Midterms: Networks Lean In to Get Voters to the Poll

With midterms on Tuesday, many networks and companies have ramped up voting initiatives to get viewers to the polls.

MTV, Postmates and #VoteTogether partnered up to sponsor MTV’s +1 the Vote initiative, the net’s first midterm elections campaign. The groups are funding parties at the polls in all 50 states in an effort to supercharge youth participation, and Postmates is delivering pizza to the parties around the country. The night will end with a an MTV Election After-party in Miami.

Google changed its logo to “Go Vote” and included a link to find a user’s polling place.

Univision’s “Vota Conmingo” (Vote with Me) campaign helps educate the Hispanic community about where and how to vote in the upcoming midterm elections.

Telemundo also launched a nationwide Latino empowerment campaign, Somos El Futuro: The Future is US. The initiative went on a cross-country Community Empowerment Tour to inform and provide resources to consumers on opportunities to register to vote. The net also partnered with Hispanic-serving organizations such as Voto Latina and Mi Familia Vota to reach millions of US Latinos across platforms to help make voter registration easy and accessible.

HBO is going all in on the second half of its election campaign, launched on Tuesday. The net initially kicked it off on National Voter Registration Day with a silent video, and now announced it partnered with Rock the Vote to release a video featuring HBO talent urging people to get out and vote. “Voting is one of the most important rights we have as American citizens,” said HBO’s vp of brand and marketing Jason Mulderig. “Not only are we using our platforms and talent relationships to remind our audience that their collective voices have more impact than our own, we are also curating a collection of our most relevant documentary stories that explore some of the complex issues facing Americans today.”

Continuing the trend of encouraging younger people to vote, Freeform teamed up with media company ATTN: for the campaign “March to the Polls.” The net ran a series of PSAs targeting millennial and Gen Z voters featuring Freeform stars.

“At Freeform, our storytelling and our brand are representative of all the issues that young adults face today,” svp for marketing, creative and branding Tricia Melton told Cablefax . “Our brand further extends the conversation around these topics outside of our series. While our audience cares about these issues, data tells us that millennials haven’t been highly engaged when it comes to voting. We partnered with ATTN: to develop a campaign that speaks to our audience in a humorous way and captures their attention. Our fans are loving our campaign and are really happy that we and are stars are using our platform for good. Much of the younger end of our demo is still forming their own identity, including their political identity. We want our audience to know that whether they are of voting age or not, they have a voice and a platform and they should use it.”