Text reminders a winner with young Scottish voters

Just had this tip in from Alastair at Txtlocal:

TxtLocal is celebrating the recent success of its text reminder campaign for the Electoral Reform Society (ERS) Scotland, targeted at prospective voters in the May local council elections. Promoted in The Scottish Sun before the elections, the campaign was aimed at young voters in particular and highlighted the introduction of the new Single Transferable Vote in Scotland.

Another great use of SMS, and shows that the world of politics is getting quite tech-savvy lately. They also gave all participants the chance to win a ‘Voteswagon’ VW Golf.

David Orr, Scottish Youth and Campaigns Officer with ERS Scotland said: ‘Our research suggested that text reminders are far more likely to encourage young people to vote in an election than a variety of other more traditional methods, including radio, television and billboard advertising.”

Now that is a good soundbite, and possibly a useful statistic to quote if you’re doing business currently (or planning to in the future) with anyone in the world of politics.