Increasing positive mainstream sentiment towards migrants in Mexico
Together with UN OHCHR in Mexico, I ran an experimental project to boost positive sentiment among mainstream audiences – as an alternative to the polarized pro-human rights echo chamber – towards Central American migrants moving through Mexico.
42%
mainstream engagement increase
The situation
Central American migrants are frequently victims of racism, extortion and violence in Mexico, often by security services. This happens in the context of a social media culture where populist media personalities regularly go viral with anti-migrant content.
Anti-migrant YouTube content
The audience
We ran focus groups with representative members of the mainstream audience as well as local rights groups to understand mainstream Mexican sentiment. The key concerns that came up time and again were security, cartel and street gang violence, corruption, impunity and the economy.
This was key to informing new message design. We couldn’t risk being seen to dismiss or reframe these very real concerns without risking alienating potential audiences. So the main UX angle left to us was to connect with this audiences’ compassion. That’s a challenge in a place where people are already compassion fatigued by the violence that’s happening to their own community.
Our strategy therefore was to reignite compassion by connecting the situation of this out-group to our audience’s own experiences, values and social media preferences.
The project
OHCHR Mexico’s social media feed tends to run in-depth analysis and talks on human rights law and political theory; it might work well for a pro-rights audience, but anyone who’s not into already into these issues is unlikely to engage.
We designed several videos to increase engagement with pro-rights content with apolitical mainstream Mexican audiences,
Original UN OHCHR Mexico content
New content
UX Hypothesis 1
Innocence / Parenting choices
This video aims to connect with widespread fear of the frankly terrifying Central American gang, MS13, and to use innovative storytelling to explore the issue in a new way. In this story, migrants (who are traditionally portrayed as victims who lack agency) make enormous sacrifices to safeguard their children.
Seen from the children’s point of view, where the parents’ motives are not understood or appreciated, the video is an understated take on the emotion typically involved with storytelling on such issues.
It aims to let the viewer to fill in the gaps in the story themselves, thereby engaging them more, and solidifying the connection they have with the subjects to a greater extent than a typical tug-on-the-heartstrings narrative would have.
It draws on the shared value of family, and the sacrifices that any parent would make for their children.
New content
UX Hypothesis 2
Mimic content they’re already into
This follows a glossy meme format common to social media, with an easily digestible life lesson. It aims to give users an unarguable feel-good nugget of philosophy, and set up some cognitive dissonance if the ‘unarguable’ nugget is at odds with their own attitudes.
New content
UX Hypothesis 3
Universal Parenting Anxiety
This video aims to connect with the anxieties every parent shares. No matter who we are or where we live, our greatest fear is for our kids’ safety.
It also aims to connect with the philosophical shift that any parent recognizes; parenthood reframes life – we go from life being all about us, to life being all about them.
The aesthetic borrows from the type of feel-good Instagram memes that are common in parenting threads, and in that way, we aim to meet our audience where it’s at. For people who are already interested in parenting content, we hoped that this would hold their attention long enough to get them to the message pivot.
Audience targeting
To reach the maximum optimal persuadable audience, we targeted people using proxy cultural interests that would tend to correlate with a ‘mainstream’ worldview; pop stars, soap operas and so on. And we excluded followers of populist, anti-migrant social media personalities, because it’s expensive and unproductive reaching people who are actively opposed to what you stand for.
Message testing
We tested all the videos with both audiences on Meta – the pro-rights echo chamber and the mainstream apolitical segment – and compared the cost per engagement. (The way paid media works on digital platforms means that cheaper the engagement, the more willing people are to engage with the message, and therefore the better the UX works.)
Results
Up to 42% increase in engagement with the mainstream audience
No increase in media spend