During the 2015 parliamentary election in Venezuela, as the director and founder of the marketing agency Alta Vista Media I led a national marketing campaign directed toward recruiting volunteers to help monitor the election process and ensure that every vote is counted accurately.
Working on this campaign was a huge challenge. In Venezuela, the regime has total control over traditional media and did not allow for any dissident voice or opposition ads to be run, even on privately owned channels, so we had to rely solely on the reach that we could build on social media and other alternative forms of mass communication, including WhatsApp Messaging; but in 2014, it wasn’t still clear how effective could we be without access to radio and television. we also needed to recruit volunteers despite the fears of possible prosecution by the Venezuelan regime, and train them on how to use a totally new encrypted report technology platform called S.O.R.E. that had never been used before.
As the creative director for the marketing campaign, I was responsible for several of the key pieces of the campaign, including the videos, jingles, and website. The website was important in particular because it was used to capture the contact information of potential volunteers. We worked hard to make sure the website was easy to use, looked professional, and created a sense of security and purpose in people’s minds. The response from potential volunteers was overwhelmingly positive, and we were able to register thousands of people in just a few weeks.
On the video side, we needed to focus on two completely different aspects: recruiting and training, while reinforcing the hopeful message of the campaign. The videos for recruiting needed to be inspiring, clear, and concise, explaining the call to action in an easy-to-understand way. We created compelling visuals that captured people's attention and made them want to act through a sense of duty to the nation. For the training videos, we used animation to explain complicated processes step-by-step, so that volunteers could understand the tasks they were being asked to do. The overall response to these videos was overwhelmingly positive and both aspects were crucial for the success of our marketing campaign.
Finally, we created jingles for all of the audiovisual pieces that played throughout the campaign period. These jingles helped keep people engaged with the message and reminded them why it was important to sign up as a volunteer. We also used catchy elements like catchphrases and slogans which quickly became popular among potential volunteers. This resulted in strong engagement with our target audience, further boosting volunteer numbers.
The data collected throughout the campaign was later used to conform thousands of teams that would mount vigils on election centers the night of the election, and use the Reporting System to relay accurate data to the opposition command and international observers. The overwhelming response to the campaign resulted in over 50,000 Venezuelans signing up to be volunteers. This work was a key component in achieving a landslide victory for the opposition party, winning an absolute majority in Congress.
