The Animal Justice Party is the only political party solely dedicated to standing up for the rights of animals in Australia to protect them from cruelty. AJP enlisted our help in the final weeks of their 2019 New South Wales state election campaign to use digital political advertising to generate greater awareness of AJP’s policies and candidates, including their lead candidate for the Upper House, Emma Hurst. The goal was to get Emma Hurst elected as their second party member in Parliament – a huge deal for the party and for the animals.
Our approach was to create a multi-touchpoint political advertising campaign leveraging paid search (Google Ads) and paid social media (Facebook and Instagram) to both re-engage their current audience and tap into new audiences who were likely to be swing voters due to the volatility of the two main political parties.
We devised a messaging strategy that gave voice to the growing public concern about the neglect of domestic, farmed, and wild animals by political parties in Australia. Furthermore, we let voters know that a vote for AJP helps people by providing a stable and healthy environment for future generations, and pushing for equality and safety in areas such as gun use, violence, health, education, and mental health. For all audiences, current and new, we aligned our messaging with their passion points and what AJP could accomplish for them.
Over just ten days, our ads reached hundreds of thousands of unique voters. We followed up a second time with those who demonstrated high interest. Ultimately, between paid social and search, we generated 8,828 high-intent website clicks. When all of the votes were tallied, Hurst beat her pro-farming opponent, Christian Democrat Paul Green, by about 8,000 votes to secure the party’s second seat in the NSW Legislative Council and third seat in Parliament.
