Securing the Win:
How CLYDE’s Two-Pronged Media Strategy Led to Victory for California’s App-Based Drivers.
P R O P 2 2
01 ⎹ Challenge
CLYDE joined the Yes on Prop 22 ballot initiative campaign as media strategist in July 2020—mere months before election day. Public polling indicated that the battle for Prop 22 was tight, with a quarter of the electorate remaining undecided. (Source) Crafting and executing a media strategy that would connect with those undecided voters would be essential to winning at the ballot box.
The stakes were high: if Prop 22 were to fail, California’s delivery and rideshare app companies would face a wave of debilitating regulations, posing an existential threat to their ability to continue operating in the state. Passing Prop 22 was critical to keeping these companies in California and protecting the flexibility that their drivers wanted, while also providing historic new benefits, including an earnings floor and access to healthcare benefits.
We started with two key research insights:
Drivers were overwhelmingly supportive of Prop 22. Rideshare and delivery drivers wanted to remain independent contractors and knew that Prop 22 would protect their freedom to work independently.
Voters wanted to support drivers. Voters ultimately wanted to support a model that would provide the flexibility that drivers wanted with the additional benefits included in Prop 22.
02 ⎹ Strategy
We saw our opening: to win, we’d need to educate voters about what California’s community of delivery and rideshare drivers truly wanted. Combining our media relations experience with our strategic messaging prowess, CLYDE developed a media relations strategy that…
Elevated drivers’ voices. Dozens of app-based drivers supportive of Prop 22 were media trained, pitched to the press, and supported with talking points. They were encouraged to use their own personal stories, showing the human impact of Prop 22 and providing deeper, more compelling context to contrast with an opposition campaign that distorted the reality of flexibility and relied on inaccurate data to represent drivers’ preferences.
Used external data to paint a compelling picture: CLYDE heavily promoted a wealth of facts and economic data points from third-party validators, such as nonpartisan government entities, research firms, and academic institutions. From this data, our team crafted an overwhelmingly convincing narrative that demonstrated the concrete ways that Prop 22 would benefit app-based drivers’ wages, benefits, protections, and more. Additionally, our campaign promoted survey data of rideshare drivers, which reflected their overwhelming support for Prop 22.
03 ⎹ Impact
A commanding victory. When the dust settled, it wasn’t close: Proposition 22 passed with an overwhelming 59% of the vote.
25 editorial board endorsements. CLYDE’s media strategy won endorsements from 25 newspaper editorial boards across California—including 17 of the 21 largest circulation papers in the state.
10,000+ mentions in California press alone between August 1 and Election Day. CLYDE’s media strategy drove thousands of mentions in the California press. Hundreds of longform articles included quotes from Yes on Prop 22’s drivers and spokespeople, while CLYDE’s Geoff Vetter did more than 150 on-the-record and background interviews alone. The campaign also fielded inquiries from major national outlets such as CNN, NYT, WSJ, as well as international outlets like BBC, AFP, and Ouest-France.