Chapter 3 - Getting the message out
While voting is compulsory in South Australia, with 96% of eligible electors enrolled and typical participation rates above 90%, advertising plays a significant role in ensuring that these key indicators of democratic participation remain (and increase from these levels).
In certain audiences there is still low enrolment and participation (youth, First Nations peoples and culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) Australians), mainly due to education gaps and less familiarity with voting. Among some segments of society, political disengagement and distrust of government are also contributing to declining participation.
These factors, coupled with sociocultural issues, including the rise of fake news and conspiracy theories and the public’s reluctance to attend large gatherings due to COVID transmission fears, created a potential scenario where there was the risk of a significant drop in enrolment and participation rates.
To combat this worst-case scenario, ECSA ensured all communications activities were supported by extensive qualitative and quantitative research.
This process identified key audiences where ECSA had the best opportunity to change behaviours and was imperative to ensuring that enrolment and participation did not slump. Communications were developed that explicitly engaged the target audience and delivered messaging that resonated with their mindset to help reduce the barriers to enrolling and voting.
Budgets were realigned to target specific audiences through appropriate channels.
In Chapter 3 - Getting the message out...
Advertising campaign
January 2022 saw the launch of the ‘Your vote. Your voice’ advertising campaign, designed to encourage South Australian electors to vote in the state election.
Rather than just developing a new creative idea to publicise the election, ECSA took the opportunity to build an understanding of voters and uncover the barriers to voting and mechanisms to encourage people to participate in the election.
South Australians are usually very engaged with the democratic process, with participation rates above 90% in state elections; most South Australians can be relied on to vote if they know an election is on.
So instead of talking to the people who typically vote in elections, ECSA focused on the 10% of South Australians who are not voting in state elections—the largest opportunity for ECSA to influence voting behaviour.
To qualify and quantify the opportunity, ECSA identified 3 key audiences among non-voter groups with the greatest opportunity to affect behaviour change through extensive qualitative and quantitative research (in addition to the South Australian voting majority).
The key audiences for the 2022 election advertising campaign were:
While the research identified the key target groups, it also identified the motivators that would encourage these electors to vote.
Based on these findings, multiple messaging and creative assets were developed and tested with the above audiences (as well as the general voting public) to understand what platforms resonated with and engaged them. Additionally, the 2018 election campaign, ‘Put your vote where your voice is’, was included in this research process to understand what learnings could be uncovered from the previous campaign.
Analysis of the research reinforced that while the 2018 campaign using speech bubbles as the key creative device still resonated with voters and was able to engage with all audiences, the other assets engaged with some audiences but showed significant shortcomings with others.
By incorporating the research findings, updates to the 2018 creative addressed any identified shortcomings by evolving the tagline to ‘Your vote. Your voice’ and adapting the speech bubble device and messaging for use across the 4 audiences. The messaging was broken into 3 overarching phases—enrolment, awareness, and urgency to vote—and used as a guide for messaging and timing throughout the campaign.
Utilising the enhanced 2018 campaign platform allowed the reallocation of production budgets to target the 3 key audiences and create specific integrated campaigns that addressed the motivations and barriers as the campaign moved through the phases of enrolment, awareness, and urgency to vote.
Overall key messaging
Enrolment messaging for youth and CALD
'Voting is easy, but you need to be enrolled before you can have your say'
Enrolment messaging for the majority
'If your details have changed since the last election, you need to update your enrolment'
Awareness messaging
'The state election is on 19 March. Voting is compulsory. You have options to ensure your voice is heard—early voting, postal voting and voting on polling day'
Urgency messaging
'The state election is on 19 March. Voting is compulsory'
The media and marketing agency that worked on the campaign developed a media strategy that allowed the targeting of the 3 key audiences as well as providing broad media coverage to the majority of South Australians (the 90% who participate in state elections).
ABOVE: Photoshoot to create 2022 campaign assets
Bringing it all together
On 26 January, ECSA launched an integrated election campaign that encouraged all eligible South Australians to vote.
While talking to all electors, the campaign specifically targeted messaging, creative, and media channels to influence the behaviours of those most likely not to vote.
