April 25, 2019
Initiatives
Just a few weeks to go before Europeans cast their votes. More than 400 million EU citizens have been invited to cast their vote for the ninth term of the European Parliament.In a special bid to increase the turnout among first-time voters, the European Parliament is banking on help from social influencers, more specifically AlexiBexi, Kupferfuchs and Lisa Sophie Laurent, whose voices on social media will bring the elections to the attention of young target groups. Their channels reach a combined total of more than 2 million people. The design and production of the influencer campaign was entrusted to the online video company Divimove.
In YouTube videos and on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook, the social influencers will motivate their followers to go out and cast their vote. The videos have already provoked a strong response: the first three have already been viewed more than 250,000 times and elicited more than 3,300 comments. Over the next few weeks of the run-up to the European elections, the influencers will increasingly focus on separate topics,including women's rights (Lisa Sophie Laurent), Internet policy (AlexiBexi) and environmental protection (Kupferfuchs) on their social media channels. The campaigns being accompanied by pre-roll ads on YouTube.
"We're impressed with the positive feedback from our young target group and by the sheer scale of the attention aroused by our 'This time I'm voting' campaign. The first batch of videos prompted intense exchanges and created interest in the upcoming election,especially among first-time voters. Our campaign is focusing on a contemporary target-group approach, reaching our young voters where they like spending time:on social media," explains Laila Wold, Public Relations and Social Media Officer in the European Parliament Liaison Office in Germany.
In addition to conveying informally presented information on the European elections and offering tips on forming personal political opinions, the influencers will also be up for election themselves: one of them can become an ambassador for the European elections. Their fan communities are being urged to go online and sign up at diesmalwaehleich.eu. Using a personal link, in a fun way fans can then help to spread the word about the elections and solve various challenges. The community prompting the largest number of people to sign up will decide which influencer becomes an ambassador. In addition, three participants will stand a chance of winning Interrail tickets and a trip to the European Parliament in Brussels together with that winning ambassador for the European elections.
"Influencer marketing also works in a political context. We're proud to be able to demonstrate this together with the European Parliament and three talented opinion leaders, and to draw people' attention to something as important as the European elections," explains Bilge Ak, Divimove's Creative Producer in charge of the project.
Divimove is responsible for the campaign's design, strategy development, influencer selection, production, management and execution.
