case studies

Jaywing helps the Electoral Commission keep the electoral roll up to date with Signals - moving house.

brief

The Electoral Commission is an independent body set up by the UK Parliament, with the aim of providing integrity and public confidence in the democratic process. A central function of its remit is making sure people know how to vote, and that they understand how to register to vote.

The Electoral Commission faces the recurring issue of connecting with people who have moved house, and who may not have registered to vote at their new address. Around 12% of the population moves every year; this constitutes a significant percentage of the voting population who may be ineligible to vote in local and general elections.

deliverables

Jaywing works with The Electoral Commission and COI Communications using Signals - moving house and runs an annual campaign to people who have moved, encouraging them to register to vote and providing all the necessary information and forms. The campaigns run in advance of local and national elections, generally held in May.

Planning for the last completed campaign began in September 2006, the first mailing took place during January 2007. In the first quarter of 2007, 780,000 items were sent to people who had moved house during the preceding few months. Jaywing used its own house move database to target people within the 434 local authorities in England, Scotland and Wales.

A new one piece mail pack was created, which was varied depending on the specific needs of each local authority, including language variations. Each pack consisted of a personalised letter, with contact details of the corresponding local authority and the appropriate electoral registration forms. As the pack was one piece, the forms could be detached, folded, gummed down and returned to the local authority.
Jaywing created and managed the different campaigns according to local authority requirements, such as which mailing packs to use and response resources, executed the mailings and provided response analysis.

Activity in advance of the 2008 local elections began in November 2007, with the Electoral Commission again choosing Jaywing. Northern Ireland will be included in the latest initiative, and the activity will evolve using insight gleaned from the results of previous campaigns.

As part of the overall UK campaign, a test mailing with different creative will be used in 25 of the local authorities; the results will help refine the creative execution for subsequent campaigns.

Signals - moving house identifies 95% of all house moves in the UK within 6 weeks of the move event.
The end to end Signals - moving house service provides the Electoral Commission with pinpoint targeting of those who have moved house, deduplication, campaign management, the creation and execution of mailings, and response analysis.

results

The 2007 campaign elicited excellent response rates. The top five highest were:

Percentage of forms returned:

Percentage of forms received that were new registrations:

Whilst a small number of respondents had already registered to vote after they moved, approximately 70% of movers registered to vote as a consequence of this activity. Furthermore, this mechanism achieves cost effectiveness that cannot be matched through other media.