Reddit started 2020 with the intention of launching their first ever marketing campaign to legitimize the brand in the eyes of consumers, but somewhere in the midst of a global pandemic, massive civil unrest and a looming Presidential Election, priorities shifted. With American politics and the 2020 Election dominating nearly every facet of Americans’ lives, Reddit was faced with the surmounting challenge of still needing to improve brand awareness and shift perception. But now, the brand was also tasked with breaking through the political noise while remaining relevant.

Amidst all this, trivial things were receiving a vast number of votes on Reddit — which could’ve made a significant impact in real life. Reddit chose to use the act of voting as a conduit to help current and potential users understand the positive impact of Reddit’s online communities. Creative messaging and media were tasked with balancing impact and authenticity.

People are historically indifferent and resigned to voting in US Elections because they don’t believe their vote matters. It’s inherently difficult, and voters see themselves as literally one in 158.4M ballots, so what’s the point?

And yet, users literally “upvote” things on Reddit an average of 165M times a day.

The truth is, people believe their voice carries more weight in the digital world than the real world. 2020 forced people to live virtually and in an online bubble, where it’s easier to feel heard and recognize the immediate impact a few upvotes can make.

But Reddit believes the act of voting is as powerful offline as it is online. Up The Vote focused on putting election results determined by slim margins in context to help people realize the power even a small number of votes can have in real life.

Up The Vote targeted potential new Reddit users (a.k.a. Snoobies) while they consumed news, election and political content. Snoobies are frequent internet and social media users ages 18-44 interested in learning throughout all aspects of their lives.

Given Snoobies’ propensity to be more likely to find online ads annoying, irrelevant or intrusive compared to the rest of the US, it was critical the campaign breakthrough impactfully and stimulate authentic conversation. (Source: MRI Simmons, 2020)

OOH led the media mix, driving impact and sparking conversation about Reddit in high traffic areas. Retargeting people within the vicinity of billboards (geo-fence) amplified messaging and extended the range of OOH. ZIP-level and contextually targeted digital units broke through ad clutter to reach Snoobies in environments they’re most engaged. Contextual relevance extended to print via insertions in election editions. All media drove to voting resources on Reddit where people could register to vote.

A total of 23 billboards were installed in NYC, Chicago, LA and Houston to serve as the primary medium for the campaign the six weeks leading up to the election. Criteria for billboards was as follows: highly visible and photographable (to drive message breakthrough), within heavily trafficked areas (to spark conversation on and offline) and located close to each other (to drive message association). OOH executions included a geofence — retargeting people within the vicinity of the billboards to increase message frequency and brand association.

Contextually targeted custom banners and videos on Google Display Network and Vox extended messaging online by reaching the target audience as they consumed news, election and political content. Print insertions in New York Magazine and :60sec videos during an online digital festival (VultureFest) in the last 2-3 weeks leading up to the election maximized campaign reach and drove message association in contextually relevant environments.

Up The Vote convinced Snoobies their vote matters, by driving 332K+ attributable clicks among those looking to learn more about voting or interested in taking steps to ensure they were registered.

Mobile banners retargeting users within the OOH geofences were particularly successful in reinforcing our message, driving 1.3x higher CTR than non-geofenced banners via Google. Contextually targeted banners and videos on Vox exceeded CTR and Completion Rate benchmarks 1.5x and 1.6x, respectively. (Source: Agency Benchmark CTR: .08%, Vox :60s video: VCR: 55%).

Campaign conversation garnered 79% positive/neutral sentiment, drove a statistically significant +0.09 increase in perception (1-5 scale), contributed to Reddit's 44% increase in Daily Active Users during the flight, and compelled the Reddit community to capture and post 45 unique photos of the billboards to Reddit, which received 900,000 upvotes — an upvote rate of 88% (Site average: 70%, Source: Reddit Owned Data).