The 1:12, a good idea? political campaign

Enigma Strategy & Branding elaborated a political campaign via two different media in order to endorse the “No” camp for the 1:12 initiative.

Ambition

Those campaigning for the “yes” vote had a clear advantage at the start: simple and emotional arguments, and many seeds planted during the grassroots campaign towards the referendum. The side of the “no” had longer arguments and thus struggled with its billboard campaign, which is the traditional medium in Swiss politics.

The goal was to make the billboards understandable immediately. But how?

Action

In order to be clearer and simpler, Enigma suggested a campaign with two specific media: traditional billboards and videos. Powerful visuals on billboards helped focus on three weaknesses of this purportedly good idea

• Tax increase


• Revenue loss for the State


• Threat on social security payments

The second media, a film posted on YouTube, had a more educational goal and hoped to reach 100,000 views.

The combination of the billboards and the video allowed to have a compact message highlighting some strong arguments through visuals, and be didactic with a more detailed explanation on film.

Impact

During the 5-week political campaign, the video was seen 174,000 times and the “no” camp won the referendum.