civic actions speak louder than words

Sustained Success

Change The Ref has a relentless mission: gun law reform. The best way to achieve that? Move gun reform advocates from social media enraged to civically engaged. We equipped an army of advocates with simple digital tools for targeting demands to specific lawmakers in a way that couldn’t be ignored. Shamecards, Shock Market and The Shotline drove 10.2B earned media impressions, a +33% increase in gun violence conversation, and a 539% increase in civic engagement. 5K postcards, 45K tweets, 170K calls to Congress and @POTUS. All with just $13,000. Because real civic actions speak so much louder than words.

The Challenge: Generate simple but powerful forms of civic engagement to demand gun law reform in the US.

The Insight: The best tools to get civically engaged and reach representatives are usually thesimplest: mail, calls and DMs.

The Idea: Civic actions speak louder than words: Equip people with the tools to exert direct, targeted, impossible-to-ignore pressure on lawmakers. 

Bringing the Idea to Life: Shamecards, Shock Market and The Shotline: evergreen tools for civic engagement that target lawmakers in ways they can’t ignore.

Results: 539% increase in civic engagement: 5K postcards, 45K tweets, 170K+ calls. 10.2B earned impressions, 33% increase in conversation.