London Elects and the Electoral Commission
have appointed Farm and BLM to deliver an integrated campaign to
raise awareness of the Mayor of London and London Assembly
elections on 1 May 2008.
The agencies will create an advertising
campaign to encourage Londoners to register to vote and inform them
about when and how to vote and what they are voting for. The
advertising campaign will be integrated with online advertising,
field marketing and PR and will begin in early 2008.
The news comes amid speculation about who will
be in the final line up for the position of Mayor. The role of this
campaign is to provide Londoners with clear and politically
impartial information about the election process.
The Electoral Commission and London Elects were
both planning to run campaigns to maximise voter registration and
provide election information in the lead-up to the elections on 1
May. But because of consistent priorities the two organisations
decided to run this joint campaign.
The campaign will be split into two phases the
first focused on voter registration and the second on when and how
to take part in the London elections - although there will be some
overlap between the two phases.
The campaign is a challenge as is it is aimed
at all people living in London who are eligible to vote. In the
first phase however efforts will be made to target those people who
are less likely to be registered. This includes young people,
people who have recently moved house, those living in rented
accommodation and certain ethnic minority groups.
Matt Bright, Communications Manager from
London Elects said: “This campaign will have to speak to a hugely
diverse population but we are confident that we have selected two
agencies whose creative ideas and communication planning will help
us to achieve our objectives.”
Nina Ziaullah Head of Campaigns and Public
Information at the Electoral Commission, said: “Living in London
are lots of people who are statistically less likely to be
registered to vote. It’s really important that our campaign gets
the message across to these people that you can’t vote if you
aren’t registered. We are looking forward to finding innovative and
targeted ways of doing this.”
The Central Office for Information (COI
managed the pitch process. The other short-listed creative agencies
were Miles/Calcraft/Briginshaw/Duffy (MCBD),
Delaney/Lund/Knox/Warren (DLKW) and
Vallance/Carruthers/Coleman/Priest (VCCP) and the short-listed
media planning agencies were Experience, Universal McCann, and
Rise.
ENDS
For further information please contact:
Emma Cassidy at London Elects on 020 7983 4447
email: emma.cassidy@london.gov.uk
outside office hours: 07768 044 820
or
Elizabeth Hutchinson at the Electoral
Commission on 020 7271 0527
email: ehutchinson@electoralcommission.org.uk
outside office hours: 07789 920414
Notes to Editors
1. Mayor of London and London Assembly
elections will take place on 1 May 2008. To be eligible to vote in
the London elections, individuals must be aged 18 or over on 1 May
2008 and be a British, Commonwealth or European Union citizen. They
must also be registered to vote.
2. London Elects is the independent body
responsible for publicising the elections on 1 May 2008. Its role
is to create awareness and understanding of the voting process and
encourage action.
3. The Electoral Commission is an
independent body set up by the UK Parliament. Our aim is integrity
and public confidence in the UK’s democratic process. We regulate
party and election finance and set standards for well-run
elections.
4. The objectives of the joint campaign
are to maximise the number of eligible electors who are registered
to vote prior to the London elections and provide information on
the elections, with the aim of providing electors with the
knowledge they need to successfully vote, if they wish to do
so.
5. The Central Office of Information (COI) is
the Government's centre of excellence for marketing and
communications. COI works with government departments and
agencies to produce information campaigns on issues that affect the
lives of every citizen - from health and education to benefits,
rights and welfare. To visit the COI website, please go to
www.coi.gov.uk