THE ELECTORAL COMMISSION

Task

In 2022 the Government passed a new piece of legislation which required everyone voting in any electoral event in the UK to present valid photo ID in order to receive their ballot paper.

The task was to deploy a successful behaviour change campaign that ensured as many people as possible were aware of this and successfully brought a valid form of photo ID with them to the polls.

Insight

Voter ID was a controversial piece of legislation, and had its fair share of critics. The risk was that by raising awareness of Voter ID we would inflame motivational barriers to voting, turning the whole population away from the polls rather than inviting them towards it.

To counter this we needed our message about Voter Authority Certificates - the free to claim alternative for those without valid photo ID - to also be seen by everyone, even if 97% of the population weren’t going to need it.

What we did

The nation’s biggest reminder, a larger-than-life sticky note that appeared across the length and breadth of the country to remind everyone, yes absolutely everyone, that they needed to bring their photo ID with to the polls.

Whilst our Mass phase was national to give an early-heads up to everyone, as election day grew closer we targeted our campaign just to the areas with a local election, dialling up the urgency of the need to grab your ID when you headed out to the polls.

Our approach was fully integrated, with chat bots serving a push reminder through Twitter on the day before polling day, TV and VOD reaching a mass audience, and OOH - as the most inclusive media format - ensuring no one was missed.

Results

In areas with elections in 2023 92% of people were aware of the need to show Photo ID.

Only 0.25% of people who tried to vote at a polling station in May 2023 were not able to because of the requirement to show Photo ID.