Date: May 11, 2023

After the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in summer 2022, all attention turned to state-based fights to protect a person’s right to access safe, legal abortion services. GPS played a role in helping Kansas reject a state constitutional amendment restricting abortion and helping elect other pro-choice candidates up and down the ballot across the country. 

This April, GPS was proud to work with A Better Wisconsin Together (ABWT) to protect abortion rights and other rights pivotal to our Democracy by shifting the balance of the Wisconsin Supreme Court through the defeat of Dan Kelly.

GPS engaged in an extended digital advertising campaign to educate Wisconsin voters on Dan Kelly’s record and the importance of the election. Through a partnership with People First, we connected with Influencers to reach young voters (ages 18-35). These peer-to-peer style videos reached over 160,000 individuals and had a 6.19% engagement rate. 

Most exciting about this program was our ability to talk to young voters in language they use and understand. Across 23 Influencer posts, 92% of comments were positive with many voters expressing appreciation for the creator for speaking out on such important issues. 

In addition to our Influencer program, our digital advertising extended across targeted channels of distribution. GPS served over 89 million video impressions in Wisconsin, reaching 11.5 million unique devices, with targeting focused on outreach to pro-choice, Black, and Hispanic voters. GPS also focused on heavy search presence, maintaining an 87% impression share on Dan Kelly’s name throughout the general election.

This unique and multifaceted program worked. On April 4, 2023, voters turned out in record-breaking numbers to support the pro-choice candidate. Janet Protasiewicz won by ten points, and for the first time in 15 years, liberals won control of the Wisconsin Supreme Court.