Not even afraid. For a week, the people of Lille have seen strange visuals appear on the municipal billboards of their city. Little cats, a sad man, a frightened child or even the Joey from “Friends”. Pictures that everyone knows have become memes on the Internets. The municipality’s rather successful bet was to use them to encourage residents to register on the electoral rolls.
This communication campaign inspired by social networks is causing a lot of talk on these same social networks. “The mayor wanted to put the means to inform citizens that they could still register on the lists and that it was not that difficult”, explains Sébastien Duhem, deputy in charge of citizen participation.
A 77% increase in registrations in five days
As offbeat as it may be, the orientation of this campaign did not come out of the head of advertisers but indeed of the city’s communication service. “We wanted to leave the beaten track a bit and go further than a classic campaign. This proposal, the mayor found it particularly interesting because it speaks to everyone, not to young people, ”says the deputy.
In addition to the famous memes plastered on 150 billboards in the city, a van crisscrosses the neighborhoods to inform and even register people who wish to on the electoral rolls. “Many people learn thanks to this operation that we can still register until the end of March and that the process is simple and fast,” insists Sébastien Duhem. And it works. In December, only 72 people had registered on the lists in Lille, against 128 over the first five days of the communication campaign.
For Martine Aubry, it is also a way to fight against abstention which reached dramatic levels in the last elections, especially in Lille: 30.4% in the second round of the 2017 presidential election, 54.18% in the Europeans from 2019, 69.94% to the regional ones from 2021… “We do not proselytize against abstention. In the pre-election period, we must remain cautious if we do not want to be accused of making recovery, “admits the deputy.