Prêt à Voter

Read the campaign story

Solar Impulse Foundation and Publicis Conseil launched Prêt à Voter in France in July 2022. The name means ready to vote. Rather than only describing environmental technologies, the initiative organised proposed changes into a form that could be considered within a legislative process. The campaign’s distinctive object was a set of prepared proposals, supported by print, outdoor and social communication.

D&AD’s account describes fifty proposals and credits Publicis Conseil and Prodigious. Contemporary campaign documentation establishes the 2022 timing, while later awards are retrospective. The case does not treat a published draft as an adopted law, nor does it repeat outcome claims without examining the relevant legislative record. The communication mechanism can be understood independently of whether any particular proposal ultimately became policy.

Editorial interpretation: the work addresses a gap between knowing and doing. A person may agree that a problem matters while lacking the time, format or expertise to evaluate a solution. Preparing a useful artefact can reduce that burden. The creative contribution lies partly in understanding what the next stage requires. In other settings, that might be a clear maintenance checklist, an implementation brief or a tested onboarding guide rather than another persuasive headline.

Editorial interpretation: making a proposal easier to use should not make it harder to question. A polished document can create an impression that the difficult work has already been settled. A responsible adaptation exposes assumptions, evidence, trade-offs and authorship. The recipient should remain able to reject or revise it. The useful principle is reducing avoidable preparation work, not removing judgement, scrutiny or the responsibility of the person who makes the final decision.

Study the next decision’s actual requirements

Before producing a communication asset, ask what information and format the recipient needs to evaluate the proposed action. Identify the work currently being left to them. A useful document may need cost assumptions, dependencies and alternatives rather than a more compelling introduction. This approach can be applied to ordinary service and operational decisions without copying the campaign’s political setting.

Package evidence and uncertainty together

Keep supporting material close to the recommendation. Distinguish established facts, estimates and choices that require professional judgement. Explain who prepared the work and what review it has received. A ready-to-use format should make scrutiny easier, not hide qualifications in an appendix. Where legal or technical interpretation is involved, qualified review is part of the deliverable rather than a final cosmetic check.

Measure whether the artefact reduces useful work

Ask recipients to perform the relevant evaluation task with and without the prepared material. Record time saved, missing information and errors, not merely whether they like its appearance. A draft that speeds a poor decision is not successful. Look for improved understanding of options and constraints, and retain a clear process for correction as underlying conditions change.

A small test for another brief

Proposed test: a small service team could turn a recurring internal request into a review-ready brief containing the evidence, costs, alternatives and next steps needed for an ordinary operational decision.

Compare evaluation time, clarification requests and missed constraints. Ask reviewers whether they can explain why they would accept, modify or reject the proposal. Treat acceptance rate as secondary to decision quality.

Stop if the template conceals uncertainty, implies approval that has not been given or substitutes for required legal or technical review. Do not equate distribution of a proposal with implementation.

• Choose a low-risk internal process, such as approving a maintenance schedule.
• Prepare a neutral template with explicit assumptions and room for objections.
• Ask colleagues to evaluate matched examples using the old and new formats.