Title	POLITICAL TINDER
Brand	IR MAGAZINE
Product/Service	IR MAGAZINE
Category	G04. Social Behaviour & Cultural Insight
Entrant	McCANN RIGA Riga, LATVIA
Idea Creation	McCANN RIGA Riga, LATVIA
Production	PAGE Riga, LATVIA

Name	Company	Position
Valters Jonats	McCANN Riga	Executive Creative Director
Dmitrijs Pavlovs	McCANN Riga	Art Director

Why is this work relevant for Direct?

Young people in Latvia are not interested in politics. Too complicated and boring to understand them and what to vote for, so youngsters just don’t. Statistics show that 80% of ones skipping their first elections are also not taking part in the ones after. We invited youngsters, the ones who will be voting for the first time, to find their political match just the way they find their Tinder match, and to help them develop an opinion about politics before taking part in their first elections.

Background

Being strategically important amidst the rising tensions between Europe and Russia, Latvia has become a testing ground for the “soft power” and propaganda on the Russian side. Fake news and false narratives are gradually skewing the media landscape away from objective reality. Now, more than ever, educated and well-informed voters are needed to cultivate the values of true democracy. The only problem is that a significant part of population doesn’t care about politics and elections — young voters. The objective for the largest independent newspaper was to find means of engaging young people in politics and elections, at the same time making them more educated voters.

Describe the creative idea (30% of vote)

Meet Political Tinder — a “dating” app that lets young people find their political matches. Based on a simple idea, Political Tinder is a matchmaking platform between young people and politicians running for the elections. By swiping through the profiles and faces of politicians or polarising political questions, young people were now able to find their political matches more easily than ever before.

Describe the strategy (20% of vote)

Extensive research about youth was carried out in order to find out what would be the most efficient “vehicle” for communicating topics about politics and upcoming elections — topics young people don’t care about. An observation was made that a large chunk of information that young people consume comes from different social networking sites. These sites are where young people turn when they want to find out info about different venues, connect with friends, read articles and find out what’s happening out there. Our approach was to replicate these functions in a tool that would engage young voters in time for the upcoming elections and make them more educated voters.

Describe the execution (20% of vote)

Political Tinder was launched one month prior to the elections and was accompanied by an outdoor and banner campaign inviting young people to find their political matches. “You will be together till the end of term” and “Want to find your true one” were just some of the invitations used in the campaign.

List the results (30% of vote)

The campaign and platform “Political Tinder” were highly received by media, young people and politicians alike. 381,721 people found their political matches through Political Tinder, exceeding the goal of reaching the audience aged 18-24 by 292%. What is even more astounding is that Political Tinder ended up helping 45.18% of election participants to vote according to their views and beliefs. Political Tinder ended up being a huge success, because it fulfilled its initial goal of getting young people more engaged in politics and making them more educated voters.

Please tell us about the social behaviour and / or cultural insights that inspired your campaign

Young people in Latvia don’t invest much time in understanding the things they don’t have an opinion about. Easy to digest and fast paced information is what they prefer. Local politics are known for being the exact opposite of simple and interesting, thus making youngsters skip elections. 80% of the youngsters that have skipped their first elections are also not taking part in the ones after. Since one of the top used platforms for our target audience is “Tinder”, we created a youngster friendly environment that for many became the first touch point with politics. In just 5 minutes “Political Tinder” matches you with whom to vote for based on your opinions and preferences, therefore helping youngsters to develop an opinion on politics.