Be Woke.Vote · 2020
Tiffany D. Cross and The Beat DC: election conversations for young and first-time voters
For Be Woke.Vote in 2020, the political analyst Tiffany D. Cross sat down with Pete Buttigieg, Tichina Arnold, Danni Washington and Uncle Luke, and spoke straight to college students, high schoolers, women and LGBTQ voters in short spots, in the three weeks before the election. Powered by AONE Creative, the series lived on Be Woke.Vote and its YouTube channel.
The brief
A political analyst for first-time voters
Be Woke.Vote set out to reach young voters of color, Gen Z and Millennials, before the 2020 election. It teamed up with Tiffany D. Cross, an on-air political analyst and cable newsroom veteran, the author of Say It Louder and the co-founder of The Beat DC, to talk through what was on the ballot and why it mattered to people voting for the first time.
The series ran next to The Truth, the other Be Woke.Vote series of 2020, with the voter tools on Be Woke.Vote one tap away.
What we did
Format, production and distribution
- Format
Conversations and short spots
Four full conversations between Tiffany D. Cross and one guest, from ten to twenty-nine minutes long, and short spots of thirty seconds to two minutes on the issues first-time voters asked about.
- Guests
A former candidate, an actor, a science host and a hip-hop pioneer
Pete Buttigieg, Tichina Arnold, Danni Washington and Uncle Luke, each with a short teaser ahead of the full conversation.
- Short spots
Twelve spots on what is at stake
College students, high schoolers, women voters, LGBTQ voters, down-ballot races, election interference, artists and influencers and more, released from October 12 to October 26, 2020.
- Production
Made by the Be Woke.Vote team
Directed by Deon Taylor and Omar Joseph and produced by Roxanne Avent, Omar Joseph and Suzanne Summerville, for Be Woke.Vote, which Robert F. Smith and Deon Taylor created.
- AONE Creative
Powered by AONE
We ran the Be Woke.Vote site the series lived on, along with the campaign creative and the paid media for the 2020 election.
- Distribution
YouTube and Be Woke.Vote
Every video went up on the Be Woke Vote YouTube channel, and Be Woke.Vote carried the series next to its voter tools.
- Watch
All four conversations, here
Every conversation now plays on its own page on this site, from the series page.
Results
What went out before the election
- 4Full conversations, October 25 and 26, 2020
- 20Videos on YouTube, from October 12, 2020
- 9 daysFrom the first conversation to Election Day
- Pete Buttigieg’s conversation is the most watched of the four on YouTube
- The series ran next to The Truth as part of Be Woke.Vote’s 2020 push for young and first-time voters
- Be Woke.Vote went on to win a Webby Award in 2022
YouTube: the Be Woke Vote channel, October 2026.
On set
In front of the Be Woke.Vote wall
Tiffany D. Cross taped the series on the Be Woke.Vote set in 2020. See every episode
What it taught us
Meet first-time voters where they are
A political analyst they could trust, guests they already knew and spots short enough to share. First-time voters do not need a lecture; they need the facts from someone they want to hear, and we build every series and campaign with that in mind.
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Campaign series
Need a trusted voice to reach first-time voters?
Tiffany D. Cross brought a former candidate, an actor, a science host and a hip-hop pioneer to young voters for Be Woke.Vote in 2020. Tell us who you need to reach and the date that matters.