My top picks from the 2021 Polaris Awards

In May I was thrilled to sit on the jury panel. I noticed some interesting trends in campaign strategies: here are some of my thoughts on what worked, and what impressed me the most.

In late May, I had the joy of joining the jury panel for the 2021 Polaris Awards. My inner political geek has always been obsessed with seeing what works and doesn’t work in campaigning, and I’ve spent many days over my career working and evaluating efforts across political divides.

The truth is, I’m a bit of an election leaflet anorak. I’m into them the same way people are into sports trivia or trainspotting.

I could generally tell you whether a constituency was a target seat for the Conservatives, Labour, the Lib Dems, Green or UKIP based on the literature voters received during the 2015 and 2017 general elections. During my campaign trips to the US from 2012-14, I came home with all of the literature I could get my hands on. It didn’t matter whether it was from Democrats, Republicans, super-PACs or independents, or what level of government they were running for. 

In Denmark, in May 2015 I critiqued election posters on lampposts as I walked from Billund Airport to Legoland. In France in 2017, my now-husband and I stopped to talk to canvassers from François Fillon’s campaign. Once again, I brought home the campaign leaflets including one from Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s campaign. (I have more than once told my husband off for throwing out campaign literature in our flat before I had a chance to read it. When I say I’ve read thousands of election leaflets, I’m not exaggerating.) 

So, getting a chance to be on the jury panel really fed my obsession with campaign strategy. I reviewed approximately 45 submissions entered into some of the 67 individual categories. As I reviewed, I put together a few thoughts about trends I saw and thought effective.

1. QR code advertisement campaigns

The COVID pandemic has seen QR codes become truly mainstream, especially for outdoor campaigns. Previously, it looked as though campaigns used QR codes just to pretend they understood digital, despite the fact nobody seemed to use them. However, it’s my impression that this has completely changed. As people’s fear of germs and contamination has increased, so has the desire to use QR codes to check in to places, read menus and learn more about campaigns. 

2. Smart use of geo-targeting

The best overall local elections campaign winner (one of two winners) was "¡Súmate al Cambio!" submitted by 303.Digital LLP on behalf of local candidate Christian Cortez in Puerto Rico. The authenticity and smart use of data was what really struck me as impressive. Regular blog readers will know that I have mixed feelings about microtargeting. This campaign used it in a really effective way that avoided the pitfalls I wrote about here. The campaign’s decision to geo-target local government workers to assure them that their jobs would be safe if Cortez won the election was a great use of data.

3. Scrappy COVID campaigns

The Total Croatia Travel INFO Viber Community campaign didn’t win an award (correction: in good news, this one actually won three awards under the agency name Manjgura. I excited I was wrong because I thought it was pretty dope too!), but it did something that I wish all other campaigns would do: it responded to the moment. One of my biggest frustration is when campaigns have an opportunity or a moment in the public eye, but they decide not to capitalize on it because their product isn’t perfect. The end result: they miss their chance to take advantage of the momentum and instead launch weeks or months later when that moment is gone. Repeat after me, folks: it doesn’t have to be perfect to launch!

While I didn’t find the campaign particularly pretty, it served its purpose well and was ready to go when it mattered the most. The campaigners found innovative ways to make information available through Google Translate tools, at the very moment when the travel community was looking for reliable information. 

4. Engage younger voters

Something I’ve not seen much is campaign ads that play like music videos. It surprises me that in the era of video content, more campaigners aren’t making ads that you might catch on television or YouTube. Two campaigns out of the Dominican Republic did particularly well in this area. Luis Abinanda for President by De Vengoechea & Associates won for Best Use of Humor in a Presidential Campaign, while this video featuring Carolina Mejia for Major of Santo Domingo by Le Black Room won Best Local Web Video and also Best Overall Local Campaign. 

I saw a number of videos targeting younger voters, and the overall favourite one that had me laughing out loud was Voting is Important by BuzzMaker for the Unity Labour Party in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. I still remember it, despite only having watched it a couple of times.

5. Go where your audience is

Sure, TikTok and Instagram are popular platforms, but their value for campaigners really depends on what audience you’re trying to reach. LinkedIn is my own personal favourite, and the next campaign that I really enjoyed was from the winner in the Social Media Campaign (NGOs and others) winner VAJT Ltd. - Introducing Digital Nomad Visa in Croatia. 

Creating beautiful and effective campaigns with a solid budget isn’t difficult, but doing so with purpose and no budget takes real skill. The campaign for the introduction of the Digital Nomad Visa in Croatia was done exclusively through organic LinkedIn campaigns. The strength of this campaign was that it didn’t feel the need to be everything to everyone on every imaginable platform. The end result was that the campaign was featured in more than 150 publications, received more than 2.1m views, and made the visa a reality within 44 days. That’s a testament to purpose, focus and thoughtful targeting to their audience.

Want to win too?

It’s possible to submit your own work for consideration to industry awards such as the Polaris Awards and Reed Awards, so if you always wonder why other people win - this is your chance to change that! Nominations for both seem to open early each calendar year, but sign up to their newsletters to avoid missing out. And, if you’ve come across any campaigns you think I’d enjoy, feel free to email me at l.kristensen@linestotake.co.uk