Turning Fan Engagement into Voter Action with HeadCount and Propeller
Voters expect every online experience to be as personalized as e-commerce and social media sites, and TurboVote is no exception. Our vision extends beyond merely increasing turnout for a single election; it’s about nurturing a sense of civic duty that transforms first-time and occasional voters into habitual, lifelong participants. In 2024, we introduced new user engagement tracking on TurboVote, providing real-time alerts for our partners and defining a new standard for engagement.
A collaboration with two long-time TurboVote partners, Propeller and HeadCount, demonstrated the power of these offerings to engage and empower voters.
Propeller is an impact marketing company that powers social impact campaigns for the world’s biggest artists, festivals, brands and other cultural leaders. Fans sign up to take action on a campaign with their favorite talent via Propeller, and enter to win a prize offered by talent. Propeller users can earn points for signing up for TurboVote.
HeadCount is a 501(c)(3) organization that drives participation in democracy through music, pop culture, and digital creators. They meet young voters where they are — at concerts and online — to engage in a fan-to-fan conversation and talk about democracy. They strive to continue the conversation with multiple points of contact through Election Day to turn out voters, many of whom are entering the democratic process for the first time.
In 2024, HeadCount and Propeller joined forces on a pilot project to drive voting-related actions to a base of users that were largely unregistered to vote. This program occurred both within the Propeller platform and through email and text chasers.
Here’s how it worked: in an existing Propeller campaign, fans signed a petition from a nonprofit (for example, the Human Rights Campaign) to enter for a chance to meet their dream artist (in this case, Chappell Roan), and after entering, users were invited to check their voter registration status on Propeller via HeadCount’s TurboVote embed.
With TurboVote’s new user engagement tracking, HeadCount received real-time alerts every time a user checked their registration status to enable their further outreach to get out the vote. Propeller was able to automatically reward points to users on their platform that could be used for extra entries, merch, and donations to drive more engagement.
“Democracy Works’s innovations enabled us to more seamlessly credit users for taking action on our platform. Together, our work with HeadCount led to hundreds of thousands of voter actions,” said Ben Kroetz, COO of Propeller.
Across 70 campaigns, HeadCount and Propeller generated 330,417 actions and 53,983 voter registrations. Further, Propeller’s paid ad program generated a higher conversion rate relative to other paid promotions on HeadCount campaigns, showing the potential for additional opportunities to engage fans in upcoming election years.
This successful collaboration between Democracy Works, HeadCount, and Propeller demonstrates how integrating voter engagement into existing fan communities and reward systems can drive meaningful civic participation. By combining HeadCount's expertise in reaching young voters through culture, Propeller's innovative rewards platform, and TurboVote's enhanced capabilities, the partnership created multiple touchpoints to engage potential voters and convert their interest into action.
As we look toward future elections, this model shows promise for scaling voter outreach and registration efforts while building lasting habits of civic engagement among music fans.