The campaign had a strong regional and rural focus and was executed across multiple media channels, including TV, press, radio, digital, billboards, and social media.
ABOVE: Official branding developed for 2022 State Election
COVID-19 challenges
Messaging the COVID-19 pandemic and the associated complications and restrictions produced significant challenges in conducting an in-person election and required a substantial investment in educating the voting public on provisions to ensure their safety.
This also required rethinking in-person community engagement activities, traditionally used to encourage enrolment and awareness in the lead-up to an election. In-person engagement moved to digital and online with the development of online information sessions and digital resources distributed electronically.
Additional advertising resources were developed and deployed so electors were aware of their voting options and the measures that ECSA had put in place to ensure their safety at EVCs and polling booths.
To ensure that the public was adequately informed about the measures taken to ensure voting in the election was safe, ECSA, working with guidance from SA Health, developed a targeted media engagement strategy to make sure that all media outlets were informed of the measures taken and were able to educate electors about them.
This culminated with a combined briefing session with the Acting Commissioner of Police, Linda Williams; Chief Public Health Officer, Professor Nicola Spurrier; and Electoral Commissioner, Mick Sherry, held at the National Wine Centre, where the media were briefed on the measures put in place by ECSA with the help and support of SA Health and SAPOL. Attended by all major SA media outlets, it drove significant media coverage during the following weeks and provided the opportunity for ECSA to control the COVID narrative and ensure accurate reporting, reducing the public’s anxiety about the voting process.
ABOVE: Combined briefing session with Electoral Commissioner, Mick Sherry; Chief Public Health Officer, Professor Nicola Spurrier; and Acting Commissioner of Police, Linda Williams at the National Wine Centre.
Media engagement
In contrast to previous elections, a comprehensive media engagement strategy developed in conjunction with Callie PR ensured that electors got the correct information.
ECSA directly engaged with the media to reassure them that the state election, while one of the most challenging to deliver, was also safe.
Community engagement
Communication and engagement to meet the needs of community groups required extensive consultation with advocacy groups to design and deliver inclusive and informative election resources. Partnerships with key stakeholders in the disability, CALD, youth, First Nations, homeless, and aged sectors ensured voter awareness and education.
In the 12 months leading up to the election, a community engagement role was created to support relationships with key stakeholder groups and work in partnership with government agencies to design and deliver a suite of inclusive and accessible resources. Regular meetings with ECSA’s CALD and disability electoral advisory committees as well as the homeless sector gave valuable insights into the barriers people experience to enrolment and voting. Engagement strategies were designed and implemented to support electors who needed assistance. The partnerships fostered by ECSA through the workshops also enabled the agency to better target its election messaging by distributing information in community sector publications and digital and social media channels. They also assisted in the development of accessible electoral services and materials in accordance with ECSA’s Disability Access and Inclusion Plan.
Face-to-face engagement had to be minimised due to COVID-19, with meetings in the months leading up to the election switching to online Zoom and Microsoft Teams meetings. All enrolment schedules were shifted online, which created barriers for the CALD communities, so ECSA developed translated videos about how to vote. ECSA also produced a video on how to complete a postal vote, which was subtitled into 22 languages and received high engagement.
The introduction of a community ambassador pilot program in 2018 was beneficial to community groups, and ECSA developed a broader program for the 2022 election. Multicultural community leaders were identified and trained to assist people from South Australia’s CALD community to understand their democratic rights and responsibilities and to participate in the electoral process.
Research into South Australia’s demographic and migration trends by ECSA staff in consultation with government and multicultural sector peak bodies resulted in 7 communities being chosen to have community ambassadors.
ECSA recruited community ambassadors to reach out to groups that had lower rates of enrolment and participation at elections and significantly higher rates of informal voting due to a poor understanding of the process. Communities targeted included Syrian (Arabic), Iranian (Persian), Iraqi, Chinese (Mandarin), South Sudanese (Modern Arabic), Pan African (Sudanese), and Afghani (Dari). The 2 chief barriers to CALD citizens’ enfranchisement as voters are language and voter education issues.
