Objectives

theSkimm is a membership company that makes it easier to live smarter. We want to help female millennials make more informed, confident decisions in their lives, and voting is one of those decisions. In 2016, theSkimm launched its nonpartisan "No Excuses" platform to inform and mobilize its highly engaged audience on the issues and candidates running for office. As part of this effort, theSkimm registered 110,00 people to vote, 95,000 of which were women.

Since the inauguration, theSkimm's first and third party research on female millennials has found that 73% of millennial women are dissatisfied with the direction of the country today, and just 46% of female millennials are "absolutely certain" they'll vote in the upcoming midterm elections, which is lower than all other demos. For the 2018 midterms theSkimm is looking to go further and get 100,000 people to actually show up and vote. To do this, theSkimm will provide the information to inspire and empower our audience to participate and activate them by building a platform and and grassroots movement that brings people together and gets them to the polls.

At the heart of this campaign are more than 30,000 Skimm'bassadors, loyal brand representatives, that have been tasked with mobilizing their local communities to make sure they're registered, informed, and get to the polls this November.

Strategy and Execution

This year, theSkimm has built a 360 strategy that takes people from start to finish. Our nonpartisan platform will get people registered, informed, building their ballots, and actually get them to the polls on Election Day. Some of the 2018 campaign, includes:

• In February, theSkimm announced "Millennial Takeover 2018," a partnership with The Hive and SurveyMonkey on a data-driven initiative that traces the interests and likely impact of female millennial voters in advance of the 2018 midterms.
• In April, theSkimm launched a free 2018 Primary Election Calendar to ensure our audience is informed and has No Excuse not to vote this year.
• In July, theSkimm selected 34 squad captains from both sides of the aisle to attend a 2-day Captain Conference in NYC. This nonpartisan, grassroots campaign bootcamp taught Skimm'bassadors how to get their communities registered, educated, and turned out at the polls this year. The captains learned from and asked questions to political experts and influencers from across the aisle, went through organizing training to learn how to get their friends to commit to vote, write mobilization communications, talk about the issues, host small-scale events, and inspire action.
• theSkimm's No Excuses microsite is a one-stop shop to help our audience get informed and to the polls on election day with breakdowns of the most important dates and deadlines by state, primers on this year's key races, the ability to check your registration status and register to vote, find your polling place, and coming soon, the ability to build a personalized ballot cheat sheet.
• theSkimm collaborated with 5 other female-founded brands on limited edition, custom No Excuses branded jewelry and apparel including leggings from Terez, a sweatshirt from Bow & Drape, a gold & silver bangle from Bird and Stone, a crossbody bag and luggage tag from Cuyana and a S'well water bottle. 100% of theSkimm's proceeds from the No Excuses merchandise will be donated to She Should Run.
• On September 25th, theSkimm will work with our Skimm'bassador community to host 50 Sip 'n Skimm the Vote events across the US to bring our community together, celebrate the importance of voting, and get our networks registered to vote on National Voter Registration Day.

Results

In 2016, 92% of Skimm'rs who were aware of the No Excuses campaign voted in the presidential election. Over the course of the 2016 "No Excuses" campaign, theSkimm registered more than 110,000 people to vote, more than 2x Facebook's impact. 95,000 of them were women. These results made theSkimm one of Rock the Vote's largest partners.

As part of the 2018 No Excuses campaign, this year we're going bigger and want to get 100,000 people to actually show up and use their voice at the ballot box. Ahead of the campaign's launch on September 5th, theSkimm has received more than 15,000+ opt-ins from our audience to join the No Excuses campaign and get people to the polls. This campaign is aimed at eliminating all the excuses people have when it comes to why they don't vote. It's time to change expectations. It's time to show up.

Media