GPS-targeted ads will find students and encourage them to vote

8 months ago

Text messages will be sent to students’ smartphones as soon as they set foot on to their university campus reminding them to register to vote ahead of the general election on May 7.

The scheme has been set up by the Electoral Commission which is working with phone operators EE, O2 and Vodafone.

It is the first time the commission has used mobile advertising in such a way, directly targeting tens of thousands of students.

The technology behind the scheme sees various campuses added to a “geo-fenced system”. When a smartphone user’s GPS identifies them as being inside that area the message will be triggered, it was explained in The Times.

The actual message will ask the user to register to vote and include a link to the Electoral Commission’s voter registration page.

Facebook is also being used to target younger voters.

Michael Abbott, head of campaigns at the Election Commission, said: “It’s vital that with the general election falling in term time that we encourage students to register to vote at their term time address if that’s where they intend to vote.

“The Commission continues to use different technologies and platforms to get its registration message across to students and young people. This is the first time that we’ve used mobile advertising; and our continued partnership with Facebook builds on the successful campaigns we ran for last year’s referendum and on National Voter Registration Day this year.”

How people register to vote changed last year. Rather than one person fill in details for the rest of the property as head of a household, everyone has to register separately.

Analysis of the electoral registers found that university towns and cities had larger falls in the number of people added to their registers compared with other places.

The system is being rolled out at some of the biggest universities in the country including Sheffield, Nottingham and Lancaster.

The deadline for voter registration is April 20. To sign up, click here if you live in England, Wales or Scotland. The system is a bit different in Northern Ireland, so residents there need to use this form instead.