Community ambassadors were provided with training and translated resources to share amongst their community groups. Due to COVID restricting face-to-face meetings, places of worship became the main point of contact with their community members. This was highly beneficial, as community ambassadors could deliver information in their native language and answer direct questions relating to enrolment and voting options.
Together with CALD stakeholders, the Australian Migrant Resource Centre, the Multicultural Council of South Australia, and the Australian Refugee Association (ARA), ECSA was able to work to ensure new citizens had the opportunity to enrol and learn about voting correctly. ECSA ran voter education sessions with the ARA in the weeks leading up to the election.
The community ambassador program allowed connections to be made across multiple communities, educating people about their right to vote and the importance of voting in Australia. In the month leading up to the election, ECSA held public enrolment and postal voting application sessions at the Salisbury Community Hub, using community ambassadors to translate information about enrolling and how to vote.
Culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD)
Salam (left) is a Syrian refugee who fled the war in Syria 8 years ago with her family of 4 children. Salam featured in ECSA’s mainstream campaign and assisted in producing a translated video in Arabic, which she shared through her networks and social media with the Arabic speaking community. Translated videos were also produced in Mandarin, Persian, and Dari. Translations play an integral role in creating election awareness and provide vital voter information and education.
The official translated guide to the election was utilised on a larger scale, with the guide handed out to the CALD community before the voting period commenced. Voting by post or attending an early voting centre were the preferred options for people who were concerned about COVID, so ECSA identified the need for voting information to be distributed through community ambassadors and stakeholders as early as possible.
Before voting commenced, communities were notified about specific polling places where bilingual polling staff would be located. Bilingual polling staff wore badges identifying the languages they could speak to assist voters.
Quote from Salam
It gave me the opportunity to communicate with people and educate them about enrolling and voting.
It allowed me to support Middle Eastern communities having a voice in our state’s democracy.
I feel proud of myself to be able to serve my country and be part of this beautiful multicultural society."
Disability engagement
Inclusion and accessibility played a leading role in the communications and resources produced for the election.
Through ongoing discussions with the Electoral Disability Advisory Committee (EDAC), ECSA was able to identify and provide information and resources that were co-designed with EDAC. ECSA partnered with Libraries SA to make easy-read guides and accessible resources publicly available to people in local areas, and library staff assisted people seeking information about the election.
A youth awareness campaign, including video content, was co-produced with members of Purple Oranges’ Enabled Youth Disability Network. Messages of inclusion were developed with the aim of empowering young disabled voters to feel enfranchised by promoting the accessible voting options available to them.
The campaign was shared by all committee members and National Disability Insurance Scheme communication channels. A new suite of easy-read guides was produced to support people in the community who experience literacy barriers. ECSA developed 4 guides:
Included in the guides was a diagram co-designed for people living with autism spectrum disorder.
ABOVE: Covers of easy-read guides.
Homeless engagement
Engagement with the homelessness sector required reaching out to metro and regional stakeholder organisations throughout South Australia. ECSA presented its homeless engagement plan to over 20 organisations approximately 6 months before the election.
ECSA's relationships with key staff at Catherine House (an organisation that provides accommodation and support services for women experiencing homelessness) were essential to arranging important face-to-face events for the Catherine House community. Additionally, holding democracy BBQs at Baptist Care, Common Ground, and St. Vincent de Paul helped engage the community in discussions about voting and elections.
ECSA partnered with the Hutt St Centre (a place of connection and support for people facing homelessness), attending meetings once a month in the 9 months leading up to the election to help the community with special enrolment options, including ‘no fixed address’ (for people sleeping rough), and ‘silent electors’ (for women in safe houses and shelters).
Regular face-to-face contact allowed ECSA to start election conversations early, with time taken to educate people about their enrolment status and voting.
ECSA partnered with the ‘Big Issue’ (an independent, not-for-profit organisation supporting people experiencing homelessness) to engage with people through friendly soccer matches and breakfast meetings.
ABOVE: Homeless community engagement through sport.
Aged care/elderly engagement
Considering the COVID-19 pandemic in the lead-up to the election, ECSA contacted over 300 aged care and nursing home facilities with an aim to understand their views on safe voting options. Of the institutions that responded, a strong majority supported postal voting as the safest option.
