Make the Changed Process Understandable
Focus the communications on the practical questions raised by voting by mail during the pandemic. A clear action mattered as much as awareness.
Design / Art/Creative Direction
Baltimore Votes Coalition
OSI-Baltimore / Baltimore Votes Coalition
Challenge
COVID-19 abruptly changed how Baltimore residents could participate in the April 2020 special election and June primary. The campaign needed to address skepticism about voting by mail, explain an unfamiliar process, and help residents protect their health while making their voices heard. Older voters were an important audience. OSI-Baltimore helped convene and fund a coalition of community organizations, schools, and civic leaders to mobilize residents. The creative challenge was to make voting by mail feel understandable, credible, and connected to the community.
Strategy
Build trust through familiar community voices and give residents clear steps they could follow. Working with OSI-Baltimore and the Baltimore Votes Coalition, the campaign paired reassurance with practical ballot instructions and reminders. TV and radio, motion graphics, mailers, English- and Spanish-language social creative, and digital advertising supported the coalition’s outreach across the April special election and June primary.
Creative Approach
Hatcher worked with OSI-Baltimore and the Baltimore Votes Coalition on a campaign explaining the process and encouraging participation. The work extended across broadcast, social, grassroots outreach, and video.
My Role
Creative Director, collaborating with Hatcher’s account, art direction, digital, video, and motion team.
Collaborators
Creative Director: Reece Quiñones Client Manager: Natasha Lesser Art Director: Bailey Gregory VP of Digital: Matt Anthes Senior Video Producer: Melissa Rogers Motion Designer: Scott Cooper
The Approach
Insight into ideas.
Ideas into experience.
Connect Reassurance with Participation
Use an encouraging tone and recognizable campaign graphics to make the information approachable and easy to identify across placements.
Build Reach Through Multiple Formats
Coordinate broadcast, video, mail, digital, and social creative, including English- and Spanish-language materials, within the coalition’s wider outreach.
Selected Creative
A closer look
at the work.
Selected project artwork
An example from the original project portfolio.
View the Artwork ↗The visual system in use
An example from the original project portfolio.
View the Artwork ↗Video and Mobile Outreach
PSA presentations show how the campaign paired community voices with clear voting-by-mail messages.
View the Artwork ↗
Baltimore Votes by Mail
Campaign graphics and community video frames presented across mobile screens.
View the Artwork ↗Motion & Storytelling
Watch the work.
Baltimore Votes by Mail — Motion Graphic
Party at the Mailbox
Maryland Primary PSA
A 2020 public service announcement for the Baltimore Votes by Mail campaign.
The Result
Creative with
a clear purpose.
Baltimore City recorded Maryland’s highest turnout rate among eligible registered voters in the June 2, 2020 primary: 48.10%, compared with 42.00% statewide. Official turnout figures report 156,164 vote-by-mail ballots in the city. These election-wide results reflect the participation of Baltimore residents and the work of the broader coalition, election administrators, and many other contributors; they are not a measure of the creative campaign’s isolated effect.
48.10%
Baltimore City turnout among eligible registered voters in the June 2, 2020 primary, highest among Maryland’s 24 jurisdictions.
6.1 points
Above the statewide turnout rate of 42.00% in the June 2020 primary.
156,164
Baltimore City vote-by-mail ballots recorded in official June 2020 primary turnout statistics.