Elephants and superheroes took centre stage in August 2010 as AYCC’s Federal Election campaign ran with resounding success. During the election, the AYCC ran a non-partisan campaign to propel climate change to the forefront of the political agenda in the minds of voters, politicians and in the media. The campaign focused on three Senate races – Victoria, South Australia and the ACT – and five marginal lower house seats but also extended to other electorates. The multifaceted campaign used a variety of mechanisms to interact with voters, politicians and the media, including Digital Doorknocking, banner drops, direct voter engagement, election day campaigning as well as media and online campaigning. The AYCC punched well above its weight in what was described by the Financial Review as a “campaign showstopper”.
The Climate Elephant
The pinnacle of the AYCC election campaign was indisputably the Climate Elephant, which garnered extensive national media attention. racking Tony Abbott and Julia Gillard around the nation, volunteers dressed in elephant suits featured prominently along the well-trodden campaign trail and were an ever-present reminder that climate change could no longer be the elephant in the room. As a stalwart of the election, the elephant was acknowledged by many a candidate, but perhaps none more so than the Prime Minister. Ms Gillard’s recognition of the AYCC mascot escalated from a pat on the head, to a hug, to a personal invitation extended to meet with her post-election.
Grassroots Campaigning
Running parallel to the climate elephant were numerous other online and offline AYCC grassroots campaigns, including banner drops, digital door knocking, direct voter engagement events and a strong election day polling booth presence. AYCC volunteers had thousands of conversations with voters in key locations before and on election day. AYCC volunteers had approximately 14,000 one on one conversations with voters, while our election score card reached well over 100,000 people. Banner drops attracted voter attention in Melbourne and Adelaide as volunteers placed banners from some of the most viewed bridges around each city prior to the election. In Adelaide 8000 people were reached while in Melbourne 40,000 were reached, keeping climate change front of mind as voters drove to work. In the lead up to polling day, eight digital door-knocking events were organised across the country, involving a total of 165 volunteers. Volunteers had one on one conversations on their phones, over email or social networking with 2000 voters. Content was also sent through social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter, resulting in at least 16,500 young people directly viewing AYCC campaign content online.
Numerous other creative ways were also used to get the climate change message out to voters. A beach party in central Sydney created a stir and sparked media interest, with beach-goers handing out hundreds of scorecards and talking to passers by about rising sea level, climate change and the election. AYCC super heroes were also out in force during the campaign, banded together under the tongue-in-cheek Power Vote slogan to highlight the power intrinsic within each individual vote. In Melbourne, super heroes knocked on doors across the inner city, while another group of volunteers dressed as elephants staged a flash dance in Federation Square. In the Adelaide electorate of Sturt, 10 volunteers had hundreds of conversations with voters encouraging them to write why they cared about climate change on a large colourful banner at Norwood Mall. Another group had 200 conversations with voters at Central Adelaide Market with a climate elephant in tow. Climate Champion Cheerleaders attended a local soccer game in Canberra chatting to 50 voters.
“Nag your Nan” or “Pester your Pop” was another innovative grassroots campaign. Around about 1000 participants “nagged their nan” or “pestered their pop” to vote for their future in the election. The campaign was profiled in both Australian and international media. On election day itself, volunteers handed out over 45,000 AYCC score cards rating political parties against key climate policy priorities. Approximately 200 volunteers covered 51 key booths and had approximately 10,000 conversations with voters. These activities, and more, changed votes, kept climate change on the national agenda and demonstrated young Australians as a formidable force in the climate debate. The result? Putting climate change back in the headlines as a key election issue.