It's Your Choice

The core of the campaign was to motivate women to participate in the elections and inspire them to choose the future they desire. The campaign targeted young women, aged 18-34. Before the elections, over 50% of the target group declared, that they are not willing to vote. Finally, the campaign reached 88% of women 18-34, which is 3,15 million of women. The turnout during the parliamentary elections was 74% of voters within this group.

More than half of young Polish women declare that they will not participate in the parliamentary elections. Despite knowing the kind of Poland they want for themselves and their loved ones, they do not exercise their voting rights because they do not believe their voices matter. To encourage women to participate in the upcoming elections, the "It's Your Choice" Get-Out-the-Vote campaign was initiated by the Batory Foundation and the Women's Voice Initiative, a group of social organizations working to protect and promote women's rights.

As part of the campaign preparations, qualitative research was conducted with the primary goal of finding answers to fundamental questions: Why don't young women vote? What arguments can change their attitudes and motivate them to participate in elections?

Thanks to in-depth qualitative research, two main reasons for refusing to participate in elections were identified: the lack of a political party with which they fully identify and which would guarantee the desired change (I have no one to vote for, I have no guarantee that there will be a change after the elections that I would like), and a lack of a sense of agency (my vote doesn't matter, my participation in the elections won't change anything).

Based on this knowledge, VML developed narrative concepts, which were subsequently tested in qualitative research. Among the five communication directions, the concept that was the most engaging and motivating for participation in elections was selected: "It's Your Choice." The communication idea is based on the appeal to the need to make important life choices: you may not have someone to vote for, but you have SOMETHING to vote for.

It was also essential to discover that for young women, it was highly engaging to present specific social, moral, and ethical dilemmas. These dilemmas were illustrated by slogans representing alternatives and choices that can be made. In the next stages of the campaign creation process, a set of slogans and visuals depicting problems, dilemmas, and choices from various spheres of social life were prepared.

The campaign reached 88% of women 18-34, which is 3,15 million of women. The turnout during the parliamentary elections was 74% of voters within this group.