Within a few months, Tunisia went from decades of dictatorship and one political party to its first ever free elections, 1600 candidates and over exposure to countless political messages and advertising. As a direct result of the confusion that arose, many had completely lost interest in politics. Only 55% at best were planning to vote. Thus forgetting the main objective of the Revolution: Democracy for Tunisia.
Engagement Citoyen, a non-profit organization that aims to promote Tunisians' democratic awakening, asked us to turn apathy into action and inspire a higher turnout at upcoming elections. We therefore needed to re-activate people's sense of political engagement with a strong and effective reminder. Something that would break through the political advertising clutter and convey a simple but powerful message. So we set up a provocative and visually engaging stunt and showed everyone that if they didn't vote, their Revolution was in vain.
Success of the Campaign
The results were thrilling as the message immediately made the headline news, generating millions of views, comments and likes, tens of thousands of calls for action, +461% visits on engagement Citoyen's website and countless media coverage. People immediately engaged on social media. Many decided to change their profile picture by our second poster. Within a few hours, getting out and vote had become the ultimate phase of the Revolutionnary process. In the evening, it was aired on all Tunisian and Arabic TV news. The next day it spread worldwide.
Most Importantly, we made people take that final crucial step and actually vote as 88% turnout was reached when 55% was expected.
Describe how the campaign/entry was launched and executed across each channel in the order of implementation.
A few days before polling, we put back Ben Ali's giant poster in La Goulette. And we let people experience the real danger of abstention: the return of dictatorship ! A very special poster designed to provoke protests and lead people to take action. People reacted as we expected and torn the poster down. When they did so, they discovered another poster underneath: BEWARE, DICTATORSHIP CAN RETURN. ON OCTOBER 23RD, VOTE.
To reach a wider audience, the event was filmed and posted online under the title Ben Ali is back. We also used PR, by inviting influencial activists to the event, and sending all images and videos to medias and journalists. Given the huge success of the campaign, we were offered free standard outdoor and bus advertising for the second poster. Finally, Engagment Citoyen's website gave neutral informations on the candidates' programs.