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Service-Based Case StudyService-Based Case Study

General Election Candidate

Policy Is Rarely Made for the Feed. Our Job Was to Change That.

Harsha de Silva campaign cover illustration with Sri Lankan landmarks and flag
What we deliveredWhat we delivered

Department

Content Marketing

Service

  • (004)Personal Branding

Department

Production

Service

  • (022)Photography
  • (021)Videography
Campaign content displayed on a phone with identifying details obscured

Overview

Building the Person Behind the Policy.

In 2024, Sri Lanka faced one of its most difficult general election cycles. Public sentiment was overwhelmingly negative toward established political parties, making it a tough climate for any candidate to stand out, let alone succeed.

This is where our journey with the candidate began.

We approached his team with a clear vision: to transform his digital presence, position him as a thought leader and build trust with voters. Our proposal emphasized a strategy that blended education, engagement and creativity to connect with a disillusioned electorate. A concept we call “Edu-tainment.”

The goal during any campaign isn't to suddenly spam content that has absolutely no meaning or thought behind it. The period before the General Election became our opportunity to understand the brand first. It gave us a narrow time span but a natural testing ground before the campaign properly accelerated.

We tested formats. Watched what people responded to. Looked at which subjects could carry a longer explanation and which needed to be stripped back.

We started learning what felt natural coming directly from him, what worked better as designed content and what could live outside the official page entirely.

By the time the General Election arrived, we were no longer guessing. We had the beginnings of a system.

Department

Content Marketing

Service

Personal Branding

Building the Person Behind the Policy.

Our client had a lot of substance. The challenge was packaging it all for people who weren't sitting down to read a policy paper.

Personal branding became the thread running through everything we created. The goal was to make his digital presence clearer, recognizable and easier to engage with, without flattening the ideas behind it.

We didn't want every issue reduced to an empty one-liner just because shorter content tends to perform well. At the same time, copying the language of a parliamentary speech into an Instagram post was obviously not going to work either.

01.Serious Topics. Social Formats.

Our client had something to say about more than one issue, and we didn't want his digital presence to become one-note.

We built the content around four recurring areas, giving important policy discussions room for explanation while making everyday political developments easier to follow.

One personal brand. Enough range to never feel one-note.

The 4 Pillars For Personal Branding
Content PillarPurpose
Thought LeadershipMaking economics, governance and public policy accessible
Public WorkConnecting projects and initiatives to their real-world impact
AccountabilityMaking scrutiny of government decisions easier to follow
Policy, ExplainedBreaking down complex political and economic subjects

02.Social Content That Actually Looked Social

A political feed can become repetitive very quickly. So the output had to flex.

His visual identity had to stay recognizable without turning repetitive.

We designed and edited content in various formats, including topical posts, policy explainers, interview clips, reactions, campaign updates and direct-to-camera videos.

The work also included engaging 3D visuals to simplify concepts, localized stories to create personal connections, storytelling with narratives that could hold attention and memes for broader appeal.

We gave very different pieces of content enough visual consistency to still feel like they belonged to the same person. Some pieces educated, some showed personality and some created reactions.

Together, they gave the brand room to move.

Public work editorial illustration showing people crossing a gap
Policy explainer editorial illustration built from paper and clock imagery
Personal branding and social content illustration
Editorial illustration of different audience perspectives
Editorial illustration of different audience perspectives

03.One Candidate. Multiple Audiences.

Good Content Was Only Half the Job.

Knowing what to publish, where it should live and who it was actually for was extremely useful.

During the earlier testing period, the official pages gave us a useful view of how different ideas behaved once they entered the feed. A single page could not be expected to speak naturally to every audience in exactly the same way.

And the kind of post somebody would happily watch on TikTok was not necessarily something we wanted to force onto the official page purely because it had performed well elsewhere.

That pushed the strategy beyond content creation and into distribution architecture.

