The Opportunity
Spurred on by a lack of integrity and gender equity in Australian politics and the incumbent government’s lack of climate change action, arts administrator and outgoing Adelaide Writers’ Week Director Jo Dyer decided to contest the Federal seat of Boothby in the May 2022 election.
With longstanding ties to the local community, Jo was endorsed by the Voices of Boothby community group as the Community Independent candidate in Australia’s third-most marginal electorate.
Jo’s public profile had grown considerably in early 2021, when she took up the fight of her late friend Kate, with her sexual assault allegation against former Federal Attorney-General Christian Porter.
A longstanding friend of communikate et al, Jo engaged us to support her campaign and speak out the major parties.
Our Approach
We helped develop Jo’s policy positions and her campaign key messages focusing on three key issues – climate change, integrity in politics and gender equality.
Integrating seamlessly with Jo’s team of volunteers, we devised the campaign media strategy and digital approach, coordinated design and advertising to maximise reach, ensure targeted message delivery, and position Jo as the candidate who would best represent the interests of Boothby’s voters.
Our work spanned:
- Digital – developing a cost-effective, functional website to collect donations and provide ongoing campaign updates and information
- Publicity – supporting Jo’s candidacy announcement and identifying and pursuing media coverage that highlighted Jo’s key policies
- Social media – creating a content calendar for Facebook and Instagram and running an ongoing social media advertising campaign to promote Jo’s candidacy to Boothby voters
- Marketing communications – managing design briefs for Jo’s design supplier and developing an advertising strategy including shopping centre screens, outdoor billboards and print and radio ads
- Training – providing mentoring and ad-hoc, practical training to upskill volunteers and maximise the campaign’s overall output
The Outcome
Jo secured approximately 6.6% (7,441) of first preference votes, making her the most voted for Independent candidate and the fourth highest polling candidate behind only the established and highly funded Liberal, Labor and Greens parties.
Highlights included:
- Three page one stories in The Advertiser and Sunday Mail
- Jo being described in the media as the ‘well publicised Independent candidate’
- Reaching more than 70,000 values-aligned voters within the electorate
- More than 20,000 website sessions during the campaign
- Visitors spent 27% longer on the website each visit than the industry average
- Securing nearly $22,000 of direct donations and selling more than $1,000 of campaign merchandise via the website
- Raising $102,000 via a GoFundMe campaign linked to the campaign website and Jo’s social media platforms
While Jo did not win a seat in Federal Parliament, her preferences helped swing the long-held Liberal seat to Labor and a new government was elected.
