OBV's 2015 General Election

12 OUR ELECTION12 CAMPAIGN IN NUMBERS CONTENTS OBV’s 2015 General Election 02 INTRODUCTION 04 WHY? 14 WHAT PEOPLE SAID14 06 THE EXPRESS OBV 16 CONCLUSIONS16 AND NEXT STEPS 08 OBV’S POSTER AND FILM CAMPAIGN WE PAST, DEMAND PRESENT 18 WHAT THE PAPERS SAY 18 RACE AND EQUALITY FUTURE 02 IN THE THREE MONTHS LEADING TO THE 2015 GENERAL ELECTION OUR GOAL WAS TO TARGET OVER ONE MILLION BLACK AND MINORITY ETHNIC INDIVIDUALS WITH THE SIMPLE MESSAGE: ‘REGISTER TO VOTE!’ AND ONCE REGISTERED: ‘TURN OUT TO VOTE IN THE ELECTION!’ BEHIND THE MESSAGING OUR AIM WAS TO ENSURE THE MAIN POLITICAL PARTIES PUT TACKLING PERSISTENT RACE INEQUALITY HIGH ON THEIR AGENDAS. INTRODUCTION 03 There were three elements to the 1 2 3 campaign: THE OBV EXPRESS voter THE OBV APP, the first in A HARD HITTING voter registration bus that toured the country that enabled registration and voter major cities throughout people to register online turnout advertising poster England using their mobile devices and film campaign 04 WHY? IN AUGUST 2013, OBV PUBLISHED 2015 GENERAL ELECTION: THE POWER OF THE BLACK VOTE THAT SHOWED THAT IN OVER 160 MARGINAL SEATS, BLACK AND MINORITY ETHNIC VOTERS COULD MAKE A SIGNIFICANT Download our 2015 General Election Manifesto at IMPACT IN THE UPCOMING www.obv.org.uk/news-blogs/ operation-black-vote-2015- ELECTION. general-election-manifesto Why? 05 AT THE SAME TIME RESEARCH SHOWED THAT THE INTRODUCTION OF INDIVIDUAL ELECTORAL REGISTRATION MEANT A DISPROPORTIONATELY HIGH NUMBER OF BME INDIVIDUALS AND YOUNG ADULTS WERE FALLING OFF THE ELECTORAL REGISTER. 06 THE OBV eXpress Scenes from the OBV eXpress THE OBV EXPRESS 07 he OBV eXpress voter registration bus travelled around the country so we could engage with large numbers of The UK’s T individuals often cynical and disillusioned with politics. Many people we encountered expressed strongly held reasons first voter not to engage in the electoral process. These included: ‘Politicians don’t represent me’, ‘Nothing ever changes’, registration ‘Racism’s got worse’, ‘Why should I vote for them when they do nothing for me’, ‘Politicians are dishonest’, ‘Multinational App business and financiers have real power’, and ‘Democracy is against my religion’. The future of voting is With this level of negativity our challenge was to take online, and OBV is the individuals from a score of minus twenty to a positive place of first organisation in the plus ten. And we did it with a large number of people. UK to commission a voter So 16 cities and London boroughs, hundreds of conversations, registration App. Once thousands registered to vote, countless doubters turned downloaded, users could into positive advocates, and thousands inspired to engage in our democracy… not bad for a big orange bus and a team of get onto the online voter dedicated activists. registration form and register to vote. The App is still in its infancy, but has been downloaded by many. Furthermore, as additional content becomes available we see this as a most valuable tool. The OBV Registration App is the first of its kind in the UK 08 hat OBV secured the services of Saatchi & Saatchi, the internationally renowned ad agency, OBV’S Twas a coup, but then to get on board top fashion photographer Rankin and celebrities Sol Campbell, David Harewood, Tinie Tempah and Ade Apitan POSTER was more than we could ever wish for. The brief for Saatchi’s creative team was to inspire BME communities to register to AND vote and then vote; and to raise awareness about our inclusive democracy. Their hard-hitting imagery of black stars ‘whiting up’ and the message that if BME FILM people didn’t register to vote, it would take the colour out of Britain, succeeded beyond our CAMPAIGN expectations. OBV’S poster AND film campaign 09 Left and below: Stills from the Rankin /Saatchi campaign With an election devoid of any real creativity, our campaign resulted in plaudits, some outrage and intense interest. The huge media coverage of the posters played a part in the unprecedented surge of a million, mainly young, people registering to vote online in the week before the deadline. Rankin, top British photographer who shot the portraits of the black celebrities for the OBV posters, said— “My wife told me about the large numbers of Black people not voting, and about Black youth unemployment. I felt honoured to make a contribution to the campaign.” 12 OUR ELECTION CAMPAIGN IN NUMBERS OUR ELECTION CAMPAIGN IN NUMBERS 13 98 million 10,000+ 1,500 Outcomes Views, the combined The number of people The number of people who Record number of BME coverage of the OBV OBV discussed political registered to vote on the MP’s elected including eXpress, poster campaign, engagement and voter bus. another OBV alumni and David Harewood registration with during Clive Lewis video, with a commercial the eXpress bus tour. value of £5,000,000. 