How We Helped Pass an Innovative Climate Action Initiative in Denver, with a 26-Point Margin
Before
Ballot Measure 2A was included in Denver’s election to address the implications of a fast-growing city’s effect on climate change. Specifically, the measure focused on implementing the strategic plan of Denver’s Climate Action Task Force, which strongly urged funding climate-related programs and programs designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution. Lynea Hansen, of Strategies 360, and Conor Hall, of the Trust For Public Land, began the formal establishment of the Denver Climate Action Now campaign and brought on Effct.org as the digital director and a critical member of the steering committee.
Our polling revealed 3 significant findings:
-
Only 38% of those polled would definitely vote YES on 2A
-
The more educated people were about measure 2A, the more likely they were to support it
-
Messaging about ‘Denver’s growth’ and ‘a responsibility for the future’ would be the most impacting.
After
We focused our efforts around awareness building via social media and a texting campaign, using those high-polling messages, as well as lower-polling messages, to ensure the polling matched public sentiment. As the campaign progressed, we studied our content analytics and it was evident that the most engaging topic was actually environmental justice (EJ), not a future responsibility or Denver’s growth. EJ polled at 71% effective which was fairly low in comparison to other messages, but those posts garnered the highest interactions, comments, and shares by far. In response, we altered our strategy and investment plan to focus more on this type of content and promote its success.
On Election Day, it was immediately apparent that our awareness-work was successful when 2A passed 62% to 38%. This piece of legislation will be the model for a series of climate-based campaigns across the country in the coming years. We are thrilled to be part of the solution to fighting climate change, helping create a more sustainable planet for ourselves and future generations.
Effct.org executed a diligent and focused digital strategy. Through their work, we raised awareness of 2A with crucial demographics. They produced effective creative pieces and managed our social pages with ease. Most importantly, they care deeply about climate action, and fit in well with the rest of our campaign team.
Conor Hall
Campaign General Consultant
By the Numbers
5.1 Million
584,000
1.4 Million
304,591
Digital Tactics
Targeted Text Messaging
Effct created and managed multiple text messaging campaigns that targeted different demographics of Denverites and sent them 304,591 messages about measure 2A. Our management, outstanding volunteers, and
high-quality data helped us reach reply rates of up to 30% in some areas.
Responsive Strategy
We deployed hyper-targeted ads through Facebook and Google to ensure we were able to reach voters searching for climate action in Denver. We specified our content style to videos and clean graphics to best match that demographic’s intake style, and reevaluated our strategy based on responsive data. An example of this was optimizing the environmental justice content when it was clear that was favored.
