Head of Data and Volunteering
(AUGUST - OCTOBER 2020) - Lisbon , 🇵🇹
campaign for The presidency of Sport Lisboa e Benfica- João Noronha Lopes 2020 🦅
João Noronha Lopes was completely unknown by the Benfica supporters and going against the sitting president who had been at the club for over 15 years. The campaign was held during the Covid pandemic, which added a massive level of complexity.
The JNL campaign stunned the Benfica world with its boldness and innovation, earning widespread recognition as one of the greatest campaigns in Portugal’s history. Despite the overwhelming public support, our team lost 35% to 60% amidst controversies over unverified digital voting counts. Suspicion of voting irregularities shadowed the victory of incumbent candidate LFV, who was arrested 2 months later. This election saw a record number of voters, with over 38.000 Benfica Sócios participating.
Responsible for CRM NationBuilder (database, website, email communications)
Created from 0 the volunteer structure (ending the campaign with 4.000 volunteers) across Portugal and abroad
Managed the volunteers, by creating a sense of belonging through meetings, volunteer tasks, dedicated events, etc
Responsible for digital lead acquisition strategies
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Volunteering was the main focus of this campaign, we based it on the Benfica fans, the electorate.
I created a volunteer structure from scratch, using multiple tools such as NationBuilder, WhatsApp, our website and ex-Benfica players.
The first step was outlining and creating the entire process of entry for the volunteers: sign up on the website → join our database → receive a welcome email → through the email join the WhatsApp group of your region → start chatting with other volunteers
To make the most of our volunteers, we had to create a sense of belonging. We did that by creating multiple channels, dedicated to them:
Through WhatsApp communication, we were able to create a sense of community
Through our website they had a dedicated section in which they could find campaign materials for them to share (images, filters, videos, stickers, etc)
Through email they received tasks and goals (phonebanking, convince a friend, etc)
Dedicated volunteer events (e.g. Jogo Das Glórias which was a football game between volunteers and ex-Benfica players)
Weekly meetings with surprise guests
The volunteer program was extremely successful, through them we were able to deliver our message to most sócios. We created a movement of over 4.000 fans who helped us immensely during our Get Out The Vote phase by convincing people to go vote and by giving us live updates of each polling station so we could inform our voters of the waiting time in each of them.
