Grayling to lure voters in London Mayor elections

by Matt Cartmell, PR Week UK 17-Jan-08, 07:00

Grayling is to spearhead a PR drive to increase turnout in the forthcoming London mayoral elections.

The Electoral Commission and London Elects have called in Grayling after a three-way pitch to raise awareness of the elections of the Mayor of London and the London Assembly on 1 May. The account is worth £52,000. London Elects is an independent body in charge of organising the elections, funded by the Greater London Authority.

Turnout for the last mayoral elections in June 2004 was around 37 per cent. Although there is no fixed target, the politically neutral campaign is seeking to encourage voter registration in a bid to better that. It also aims to increase understanding of how to take part on the day.

The Electoral Commission has identified young people, those who have recently moved and minority groups as less likely to vote.

Grayling will target communities on days such as Chinese New Year and Commonweath Day. Outer-London voters will also be specifically targeted.

Electoral Commission head of campaigns and public information Nina Ziaullah said: ‘A lot of people don't know you need to register to vote. People think they've paid council tax so they must be on the Electoral Register. ‘We need to reach all those groups .'

Grayling will handle all proactive comms through media relations, event management and stakeholder comms, while the London Elects and Electoral Commission in-house teams will retain responsibility for day-to-day reactive comms.

The campaign will be launched next Tuesday with a photo call outside City Hall.

The Green Party recently called in PR agency Global Tolerance to aid its mayoral candidate.