Amidst 2020’s unprecedented turmoil, America was also preparing for one of the most historic elections in history. With millions of Americans about to vote by mail for the first time and nonstop partisan rhetoric surrounding the election, data showed that voters were searching for information and sentiment surveys implied they doubted USPS’s ability to deliver.

We identified that integrity is built on understanding HOW to do something, but partisan rhetoric had Americans focused on IF voting by mail worked. But neither would be solved with cleverness. So, we crafted 9 simple words and sent them to every single American, giving the most important advice of all: planning ahead.

The reverse side of the mail piece gave general instructions how to vote by mail, written for a 3rd grade reading level and provided a URL for more information in English and Spanish. Concurrent print, newspaper, digital display and radio issued the same simple call to action.

We had to create a campaign that spoke to every American over 18. Between USPS research and independent consumer surveys, we found 50% of Americans didn’t trust the process, and more than half believed USPS would be to blame if democracy wasn’t carried out.

Americans were already overwhelmed by a daily barrage of information and uncertainty. Plus, the vast majority of them had never voted by mail, and didn’t know where to begin.

We found that Americans didn’t understand the vote by mail process, and they couldn’t even trust the resources that were supposed to help them. Amplified media and government voices had them so focused on “if” voting by mail worked, they’d forgotten to learn “how” it worked.

We decided our job wasn’t to advocate, but to educate, preventing rhetoric from becoming reality.

This campaign began with paid search as early as July 2020, directing Americans to USPS.com/votinginfo. In August, we ran television “Certainty” that featured a message of confidence in delivering votes and featured the URL as well. But the biggest push was a DM piece, delivered to 160million mailboxes in early September. This timing was early enough to drive action but late enough to be top of mind as voters became motivated. It was the largest single mailing in US History.

This message was seen in newspapers, magazines, Post Offices, in display ads, on owned-social channels and in national radio. The provided Information Deck details the placements. These media ran from September to Mid-October (two weeks before the election), just enough time to request, receive and return a ballot for November 3rd.

VOTER ACTION RESULTS

• 73% of Voters Returned Ballots at Least 1 Week Early (Pew Research)

• 88% of Voters felt Confident Their Vote was Counted (Pew Research)

• 98% of mail voters reported no trouble requesting and sending their ballots. (MIT Election Lab)

• Early voting in 2020 was more than double recent years, with over 65 million ballots cast by mail (USA Today)

DIRECT RESPONSE RESULTS

• 700+ million impressions. (Paid 376M + 330M from DM)

• Total visits to site: 1,429,583

• Clicks on “Find your state election website”: 740,124

CONFIDENCE IN USPS SURVEY RESULTS

• To deliver mail on time: from 83% up to 86%

• To deliver important packages on time: from 84% up to 87%

• To operate in a non-partisan manner: from 77% to 81%

• To deliver ballots in a timely manner: from 76% to 81%