So Zephra built additional entry points around different languages, demographics and content interests.

04.Fan Page 1: Younger. English-Speaking. Internet-Native.

We noted that younger audiences may be interested in economic issues, political moments or something the candidate had said, but weren't likely to actively seek out a traditional political account to find it.

So instead of expecting them to change their media behavior, we moved the content closer to theirs.

Fan Page 1 leaned into trend-led edits, humor, topical moments and simplified policy content.

Key Results

  • 1.3K+ followers in under two months
  • LKR 0 spent on paid media
  • Multiple organic viral videos
Fan Page 1 account screenshot with identifying details obscured, showing 1,331 followers
Fan Page 2 account screenshot with identifying details obscured, showing 2,437 followers

05.Fan Page 2: Sinhala-First. News-Led. Community-Focused.

The reasoning here was less about trend culture and more about accessibility and information distribution.

A Sinhala-speaking audience looking for campaign updates, speeches, political developments or information around the candidate's work did not necessarily need the same approach as Fan Page 1.

This page gave those audiences another way to access relevant information in a language and format more suited to how they consumed content.

Key Results

  • 2.4K+ followers in under two months
  • LKR 0 spent on paid media

06.Fan Page 3: Bringing Grassroots Work Into Focus

This page emphasized his community engagement and grassroots initiatives.

Through Sinhala-language edits and localized stories, we highlighted his direct impact on the lives of his constituents.

Rather than concentrating on national political developments, the content brought greater attention to the candidate's work within the communities he represented.

Fan Page 3 account screenshot with identifying details obscured, showing 1,005 followers
Policy explanation editorial illustration, not a proxy page performance report

07.Proxy Fan Page: Making Economic Policy Easier to Follow

This policy-driven page showcased his party's economic strategies through animated, faceless videos.

By breaking down complex topics into digestible visuals, we emphasized how these policies aligned with his vision for Sri Lanka's future.

On Twitter, this page focused on concise written content for a professional, policy-oriented audience.

However, the page only ran for two weeks before the election, limiting the time available to grow its audience.

08.Scale Without Sameness

Having these different pages also protected the role of the official page.

We didn't have to force every experimental format into our client's primary digital identity just to test it with various audiences.

Furthermore, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok were not treated as three places to upload the exact same thing all the time. Strategic communication changes with each platform.

More content. More entry points.

High-frequency publishing only worked because there were enough topics, formats and channels to keep the output varied.

The volume mattered, but so did the system behind it. Each format and channel had a role in helping the candidate communicate with people who might not otherwise engage with his official pages.

Campaign Output

0+

Videos Produced

0

Posts in a Single Day

Up to 13 posts at peak publishing frequency

0%+

Instagram Non-Follower Reach Growth

Department

Production

Service

Photography

Keeping the Content Current.

A campaign moving this quickly could not survive on a small folder of old photographs and recycled material. Production happened alongside the work.

We photographed events, meetings, public appearances and campaign moments as they happened, keeping the content team supplied with material that reflected what the candidate was doing at the time.

The aim wasn't simply to document formal appearances. It was also to capture the quieter, more personal side of the campaign, building a visual library that showed more than speeches and public engagements.

01.In the Room

We followed campaign events, meetings and public engagements as they happened, giving the content team timely material from the campaign itself.

This allowed the candidate's digital presence to reflect ongoing activity, rather than relying on older photographs or generic political imagery.

Handshake image illustrating meetings and public engagements

02.More Than Campaign Moments

We also photographed the quieter, more personal side of the campaign, building a visual library that showed more than speeches and public appearances.

These photographs gave the content team material that could communicate different aspects of the candidate's personality and public work, supporting the wider personal branding strategy.

Handshake image illustrating public engagement
Camera setup illustrating recorded interviews
Editorial illustration of public speaking and leadership

Department

Production

Service

Videography

Giving Policy a More Immediate Format.

