The Voice Referendum Media Support

 

Client

Australian Electoral Commission Northern Territory and Six O’Clock Advisory

Service

Public relations and media support

In-house support

True North Strategic Communication was engaged in partnership with Melbourne-based media agency Six O’Clock Advisory, to provide media services to the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) NT during the 2023 Voice Referendum campaign.

This is the fifth time True North has provided media services for AEC for a polling event.

True North provided media support over 4 months in the lead up to the referendum. Our role involved developing a media strategy and liaising with the national AEC media team and Six O’Clock Advisory to ensure a coordinated approach to managing local media.

True North was responsible for writing materials such as media alerts and media releases, pitching stories, coordinating media interviews, organising and managing local and remote media events and coordinating and managing media on polling day.

True North also provided an in-house resource to AEC to support internal and external communication at its Darwin office. This work involved:

  • implementing AEC’s internal communication strategy

  • managing region-specific media enquiries as part of the AEC national media team

  • developing and localising media talking points

  • providing support to manage, coordinate and execute True North’s media strategy

  • providing media support and coordination to the AEC’s Indigenous Engagement and Participation Program team

  • coordinating state-based advertising

  • providing general communication and media support to the AEC NT executive team.

Challenges

AEC is responsible for providing the Australian people with an independent electoral service and is required to be politically and issue-neutral throughout all aspects of its operation. True North applied strategic consideration and took great care to maintain this stance across the work completed as part of this project, especially given the higher level of process scrutiny occurring over the referendum.

What our client said

“True North has provided high level media and PR support to the AEC in the NT across numerous electoral events. The team are always responsive, delivering agreed services but also thinking outside the box and looking for opportunities to support AEC messaging to Territorians. Our partnership to date has been incredibly successful and we look forward to working with Elena and the team into the future.

Thanks Elena and team, great job!”

- Geoff Bloom, Territory Manager

Northern Territory Office, Australian Electoral Commission

 
 

Outcomes

  • 59 individual pieces of earned media achieved across print, TV, radio and digital platforms
  • 71 syndications nationally
  • 4 local media events held and well attended
  • 1 remote media event organised, held and attended.
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