Getting Aucklanders involved in the local body elections has always been a challenge, with an average voter turnout of around 35% in previous years. So when Auckland Council briefed their digital agency, Goodfolk, on the design and production of a website to help change this, everyone knew it would be a challenging but highly rewarding project.
Goodfolk says the objective was simple: encourage Aucklanders to vote in the upcoming elections while making it easy for people to understand the voting process and how Auckland Council is structured. The website needed to capture the attention of Aucklanders who currently don’t vote, in particular youth and ethnic communities.
Goodfolk worked closely with Auckland Council to determine what factors were dissuading Aucklanders from voting, and how these could be addressed in a concise digital space. They then took the Show Your Love creative concept developed by DDB and expanded it into a full digital design and user-centric navigation to show Aucklanders why to vote, and how to vote.
Goodfolk then worked with digital solution specialists Phosphor Essence to create www.showyourlove.co.nz. “The site incorporates a large amount of information into an easy to follow structure, turning something that was traditionally difficult to understand into a format that is both interesting and easy to digest,” said Goodfolk design director Scott Crickett.
“The whole team was aware of the importance of this piece of work and passionately got behind it, with the objectives consistently front of mind,” he said.
“It was a real communication challenge, ensuring the site gave people all the tools and information to make important voting decisions, as well as remaining simple and easy to use.
“Not only is the site a vital tool to help Aucklanders with voting decisions, but it is also a platform for candidates to have their say about different issues. Each candidate can personally input their own information, and people visiting the site can aggregate the content depending on what matters to them.”
Alastair Haydock from Auckland Council, who led the project, says making it simple to pinpoint information that is relevant and important to you is what makes this website stand out, and hopefully, help improve voting numbers.
“Aucklanders can input their physical address to learn about who is standing in their electorate, and also navigate through the candidates based on the topics that are important to them,” he said.
Since the beginning of August, the site has acted as a platform for all content relating to the local body elections, including social media tags such as #loveAKL, and will be available up until the end of the campaign this week.
CREDITS
Agency: Goodfolk
Creative Director: Mark Easterbrook
Client Service Director: Jason Linnell
Design Director: Scott Crickett
Digital Designer: Scott Alonzo
Illustrator: Toby Morris
Head of Digital: David Fan
Frontend Developer: Nathan Smith
Senior Digital Account Manager: Rosie Woodcock
Phosphor Essence
Director: Cath Sample
Software Development Manager: Jeremy Read
Senior Developer: Keith Flowers
Client: Auckland Council
Head of Marketing & Publicity: Victoria Walker
Senior Specialist Marketing / Marketing and Publicity: Alastair Haydock
Team Manager Digital: Nat Ward
Brand and Channel Senior Digital Specialist: Hayley Stone
Brand and Channel Manager Elections Planning: Glyn Walters
Elections Associate Project Manager Democracy Services: Robert Dinte
About Goodfolk
Goodfolk is an independent Auckland-based digital and creative agency. Experienced and hands-on, the folk at Goodfolk are experts in a range of creative marketing and communications disciplines including design, digital development, advertising and events. For more information go to www.goodfolk.co.nz.
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