Postal voting packs were sent to over 300 aged care facilities, with voters receiving their packs from Monday 7 March 2022. The voting pack included an information pamphlet that assisted residents with completing their ballot papers and declaration envelopes correctly. ECSA also developed an instructional video, available through the website, to assist facilities and residents in correctly completing ballot papers and associated envelopes.
Aged care facilities were provided extra instructions for residents who may have had a change in circumstances, such as:
Understanding the unique challenges that come with postal voting at aged care facilities, ECSA will return to in-person voting for future elections.
ABOVE: Postal voting instructions available on ECSA’s YouTube channel.
Engagement with electors in the APY Lands
In October 2021, a team from ECSA visited the APY Lands to listen to community members regarding voting options for the upcoming state election. This visit proved extremely valuable, with the community providing suggestions for polling place locations and times.
While in the APY Lands, staff also visited schools and conducted mock elections, which were well received by the students and teachers.
ECSA partnered with the AEC and TAFE SA to develop an electoral enrolment and education strategy for First Nations peoples across the APY Lands. However, the project was severely impacted by travel restrictions associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in a very limited enrolment drive and the inability to successfully conduct education sessions.
Unable to return to the APY Lands, ECSA relied on the generosity of several locally based stakeholders to promote election awareness and voting.
This included PY Ku Network community centres displaying and promoting the dates and times of voting, TAFE SA undertaking limited enrolment activities and electoral awareness sessions, and the Regional Anangu Services Aboriginal Corporation providing relevant local information regarding community contacts.
ABOVE: ECSA staff visited the APY Lands.
Youth engagement
In the lead-up to the election, ECSA engaged with South Australian youth through a personalised letter.
The letter was sent to electors between the ages of 18 and 24 who had enrolled since the 2018 State Election and was accompanied by a how-to-vote guide.
ABOVE: Sample of letter sent to recently enrolled electors.
Website
The election website went live in late January 2022 with information on how to enrol, nominate, complete ballot papers, and apply for a postal vote. The website was a key tool for providing up-to-date, comprehensive, and relevant information throughout the phases of the election.
A dedicated election landing page was accessible from the main website and provided links to key information areas. There was also a dedicated results website that provided timely updates as the counts progressed.
The website contained important accessibility features, such as ReadSpeaker, text-to-speech software that allowed easy access for hearing impaired users, and a dyslexia button on the home page that altered the website’s font to make it easier for users with dyslexia to read.
Call centre staff used the website as an essential tool in providing callers with real-time information, which was particularly helpful when changes were made to COVID voting options.
Daily unique user website visits began to increase from around 2,000 visits daily in late January to over 10,000 visits the day postal voting applications opened on 1 February 2022. Once the writs were issued and the official election campaign had begun, daily visits increased to 21,000 around the time nominations opened on 21 February and during the close of the electoral roll period. Daily visits spiked again at 34,500 once EVCs opened and steadily increased to a peak of 192,350 visits on polling day, 19 March 2022.
Traffic was almost double the amount from the 2018 election, with over 939,700 visitors to the website between 1 January 2022 and when the writs were returned on 26 April 2022.
Post-election research found that, by a large margin, ECSA’s website was the most widely used information channel during the election period, with over 81% of website users able to find the information they were looking for easily and satisfied with the information provided.
Visitors to the website most sought information on where to vote (43%), followed by options for voting if they were unable to vote on polling day (16%).
Social media
Underpinning the advertising campaign was ECSA’s social media campaign, which ran from January to March 2022 on Facebook and Twitter. Multiple daily posts were published and designed to engage electors and inform them of various stages of the campaign. The posts reinforced messaging in the advertising campaign and depicted ‘behind the scenes’ elements of ECSA’s preparations for polling day.
The social media campaign increased public engagement, particularly among young people, with previously dormant ECSA social media channels taking engagement and activity to new levels.
ABOVE: Social media posts created for the 2022 State Election.
FAST FACTS |
Public notices
The Electoral Act requires several public notices to be placed during the election and sets out the publication and timeframes by which these notices must appear. Public notices were printed in newspapers and the Government Gazette as required by legislation. The total cost of media for the notices was $63,400.00.
