Mobilising 500,000 Young People to Vote | Give An X

Getting half a million young people to GIVE AN X

Partner: My Life My Say & #iWill movement
Sector: Youth
Location: UK

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Advocacy & Influence
Purpose Advertising & Campaigns
Research & Strategy

Young people don’t give a shit about politics. At the start of this general election year, over 30% of 18-25 year olds weren’t even registered to vote. On a mission to change that, Shape History partnered with My Life My Say and the iWill movement to launch Give an X: the youth-led, non-partisan campaign that made politics personal.

Working with brands, influencers and a trusty team of 18-25s, we flipped the narrative on voter registration. And it worked.

Over 4 million 18-24 year olds

reached across the campaign period - that's 70% of young adults in the UK!

10+ brand partners secured

to activate the brand including Tinder, Lime Bikes, Ben & Jerry’s & Tony's Chocolonely

488,846 registrations

as a direct result of the campaign in just 6 weeks, including 100,000 on Voter Registration Day!

The challenge

A lot of young people just don’t care about politics. 30-40% of 18-25 year olds weren’t registered to vote at the start of 2024. And it makes sense. Politics is not a particularly welcoming space for young people. Many of them feel like they don’t know enough about it to vote, like it’s not relevant to them, and as if their vote doesn’t really matter anyway.

But having so many young voices missing from the electoral register does matter.

It leaves them, and their issues, out of the political process, which impacts us all. Despite this, most attempts to engage the younger generation fall flat. Our challenge was to do youth voter registration differently – to do it their way.

The solution

Young people might not seem to care about politics, but that doesn’t mean they don’t care about anything. This (pretty obvious) insight led the campaign, from the name – Give an X – to the messaging, visuals and even the brands and influencers we partnered with. Our strategy was to meet 18-25 year olds where they are and talk to them, not at them, about the things they give an x about.

How?

Well, we just… asked them. Working with a diverse steering group of 18-25 year olds from up and down the country, and political engagement spectrum, we co-created everything to genuinely reflect this generation’s needs, preferences and personality. The result was a campaign that looked nothing like politics, amplified by brands like Tinder, Lime Bikes, Snapchat and Ben and Jerry’s and talked about by everyone from local youth-groups to love islanders.

The Give an X messaging was all about making politics personal – your issues, your life, your needs. But the key was not just talking to them directly, but using their language. In a space that is overrun by terminology that isn’t used by normal people (especially 18-25s), we made it more relevant. For example, switching ‘rental prices’ to ‘living with mum and dad forever..’ And it worked, with these messages coming out on top across digital ads.

We talk a lot about the importance of co-creating campaigns, especially with young people. Not only does it make your campaign more authentic, but it gives young people the opportunity to collaborate through regular workshops, creative brainstorms and strategic exercises, and genuine upskilling, like media training.

For young people, by young people

Working with young people made our campaign immediately youthful, with bright colours, bubble and 3D typography, and photo-heavy visuals. This resulted in a campaign look and feel that politicians would have hated, but young people thought was genuinely cool. If you’re talking to youth, the least you can do is make it look like you’re genuinely listening.

For young people, by young people

Pick your partners

Pick your partners

Partnerships can be difficult to pull off – especially when talking about social impact – but it’s all about your audience. Where are they, on and offline? Who do they listen to? These questions led us to partners like Lime Bike, London Games Fest, Tinder, Snapchat, and even Ben & Jerry’s, many of whom were engaging with the political space for the first time

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Partnerships can be difficult to pull off – especially when talking about social impact – but it’s all about your audience. Where are they, on and offline? Who do they listen to? These questions led us to partners like Lime Bike, London Games Fest, Tinder, Snapchat, and even Ben & Jerry’s, many of whom were engaging with the political space for the first time