With the UK General Election less than a month away, all eyes are on the campaigns of the big parties and, specifically, on their social media. With political social advertising under increased scrutiny, storytellers may struggle more than ever to land their manifestos and get voters to the polling stations on the 12^th December.

In the lead up to the May 2019 European Elections, the European Parliament faced their own challenge of engaging and mobilizing more voters. They called on us to partner with them on a solution. It’s not often you get the chance to make your mark on democracy, so when we received this call we were awestruck.

This was our challenge: how to get people to vote, without telling them who to vote for? How to elevate the importance of politics, without getting political? How to appeal to a widespread and diverse electorate, with different cultures, values and sentiments?

To answer the brief, we created the ‘Choose Your Future’ film, an emotional three-minute film portraying the intimate, and sometimes terrifying, moments of birth. First-hand and close-up. We filmed real-life births of the next generation of Europeans.  

This was a pretty risky and edgy idea to present to the European Parliament. However, the team in Brussels, all too aware that the future of Europe was at stake, were willing to take a risk. 

And the risk paid off. The election reversed a two-decade decline in voter turnout and led to a rise of 18.6%. While turnout never comes down to one or even a few deciding factors, the campaign video had over 135 million views, and Europeans who recall the campaign had a 24% higher chance of turning out. 

Today, with so much at stake and a UK general election just around the corner, I want to share a few key lessons that informed our process; insights I hope are relevant for storytellers everywhere to unite and mobilize people. 

Divided times call for simple and emotive storytelling 

We had to look to the rising tide of populist campaigns to understand how and why they were triggering people. We understood that we had to be simple, accessible, and emotive in our address. We had to avoid top-down messaging, over-intellectualization, or abstract calls to action disconnected from people’s everyday life. In the past, European Election campaigns have emphasized what the EU is and what it does. Knowing this campaign needed to galvanise people, we knew this wasn’t going to cut it. 

We decided to position Europe not as an institution, but a feeling. The film, directed by Frédéric Planchon, features real-life births and doesn’t shy away from reality. All the while, a voiceover from a young girl calls on the viewer to, ‘Choose the Europe you want me to grow up in’, making the connection between voting and future decisions on climate change, immigration and social cohesion. 

Hope motivates; fear disengages

The emotion of the film is, consciously, rooted in hope. Giving hope for the future was integral to creating a feeling that change is possible, and to show people they are instrumental to bring about that change.

Fear, on the other hand, was an emotion we avoided. Through the messaging in this film, we wanted voters to feel they are the ones who take responsibility for future consequences and that their actions could bring a better future. As one of our clients, Tanja Rudolf, Advisor to the Director-General for Communication of the EU Parliament, said, “If you use fear too much then you fall into apathy. If you use hope, it empowers people.” 

This was the first time the European Parliament had tried to engage the electorate with an emotional campaign, so we had to be careful in tone. The film calls us to reflect on why we vote, stirring people to go out and do just that. 

Make your message accessible to all; a big idea doesn’t need segmentation

We used mass media storytelling for the digital and social age, by working with one big idea and one piece of hero content. In political campaigns audience segmentation is normally key. Which you could argue that these days, with the advent of social media, can lead to the manipulation of facts to drive specific voting behaviour, even fake news and filter bubbles. 

Instead, we charted a strategy that consciously stepped away from this approach. We made one piece of hero content that we felt had genuine universal appeal, and went as wide as possible with this message, without any audience segmentation. We targeted everyone in Europe. With this creative and simple call to action, our strategy worked.

Don’t be afraid to challenge the format, or the brief

We went off-brief: the original ask was a 30-second TV spot. Our view was that a shorter TV commercial wouldn’t have had the reach or impact that this campaign required. We knew that a longer format piece of emotional storytelling, aimed at social, would hit the mark.

The EU Parliament trusted us and, and the three-minute film appeared on YouTube and Facebook across all 28 Member States. These platforms made the impossible possible, reaching a target group of millions of people across Europe, and more than 135 million views on social alone. 

Above all, don’t be afraid to take a creative risk

We are living in unprecedented times, where not only brands, but traditional institutions need to step outside of their comfort zones and take risks. Extreme groups have been appealing to the masses by stirring up emotions, and if we want to engage people in an alternative future, we mustn’t ignore these tactics. 

It’s sometimes easy to forget that just a few short generations ago Europe was literally blown up and torn apart by itself; a wasteland. And that the stability, peace and prosperity we have enjoyed for the last few generations is a direct result of a unified Europe.

History aside, to succeed in the political climate we find ourselves in today, divided, dissatisfied and largely apathetic, a radically different approach was needed, and in this case it worked. I believe that now more than ever, we have to stand up for the values we believe in. And to do that well, we need to take a few more risks.