Instead of simply creating a generic Cinema commercial to encourage voting, we decided that creating an experience for our target audience would create a much greater impact. Demonstrating first hand that if you don’t vote, you can’t complain about the government, as you allow someone else to make decisions for you.

We erected banners outside the cinema, asking them to download “The Cinemark Comfort App”, with the knowledge that nobody ever downloads these type of apps. Then when our cinema commercial plays, the last commercial before the movie starts, the viewer was asked to use the app to vote for their comfort level, and what they experienced was other people make choices for them, just like when they don’t vote.

The Media team did an incredible job in getting the cinema engineers to make the interactive Cinema commercial happen, strategically placing the banners in appropriate places and also in targeting the right movies that the youth would watch, as to maximise the target market. The team also got the cinema engineers to switch the lights on and off in the cinema to give the ad the full impact.

The cinema activation was very well received, not only among the youth, but everyone that was exposed to it.

Prior to elections a poll calculated that 60% of the youth were not registered to vote and a further 23% of registered said they would not vote. Our commercial unfortunately only started running 2 weeks prior to the elections so couldn't change the non registered voters but instead of 23% registered voters who said they would not to vote only 13% of them did not vote.

That's 10% or 684 800 voters who voted in the elections that might not have.