant +0.09 increase in perception (1-5 scale), contributed to Reddit's 44% increase in Daily Active Users during the flight, and compelled the Reddit community to capture and post 45 unique photos of the billboards to Reddit, which received 900,000 upvotes — an upvote rate of 88% (Site average: 70%, Source: Reddit Owned Data).