Resource Type: Experiments

Have you ever heard the old(ish) adage, “Culture eats strategy for breakfast?” For well-designed campaigns, it need not be an “either/or.” This webinar explored ideas around cultural strategy: what it is; how it dovetails with strengthening narrative capacity; and how organizations can integrate cultural elements into their campaign work.

In the lead up to the 2018 election, Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) worked with the Analyst Institute to test the effectiveness of environmental and social pressure messages to increase voter turnout among their members. They also tested which mode of contact was most effective at increasing voter turnout: mail, SMS, or both. Results form the tests found:

The GOTV efforts increased voter turnout by 0.4 percentage points.
Both messages increased voter turnout, with suggestive evidence that the social pressure message was more effective.
All three modes of contact (mail, SMS, or both) led to increased voter turnout. Layering SMS and mail did not seem more effective then mail and SMS alone.