Shoring up Support Among So-called “Hard-to-Reach” Voters 

Michigan’s Prop 2 was a ballot measure to strengthen voting rights by putting them directly in the state constitution. In order to pass it decisively, Promote the Vote 2022 worked with Trilogy to design a digital program specifically focused on building trust among Black and Gen Z voters.

We needed to verify for these potential supporters that Prop 2 was — to quote a focus-group participant — “from the good side.” This was particularly key for Black voters: Generations of targeted changes to voting laws meant to suppress their votes makes this constituency particularly hesitant to change election laws. And while Gen Z Michiganders are often politically disinterested, they were expected to turn out because of the state’s abortion-rights ballot measure — so it was crucial to show them the importance of voting yes on Prop 2 as well.

Finding Authentic Voices the Audience Trusted — And Letting Them Be Themselves

First, Trilogy identified the right messengers, contracting with over a dozen creators whose followers genuinely care about their views. We worked with athletes, college campus leaders, food reviewers, local comedians, and nature vloggers to cover a wide swath of demographics and geographies within our target audience.

Executing our strategy meant stepping outside of our comfort zone, best exemplified in @Trellevison’s “drive through window” post. Trilogy understood that we didn’t have to share his brand of humor for his video to work — and PTV22 was willing to take that leap of faith with us. The video ended up with over 65,000 likes and overwhelmingly positive comments.

We also stood strong against the allure of big names. While Jalen Rose, basketball icon and ESPN commentator, has a large following and recorded a valuable promotion for the campaign, his view count was not as high as creators more native to TikTok, like college basketball player B.Artis. We always kept the end goal — moving our audience — front of mind, and never let our own biases stop us from engaging the folks our target audience needed to hear from.

Knowing When and How to Leverage Influencers for Campaigns

We engaged social influencers because they could communicate authentically and honestly to a constituency with a painful history of being denied the vote and to a disillusioned generation skeptical of traditional political messaging. And it worked: Our influencer campaign for Prop 2 led to hundreds of thousands of views in just one week, at a cost of under $0.15 per view. The response was overwhelmingly positive, as reflected in the comments (and the sheer number of fire emojis under each post). Prop 2 passed with 60% of the vote. 

From building the right set of creators, to walking the line of authentic and brand-safe content, to deploying content at the right moment to maximize impact, our work to pass Prop 2 provides a model for engaging constituencies that will be key to electoral successes for years to come.