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RUN and FCB Media launch local election campaign
The Electoral Commission has launched its 2025 local election campaign, with independent creative agency RUN Aotearoa leading the creative, strategy, design and production. Meanwhile, media partner FCB Media manages the media strategy, planning and buying.
The campaign features the iconic Orange Guy and Pup, delivering vital enrolment information to more than 4 million New Zealanders.
The campaign, which launched earlier this month, is a nationwide multi-channel initiative. It includes hundreds of assets rolling out across TV, digital, OOH, direct mail, social, radio, print, press, media partnerships and search – running from April 1 until August 2025.
To ensure the campaign resonates with the diverse communities of Aotearoa, stakeholder materials include six te reo Māori dialects, along with English, Samoan, Tongan, Simplified Chinese, Korean and Japanese.
The campaign also uses tailored advertising and stakeholder engagement to improve understanding of the Māori Electoral Option among Māori.
The 2025 campaign builds on RUN and FCB Aotearoa’s previous work for the Electoral Commission. It follows the successful 2023 Māori Electoral Option campaign, which featured The Sandman, artist Marcus Winter (Te Roroa, Ngāpuhi).
RUN co-founders Raymond Otene McKay and Laura Cibilich say: “Leading a campaign of this scale, reaching millions of New Zealanders, is a true privilege.
“Also, being the first independent agency trusted to deliver an election campaign is a milestone we’re incredibly proud of.”
Otene adds: “This campaign carries extra weight in 2025, as it marks 50 years of the Māori Electoral Option – a powerful expression of choice, voice and mana for Māori voters.”
The campaign has a strong kaupapa and trusted characters at its heart. Its goal is to make enrolling to vote in the upcoming local elections easy for every eligible voter in Aotearoa.