Some ideas needed more than a designed post. They needed to come directly from the person making the argument.

Alongside ongoing campaign coverage, we filmed dedicated solo shoots and direct-to-camera videos around specific topics. These gave policy explanations and commentary a clearer, more immediate format without losing the substance behind them.

With campaign activity constantly changing, videography also helped us maintain a fresh supply of material for edits, reactions and content built around current developments.

Camera operator with a handheld stabilizer illustrating video production

01.Straight to Camera

For issue-led content, we filmed him speaking directly to audiences, giving policy and commentary a clearer, more immediate format.

These videos allowed subjects that might otherwise have been communicated through speeches or lengthy written explanations to be presented in a format more accessible to everyday audiences.

02.Keeping Up With the Campaign

We also filmed events, meetings, public appearances and campaign moments as they unfolded.

The material could then be used to develop interview clips, campaign updates, topical edits and other video content that kept the digital presence connected to ongoing activity.

The result was a constantly refreshed bank of material, ready for the content team to work with.

Editorial illustration of public speaking and leadership
Illustration of election results and an upward arrow, not a reporting screenshot

Results and Performance

The Numbers That Moved.

The clearest results Zephra can directly link to its own work are the digital ones: growth in reach, interaction and followers, content volume and the ability to engage audiences across the channels we managed.

Comparing the two months before our involvement with the two months leading up to the election, the campaign recorded significant growth across its digital presence.

The original campaign report also highlights 200%+ growth across key statistics over four months. While the report doesn't identify the specific measures included in that overall growth claim, it points to the scale of change during the campaign period.

Across individual platforms, the results were substantial.

  • Facebook recorded 2.7 million reach, 1.4 million video views and more than 227,000 content interactions.
  • Instagram reached over 245,000 accounts, generated 31,000 content interactions and recorded more than 300% growth in reach from non-followers.
  • TikTok generated over 707,000 video views, reached an audience exceeding 603,000 and gained more than 3,700 followers.

The audience-specific fan pages added further reach beyond the official accounts. Fan Page 1 gained over 1,300 followers and Fan Page 2 gained over 2,400, both in under 2 months without paid media. The TikTok fan pages collectively drove hundreds of thousands of views, with Fan Page 1 resonating particularly strongly among younger audiences.

Campaign reporting screenshots for Facebook, Instagram and TikTok with 2.7M Facebook reach and 245K Instagram reach

And Then Came Election Day.

The campaign also recorded notable electoral outcomes.

The original report states that our client's voter base increased by 18%, a rare achievement in an election cycle where other opposition candidates experienced significant declines. It describes decreases of more than 35-50% among other opposition members, including the party leader.

It also records approximately 88,000 votes and identifies him as the second-highest candidate within his party.

In the final election summary, the report states that the candidate was re-elected from Colombo District at Sri Lanka's 2024 Parliamentary Election with 81,473 preference votes, the 2nd highest preference total among candidates from his party in the district.

These outcomes were part of the wider election campaign. Our work concentrated on the candidate's digital presence, where the improvements in reach, engagement, content output and audience growth provide the clearest evidence of our contribution.

The Campaign-Wide Results

0.0M

Facebook Reach

0.0M

Facebook Video Views

0K+

TikTok Video Views

0K+

Facebook Content Interactions

Conclusion

A Campaign to Remember.

Helping our client secure his seat in parliament wasn’t just a victory for him, it was also a massive victory for us.

It was a testament to what’s possible when creativity, strategy, and execution come together.

This campaign wasn't about throwing content at the wall to see what sticks. It was about building trust, delivering value and connecting with people in a way that felt real. By treating complex ideas as a creative challenge and creating different ways for audiences to engage with them, we helped turn a demanding election campaign into a more recognizable, responsive and far-reaching digital presence.

And the results speak for themselves.

Public work editorial illustration
Policy explainer editorial illustration
Handshake illustration of public engagement
Video production camera operator

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