New United We Dream Action ad uses video games to inspire young Latino men to vote ahead of midterms

On Thursday, October 27, United We Dream commissioned a new video game-themed ad targeting young Latino men to encourage them to get out and vote ahead of the midterm elections with Election Day, November 8, in only a few days.

“United We Dream Action is always looking for unique and innovative ways to reach young and Latino voters – who are often overlooked by standard voter engagement tactics. Through our research, we discovered that players want to celebrate the hard things with their friends. Quite simply, the players are always up for the challenge,” UWDA Deputy Director of Communications José Alonso Muñoz said in a press release.

United We Dream Action is one of the nation’s leading national networks led by immigrant youth and allies focused on fighting for dignity and justice. It is a community of many young immigrants who are building generational independent political power for those like them and others who are plagued by injustice.

Muñoz announced the announcement in a tweet.

“If you have the skills, it’s time to get involved!” Excited to share a first look at this new paid video game ad from @UWDAction that will target young Latino men on Youtube encouraging them to vote. It started working yesterday on Youtube in postcodes that are over 70% Latino,” he wrote.

Also in a press release accompanying the announcement is an explanation from Muñoz of his inspiration for this unique idea. He was inspired by his younger brothers, who often play video games online. It has become an avenue to involve them in the elections.

“Two of them are US citizens and of voting age to do this research. I’ve spent a lot of time doing linguistic analysis on platforms used by gamers like Twitch, Discord, Stream and YouTube Additionally, I analyzed video game websites and conducted a series of interviews with gamers to understand how they interact with video games, how they interact with others who play video games, and how the people who create and market these games communicate with players,” Munoz said.

The ad is based on research that was explicitly done on young Latinos and gamers earlier this year and uses 2020 census data to run in predominantly Latino communities and zip codes over 70% Latino.

The research was a collaboration between United We Dream Action and Harmony Labs on Latinx media consumption and immigration encounters. Among the many findings that emerged, the one that inspired this ad was that young Latino men between the ages of 18 and 35 spent a large portion of their time gambling online.

This inspired Muñoz to do his own research on some of the questions he had.

“How do players perceive and make judgments about belonging and community?” was only one.

The results were important findings that were used for the development and analysis of this ad.

More than one million Latinos will turn 18 every year for the next two decades and every 30 seconds, according to a press release from Muñoz. The significance of 18 being that it makes them eligible to vote with around 40% of eligible Latino voters between the ages of 18 and 35, hence the target audience with this gambling ad to encourage them to get involved in the next mid-term.

“We are thrilled to see this announcement come to life through this research. To successfully energize and mobilize more people to vote, we need creative solutions that meet people where they spend time, and it is essential that more resources are invested in these unique approaches to voter engagement to young Latinos,” Muñoz said.

The ad will run on YouTube until Election Day, November 8. You can watch the announcement on their official YouTube channel with the link below.