Don't forget Sweden

Something old and something new. The latest campaign by Swedish political party Moderaterna combined modern video personalisation technology with physical direct mail to reach out to Swedes living abroad. They partnered with SEEN to create innovative and personalised videos that speak to each recipient one-on-one. 

History shows that electoral participation is lower among Swedes living abroad. In 1979, there was only a difference of 8,000 votes between the blocks - and votes from abroad actually ended up deciding the election. In the 2018 election, only 40% of the Swedes living abroad cast their vote.

Ulf Kristersson, the Moderaterna party leader, wanted to remind all Swedes living abroad just how much of an impact they have when casting their vote. And they are doing just that, with the help of personalised video. 

Goal: Create a personal and unique way to encourage Swedes living abroad to vote in the upcoming 2022 election.

Challenge: The challenge of speaking personally to all Swedes living abroad seems like a tough one. Especially when only about 160,000 of the expected total of 700,000 are addressable and registered to vote.  

Moderaterna wanted to find a new approach to increase participation. They needed a campaign that reminded Swedes living abroad just how impactful their vote can be, and it needed to be more effective than regular direct mail. That’s where SEEN and personalised video comes into the picture.

Solution: Rather than sending out traditional letters asking them to vote, Moderaterna has combined both physical and digital media. Each personalised video message is included in the physical letter sent to voters. The video can be easily accessed by the recipients by scanning the QR code in the letter through their mobile phones. 

Thanks to the power of video personalisation, Moderaterna's leader ー Ulf Kristersson ーpersonally greets 160,000 Swedes who are living abroad and calls them to vote and make a difference for Sweden. 

The message of the video is simple: "We want you to vote in the election." The video opens with a personal “Hello” from Ulf Kristersson speaking the recipient’s name, and referring to their new country of residence. The video then moves into a more in-depth message talking about Sweden's success and challenges. The recipient is even served a personalised cup of coffee by Ulf Kristersson himself. The video also showcases beautiful scenes from Sweden, and a banner being carried by a plane that says “Your vote is needed Jane/John Doe”.  The video closes with Ulf Kristersson inviting the recipient to vote, saying "...remember, Sweden needs you."

Each recipient also has the opportunity to request for a personalised video to be sent to a friend by filling out a form on the landing page.

The fact that the video combines physical (direct mail) and digital media (personalised video) makes it especially creative; it creates an exciting way to reach out to so many people all at once! Even better, it enables each recipient to receive a tailored, impactful message that would not be possible otherwise. 

The result? 159,000 Swedes living abroad have received a personal greeting from the Moderaterna party leader ーUlf Kristersson.

Roughly one month after the first letters were sent out, over 13,000 people have engaged with the campaign (Unique IP-addresses). An impressive result when compared to the 68 000 Swedes from abroad that voted in the previous election. 

The referral functionality, where original recipients could tip a friend, has delivered a 65% click-through rate, and out of the users that ended up accessing their landing page 87% viewed their video, many of them several times (The average times viewed is 3.6).
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Moderaterna has received a lot of positive feedback from its recipients, indicating how effective communicating with data-driven, personalised video can be:

“Hi Ulf! I just received a letter from you with a link to a film for us Swedes that live abroad. The movie was nicely done and felt personal whilst delivering a clear message! I will share it with all Swedish expats I know”

“I thank you for the wonderful and personal video I received. It made me and my family very happy”

The campaign generated a lot of media for Moderaterna, and has been featured in Expressen, Resumé, Kom24 and was also showcased on TV4 by political expert commentator Marcus Oscarsson.