From 0–66, fast.

When politicians decided to hold elections with two voting systems and three ballots on one day… it wasn’t going to be easy. Quite how hard, even we didn’t realise.

If you ever thought you worked in an ‘uninteresting’ category, spare a thought for The Electoral Commission. The body charged with defending and promoting our democracy encounters widespread public apathy and political cynicism at every turn.

So, ‘selling’ the Scottish elections in 2007 was always going to be a challenge. The previous Welsh elections had attracted a turn out of just 44%. And they didn’t have the kind of mind-boggling complexity the Scottish voting systems adopted. (So complex, in fact, it seems that a handful of the agencies pitching for the project got the systems wrong in their submissions.)

The campaign task was so difficult that its execution was commended in the final report.

Remarkably, despite the acknowledged ‘turn-off’ of politics generally and the complex voting systems specifically, the power of the advertising was proved:

– Public awareness of the Vote Scotland campaign reached 66% within 2 months

– 74% of respondents said they intended to vote

– Around 30% ‘knew’ about ‘how to vote’ and the changes in the voting systems

– Turnout increased to 52% (from 48% in the previous simpler election in Scotland)

Your challenges may not be as complex. But if you need an agency that can bring ‘brand power’ to help you resolve mind-boggling issues, we’d like your vote.