Public notices record:
A CALL FOR LEGISLATIVE CHANGE |
Public notices
The Electoral Commissioner is bound by legislation to include certain public notices in newspapers, often at considerable expense.
As one example, section 18 of the Electoral Act states that, ‘… the Electoral Commissioner must, between the date of the issue of the writ and polling day, give public notice by advertisement in a newspaper circulating generally throughout the state of the position of all polling places for the district.’
ECSA notes that to meet this requirement and publish the address details of all polling booths used at a state election, it requires 4 consecutive pages of paid advertising in ‘The Advertiser’ at a cost of approximately $48,000 for the one notice.
Given the high costs involved in placing notices in newspapers and the exodus of readers away from printed papers towards online and digital media news sources, ECSA recommends that the Electoral Act be amended to allow the Commissioner the flexibility to publish notices on ECSA’s website and by any other means deemed appropriate, instead of in newspapers circulating generally throughout the state.
This does not mean doing away with public notices. Instead, this is about having the flexibility to publish notices on channels where greater numbers of electors can view them. ECSA notes that this amendment would align with many other jurisdictions, including the Commonwealth, where the Australian Electoral Commissioner is required to publish notices ‘on the Electoral Commission’s website and in any other way he or she considers appropriate’.
Recommendation 6.
That the Electoral Act be amended to remove the obligation for the Electoral Commissioner to place public notices by advertisement in a newspaper circulating generally throughout the state, so that notices can instead be published on ECSA’s website or by any other means the Electoral Commissioner deems appropriate.
EasyVote card and app
EasyVote cards have proven to be a valuable resource for electors enrolled across the state, with cards sent via postal service prior to early voting commencing.
As well as providing electors with a reminder of the election date and their obligation to vote, the cards also facilitate electronic mark-off by having a unique QR code, which when scanned, records the elector as having voted. The card also contains the elector’s enrolment details, so if the EMO system is not working, they can be found easily on the hard-copy roll.
The EasyVote card was particularly valuable given the significant changes to electoral district boundaries and the benefit of informing every elector of their enrolled district and local polling booths. The cards contained the addresses of EVCs and polling booths within an elector’s district.
Around 62% of people who voted on polling day used their EasyVote cards.
Feedback from electors and staff about the convenience and effectiveness of the card in reducing waiting times at voting locations was overwhelmingly positive. The ECSA survey of electors found that 22% of in-person voters indicated they had used the card as their key source of information about where to vote.
The EasyVote app was first rolled out in 2018 as an additional option for electors to have their details marked off the electoral roll instead of utilising the EasyVote card or manual roll mark-off.
Electors who downloaded the EasyVote app prior to the close of roll were automatically excluded from receiving an EasyVote card in the mail, therefore reducing the number of cards printed with a resultant reduced environmental impact and postage costs.
ECSA worked with Service SA to incorporate electors’ details into the existing mySAGOV app, automatically adding a ‘My State Election Details’ tab to the application. This allowed electors to easily link their enrolment details to their mySAGOV account, which stored their enrolment details, including a unique QR code to facilitate electronic roll mark-off.
Additionally, the app connected to a GPS-powered polling booth finder, which incorporated real-time waiting times and additional links to give voters quick and easy access to information about the election.
Nearly 96,000 South Australians linked their enrolment details to their mySAGOV app.
ABOVE: Example of EasyVote app on mobile device.
Call centre
A dedicated call centre operated from 30 January through to 3 April 2022 which incorporated answering public enquiries via telephone and through ECSA’s general enquiries mailbox. Call centre staff, upon request, also mailed out enrolment forms and postal vote applications.
Fifty-two call centre staff were employed throughout the 9 weeks of operation.
Telephone calls were answered within acceptable timeframes, and all emails were answered within 24 hours.
The COVID-19 pandemic had a significant impact on the planning and delivery of call centre operations, including managing a 1.5-metre physical distancing requirement between call centre staff, mandated mask wearing, and COVID-19 infections and symptoms that caused a higher-than-normal attrition rate with staff.
FAST FACTS |
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