“Redistricting could negatively impact some of the most vulnerable populations, silencing their voices for another decade,” says Bill Moreau, publisher of The Indiana Citizen. “It’s the most insidious and effective voter suppression tool ever devised.”
The Indiana Citizen Redistricting Education Campaign
The Indiana Citizen, a nonpartisan, nonprofit education platform, wanted to reach marginalized communities primed to potentially lose their voices through gerrymandering, as state legislators prepared to redraw congressional and legislative district lines based on the 2020 Census.
The Plan
- To build a PR, Marketing, and Brand Storytelling campaign across Central Indiana, and strategic parts of the state, to drive people to The Indiana Citizen’s website for informational news articles on gerrymandering and redistricting and its impact on Black and brown communities. As a non-partisan educational foundation, The Indiana Citizen could only educate audiences but could not issue a ‘call-to-action.’
- The Campaign’s Theme: Racial Justice Requires Fair Maps
Marketing Campaign
- To prepare content for digital and billboard ads and write, produce, and voice 15-second and 30-second commercials for radio, tv, and digital: Racial Justice Commercial.
- Target Audiences: Black and brown communities in Central Indiana and statewide; legislators as they drive to the State Capitol to work on redistricting plans
- My marketing plan included:
- Producing digital ad campaigns statewide, a statewide television streaming campaign, ads on urban radio stations in Central Indiana and in strategic Indiana counties
- A statewide Indiana Public Radio Station campaign and, locally, on WFYI radio
- Billboard poster campaigns in targeted racially diverse neighborhoods in Central Indiana
- And a short television ad campaign as part of a partnership with one Central Indiana station
Results
- The Indiana Citizen’s publisher was interviewed on urban radio stations and tv news stations in Central Indiana and one in northern Indiana
- I helped promote an hour-long Town Hall that another vendor prepared for The Indiana Citizen’s Redistricting Education Campaign
- Total digital and tv impressions, including streaming throughout the state intermittently in September: 1,461,589
- Total Radio impressions and people reach at four urban stations statewide: 500,000+
- Total billboard poster impressions in September: 7,158,146
- The campaign drove both old and new audiences to the Indiana Citizen’s online educational platform during a critical time impacting Hoosier voters’ future
