Title	EP ELECTION CAMPAIGN “DON'T BE A COUCH POTATO”
Brand	EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT LIAISON OFFICE IN LITHUANIA
Product/Service	EP ELECTION CAMPAIGN
Category	A07. Not-for-profit / Charity / Governemt
Entrant	FABULA | HILL+KNOWLTON Vilnius, LITHUANIA
Idea Creation	FABULA | HILL+KNOWLTON Vilnius, LITHUANIA
Media Placement	FABULA | HILL+KNOWLTON Vilnius, LITHUANIA
PR	FABULA | HILL+KNOWLTON Vilnius, LITHUANIA
Production	FABULA | HILL+KNOWLTON Vilnius, LITHUANIA

Name	Company	Position
Jolita Katkutė	FABULA Hill+Knowlton Strategies	Senior Account Executive

Background

EP election was approaching. According to the Eurobarometer, Lithuanians are among leaders in EU to regards of knowledge about EP and European Union (EU). Despite general interest in EU and Lithuania’s wealth, there was an issue with low participation rate among youth, opinion leaders, professionals. Causes vary from “being too busy” to “other technical issues”. 3 different elections in Lithuania were happening during the same period, therefore, one of the issues was how not to get lost in other elections communication and grab target audience attention with EU topics. Campaign objectives were: 1) Attractive and engaging communication of EP activities, reasons to vote, benefits of EU membership using social media platforms; 2) Increased perception that EU is not a given and our involvement determines our and EU future; 3) Drawing audience’s attention to the importance of participation in elections and encouraging to vote.

Describe the strategy

Main target audience – 25-39 y. o., undergraduates, opinion leaders, young professionals (IT specialists, medical workers, lawyers, architectures, managers, entrepreneurs), executives (mid-high positions) other socially active professionals – teachers, lecturers, interested in politics, satisfied with quality of life in Lithuania and its membership in EU but still passive in participation in EP elections. Secondary target audience – 18-24 y. o., active youth, students, living in major cities of Lithuania. Tight communication context (because of three elections going on), interests of the target audience (TA), and experience of previous EP elections encouraged us to concentrate on the main campaign goal – to increase TA participation in EP elections in Lithuania. It was chosen not to create separate campaign platform but use the channels where our audience already is. Thus, influencers, Facebook event, Instagram account, popular video/TV shows were chosen to deliver the message in different ways.

Describe the execution

Campaign was structured into two main stages: 1) Awareness of EP/EU: Launching Facebook event and communication using well-known internet character “Hold the pain Harold” and potato; Influencers communication about their experience of EU membership, benefits/actions by EP; Integrations in popular TV show “Laikykitės Ten su Andriumi Tapinu”; Topic integration in a popular among target audience internet talk show “Kitokie Pasikalbėjimai”. 2) Call to action (go to vote): Installation of the main campaign symbol – potato on the couch – in Vilnius city center two days before election day; Digital banners campaign on GDN using different messages by the types of browsing; Influencers communication on May 25-26th – invitation not to be couch potatoes and go to vote in EP elections.

List the results

Audience reached through digital advertising: 2521877. Total audience reached through influencer communication: 290 324. Number of views in partner’s communication channels: 2 070 230. Taking into consideration the potential overlap between channels, the total audience reach across channels is estimated to be over 2.5 million. Overall voter turnout in EP election was 47.35% in 2015 and 53.39% in 2019. All campaign’s target audiences voted more actively than in 2015 EP election. Campaign message was grabbed not only by target audience, but also by national media (main campaign symbol – potato – was invited to morning show “Labas rytas, Lietuva” and several additional events). Moreover, we even got request from House of European History to exhibit main symbol of our campaign (potato on the couch) in the museum in Belgium and were invited to present the campaign in International digital communication conference.