Voters urged to #StandUp4Farmers in a new campaign for NSW Farmers via Icon Agency

Melbourne based Icon Agency has launched a grass-roots campaign for NSW Farmers giving country voters a voice and an opportunity to rate their politician ahead of the upcoming state election on March 28.

The digitally-led campaign #StandUp4Farmers has generated over 134,000 Twitter impressions and more than 17,000 page views on the campaign website standupforfarmers.com.au since launching in mid February.

Much of the traffic has been to the campaign’s ‘Rate your Pollie’ tool, with over 2000 people ranking their member’s performance with a score out of 10.  

Icon Agency managing director, Joanne Painter, said #StandUp4Farmers was a breakthrough campaign for rural and regional Australia. 

Says Painter: “#StandUp4Farmers is a disruptive, bottom-up digital and social media campaign that gives rural and regional voters a powerful platform in the lead up to the state election.

“It was important that the campaign empowered voters by letting them rate their local member and share the results on Facebook and Twitter. This combination of digital polling, social media and grass roots events is what gives the campaign its edge.

“#StandUp4Farmers taps into the fundamental human need to be heard and acknowledged. As we’ve seen in Victoria and more recently in Queensland, there is a growing sense of disenfranchisement among rural and regional voters.”

#StandUp4Farmers gives NSW voters a simple and sharable way for them to ‘shout out and be heard’ in Macquarie Street. 

Says Veneta Chapple, director of public affairs at NSW Farmers Association: “#StandUpForFarmers has given people in the bush a larger voice and made them feel empowered which is very important when you feel physically isolated from the political decision-making process.

“Our campaign is setting a benchmark in the Australian agriculture sector for election campaigns and more importantly it has enabled us to engage with new audiences and demographics across the state.

“Most importantly, for the bush, the campaign puts all sitting MPs and candidates in the election on notice: country NSW will not be overlooked.”

Rather than relying on paid media, the campaign uses PR, digital, social media, events, local activations and grass roots activism to drive awareness and engagement. 

The campaign generated almost 30 media clips, including across metro print, radio, TV, online and bloggers, reaching over 2 million people in just 10 days.