YES23
This year I ran part of the YES23 campaign for an Indigenous Voice to Parliament. We were invited to pitch as the no-vote camp started taking over in the polls. This led to six weeks where we worked teams in shifts over 14-hour days, 7 days a week.
Pitching scripts we’d written hours before to the Prime Minister, and re-shooting stuff with 48 hours till air due to attacks from the no camp.
Whilst The Voice didn’t get up, I am proud of the work. Below is a snapshot.
This was written on a Saturday, approved the next Monday, and on-air the following Sunday. In a campaign of misinformation and noise, we aimed to bring back this vote to what it was at its core- the human right to of be listened to.
Even with a $50k budget, we managed to get a fantastic First Nations director Jordan Watton to come on board. We were recce-ing the location the morning of the shoot. Editing whilst on set. Then two days before it was due to go live, the focus group sentiment shifted, the no camp came out with an attack and we had to change tack.
What I had to quickly learn running this campaign was to always have something in your back pocket. ‘Will I’ was just that. We managed to get this ready to air in 48 hours, along with 300 other OOH, digital, and print assets.
Two weeks out from the vote, with the No camp amping up their lies and Trump-style tactics, we were asked to flip the tone and land a gut punch about the outcome of a No vote.