The AEC launches a new Facebook app to encourage young Aussies to vote via Pixolüt

Pixolüt has partnered with the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) and Facebook on an Enrol to Vote initiative, aimed at encouraging young Australians to enrol to vote, or update their enrolment details, so they can vote at the upcoming federal election.

With over 12 million Australians active on Facebook, the AEC is leveraging the social platform to connect with and engage all Australians – particularly young adults – to promote awareness and encourage participation in the federal election.

The AEC recognises that what young people want is important and has worked with Facebook and Pixolüt to create a Facebook application to deliver the message – Youth Votes Matter.

The AEC, Facebook and Sydney based digital agency Pixolüt, worked together to develop the concept for the app.

The app was built by Pixolüt using the platform, Campaign Social. Pixolüt is a Facebook Preferred Marketing Developer (PMD) for Apps, and has launched more than 400 social campaigns. Pixolüt offers valuable insight and expertise on how to best design and create Facebook applications to effectively communicate with a given audience.

Joe Cincotta, Pixolüt’s managing director, is excited to see social being leveraged in a way that empowers people.

Says Cincotta: “Social is a hugely valuable tool that can positively impact society. With this elections app, it encourages young people to have a voice. It’s a great example of how social can empower society.”

Says Mia Garlick, Facebook’s head of communications: “Every day on Facebook, we see how small acts of sharing and connecting can have a big impact. By spreading awareness about the need for people to enrol and encouraging them to share this with their friends, we believe that this initiative will help increase enrolment, particularly among 18-24 year olds.”

In the UK, Facebook and the UK Electoral Commission partnered on a Register to Vote initiative that ran over 7 days, which saw an extra 14,000 Enrollment forms downloaded and a significant spike in traffic to the UK Electoral Commission’s website from Facebook.

In the US, researchers lead by a team from the University of California, San Diego found that a voting prompt on Facebook lead to an extra 340,000 people voting.