O2 uses mobile technology to encourage Big Brother generation to vote April 19, 2005 by Jennifer Whitehead .
RevolutionMagazine
LONDON - The
'Big Brother' generation is being targeted via their mobile phones in a new campaign by O2 to encourage young people to vote.
The campaign is being backed by the Electoral Commission and will see a new election site appearing on the O2 Wap portal. It will tell people how to vote, how to find their polling station, how to obtain a postal vote and answer other common questions.
Figures routinely show that more people vote in reality television programmes such as 'Big Brother' than in local elections, and even in the last General Election in 2001 voter turnout was at an all-time low of 59%. Research shows that the turnout for the coming election, to be held on May 5, may fall even further.
The figures are even worse for the youth vote, with research by O2 showing that only 38% users of the O2 Active portal, who tend to be aged around 18 to 24, intend to vote.
Becky Lloyd, campaigns manager at the Electoral Commission, said: "It's important that we communicate with the younger electorate in particular through a medium with which they are comfortable and familiar, and mobile phones are a good way of doing this."
The Electoral Commission is running its own advertising campaign, created by St Luke's, to encourage people to vote by highlighting all of the areas that are affected by politics.
Involvement in politics is not unprecedented for O2, which hosted a live mobile phone text chat with Prime Minister Tony Blair in November last year. Members of the public submitted questions in advance by text, and were also able to ask questions in real time, via a mobile phone chat room -- the first time a UK Prime Minister has used texting to communicate directly with the public.
Russ Shaw, marketing director at O2, said: "The Electoral Commission is trying to increase participation in the general election. O2 Active provides a perfect mechanism for doing so by putting a simple tool for learning more into the pockets of 3.8m people."