100+ Main political parties promise to tackle race 500 Media interviews during inequality 1,000,000 the voter registration Young adults who campaign. The number of mainly registered to vote at a Record number of BME young people who free voter registration Ministers appointed to registered to vote in the concert starring Fuse Government week before the deadline ODG at Tooting & Mitcham 4,500 which corresponded to Football Club. the OBV Register to Vote The size of the African BME voter turnout poster campaign and congregation at the KICC higher than white related publicity. church in Chatham, Kent turnout in several key 700 on Easter Sunday which constituencies featured the OBV eXpress Visitors to the bus who bus. 2 wanted to know more Conservatives double about OBV and how their support from BME Nominations for to be involved in their voters prestigious international communities. advertising awards: Cannes Lions 2015; Digital Communications Awards 2015. 20,000 Voter registration information leaflets handed out during the OBV eXpress bus tour. 14 Birmingham born Hollywood star David Harewood— “The message of the poster WHAT of Black people becoming white is a metaphor for our Parliament and other institutions. If we [the BME community] are not PEOPLE involved, then our diverse dynamism isn’t there and these institutions remain monolithic, bland, and less SAID creative.” Jenny Watson, Chair of Electoral Commission— “Working with Operation Black Vote as part of our registration campaign was fantastic. The ability to reach out directly to under registered groups in innovative ways, like Operation Black Vote’s registration bus and poster campaign, was a great way to make sure the registration message was heard by as many people as possible.” What People SAID 15 Young woman at Fuse ODG concert— Robert Senior, Global head of Sophie Harrowes, Head of outreach, Saatchi & Saatchi— Hammersmith Academy— “I hadn’t really thought about “We are delighted to be “The enthusiasm and involved in such a brilliant engagement was so registering to vote, but the campaign. This embodies palpable and the way in everything we do best at which the students are still importance of it has been Saatchi & Saatchi.” discussing the relative pros made clear to me. So I’m and cons of the candidates and the political parties Sam Gymiah MP, former Minister going to do it.” for Constitutional Reform— several hours after the hustings talk is quite Young man at Fuse ODG concert— “The Government is extraordinary. We couldn’t particularly pleased to be more delighted at the “I saw OBV were launching work on voter registration effect it’s had and I really with such an excellent hope that it has a long-term a new voting App, which body as OBV.” impact in terms of their engagement with their is great for our generation communities, democracy, because that’s the technology fundamental rights and ultimately the realisation that we use today.” that they can all step up and be leaders and play a BBC radio presenter Dotun Adebayo— role in politics.” “The black vote pushed David Rt. Hon. Sadiq Khan MP— Cameron first past the post.” “OBV continues to be a brilliant beacon for hope Phil Bunyan, 24-year-old from a white, working-class background in and equality.” Dorset, learning his trade as butcher at Waltham Forest College— Tim Farrron MP, Leader of the “I never really felt there was Liberal Democrats— any point in voting. But now “OBV will help us be a truly more inclusive political I’d like to think my vote party.” counts for something.” 16 CONCLUSION AND NEXT STEPS Conclusion AND next steps 17 With your help our most pressing work is now to ensure the Government delivers on its promise for greater race equality and opportunity for the UK’s BME communities. This will require long and hard engagement with various Government departments, agencies e achieved our goals: the significant increase in and local authorities. the number of BME individuals who registered to vote and then voted in the 2015 General Election; raising the issue of race inequality higher on the W agendas of the main political parties. But possibly the more important success has been the tens of thousands of people who now believe that they can play a part in improving their lives and those of their families and communities through political empowerment. We also know the importance of reversing many young people’s negative attitudes towards our democracy, ranging from apathy to hostility. We now seek to address this by creating and delivering a comprehensive active citizenship campaign, as well as a political empowerment education package to schools and colleges. Furthermore, we aim to deliver a number of leadership programmes to nurture the next generation of BME leaders for local authorities and other civic institutions.

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