In preparation for the 2024 election, Communication for Change (C4C) designed and ran a campaign for Transparency International Indonesia (TII) aimed at encouraging young people to care about the issue of non-transparency in political party funding. The campaign was titled Kamu Bersih Aku Pilih (If You’re Clean, I’ll Vote), and ran from May 23, 2022 to July 26, 2022 (65 days). The campaign targeted young internet users who were not actively following political issues, so we used paid advertising to disseminate campaign materials to people who were not followers of TII's social media accounts.
Within the short time span, Kamu Bersih Aku Pilih successfully delivered the message about intransparency in political party funding to young people who tended to be apathetic towards this institution.

Introducing the issue to the apathetic

Before starting the campaign, in November 2021 we conducted a baseline survey of internet users aged 18–33 years. Our survey found that 32% of respondents did not know the sources of income for political parties. Of those who claimed to know, 35% incorrectly assumed that the main source of political party funds was government subsidies. In addition, 37% of respondents admitted to not knowing whether there were legal provisions governing party funding reports.

Although many respondents aged 18–33 years did not know enough about party funding sources and reporting rules, 53% believed that intransparency in political party funding was one of the causes of corruption. Unfortunately, many still felt reluctant (36%) and did not want to answer (47%) if they were considered to be a group demanding change.

This apathy may come from the distrust towards political parties. Therefore, this campaign was designed to target those who are apathetic to make them believe that they have the power to change the situation when almost all political parties are not yet transparent in disclosing their funding sources.

Consequently, the campaign must reach those who are outside the echo chamber. The echo chamber in question is inhabited by those who are enthusiastic about following the development of political parties or efforts to eradicate political corruption. This is why the campaign heavily relied on utilizing social media ads to break out the echo chamber.

Paid ads successfully reach audiences outside the echo chamber, however participations were limited
To spread campaign materials outside the echo chamber, the campaign used several paid ads on the Meta social media network, which includes Instagram and Facebook. These paid ads took the form of videos that appeared on users’ timelines with links that would take them to the kamubersihakupilih.id website. The site displays facts about party funding report regulations, a list of parties that have uploaded funding reports, and an invitation for visitors to take action, like downloading funding source reports or demanding that parties upload their funding reports.

Overall, this series of ads was seen by almost 2 million internet users and resulted in the kamubersihakupilih.id homepage viewed 80,446 times by 78,180 visitors. Participation wise, this campaign got more than 1,600 clicks in the “check which parties have uploaded their report” button, yet only 20 people tweeting to the political party, asking for them to upload their financial report.

The number shows that people are interested in learning about this topic, but it’s still hard to make them move to take action in social media. There are several possible explanation as of why:

• Based on the baseline survey, only 11% of respondents were willing to be part of the group that supports changes in the practice of party funding transparency
• This campaign took place at a time when there was a lot of discussion about the article on insulting the government in the RKUHP and was overshadowed by fears of the ITE Law
• The war between buzzers on social media that has been rampant since the 2014 election could have made them reluctant to be identified as buzzers, or afraid of being attacked by the buzzers of the party they were urging.

We got some lessons learned that you might be able to apply in your campaign with us!

• Take a creative approach to creating messages that make your campaign target the main character. If necessary, make them the hero of their own story.
• Create messages that specifically target the audience over the age of 21. Paid political ads are age-restricted on Meta and Google. Messages that are targeted to those above this age limit will be most effective.
• Provide alternatives to participate. Give the target several options for participating to lower the barrier of entry of joining our campaign.

So, are you ready to apply the less we learned in your campaign? Book your time to consult with us!