CAMPAIGNS
CAMPAIGN CASE STUDY:
CHICAGO CITY CLERK CAMPAIGN
CHALLENGE:
When our client was running for the Chicago City Clerk position, she was seeking a role that had never previously been held by a woman. However, she was running backed by a dated website, a non-active Facebook Page, no Twitter whatsoever and lackluster email marketing. Clearly, if she wanted to appear in touch with the current voter, she needed to modernize her brand across the electronic landscape. But with a very tight budget and limited support staff, some very creative ideas would be mandatory for her to run a highly competitive race.
OUR RECOMMENDATION:
There was no doubt that improvements in digital marketing tactics for our client were needed, but then we also wondered, “What if we can make it appear as though you are in 20 different places across the city of Chicago every day?” Suddenly, we saw a unique opportunity to obtain stories that would drive our content marketing efforts. Every time our client went somewhere in the city, we were with her, filming interactions with people on the spot.
Meanwhile, support staff were pushing hard for producing direct mail postcards to get the word out on 300,000 doorsteps, but our client was adamant about wanting to do a commercial and thought it would be huge. No matter who was right, how could we pull either of those off? That’s when it hit us: What if we could take Google Analytics measurements, tie to a CRM program that shows the vote builder list of registered voters and integrate it
into our website with email? In doing so, we could save our money on direct mail and use it toward the commercial!
Marketing:
TV commercial, website, social media
and email marketing
Technology:
CRM and Google Analytics
Results:
From underdog to top dog
RESULTS:
It was a big leap of faith to run an all-digital political campaign. It’s practically unheard of. Yet, with the help of monthly analytics, our client did the very first City Clerk campaign commercial ever. Diamond Strategies had maximized her exposure on a small, limited budget. Not to mention, we could get more precise on who exactly who was visiting the website and interacting with social media. We then utilized the site to push the right emails out to the right people at the right time.
By conveying information on a lesser-known candidate in invaluable chunks for people to understand – a commercial, emails, social media and a more accessible website – and obtaining information through a CRM, our client, operating on a thin budget and small staff, was elected to Chicago City Clerk.
CAMPAIGN CASE STUDY:
ILLINOIS COMPTROLLER CAMPAIGN
CHALLENGE:
When you have a state-wide campaign, how do you get your collateral – messaging, logos, physical signs, brochures, t-shirts, buttons, pencils, etc. – all across the state of Illinois? How do you get state-wide coverage in an effective and affordable manner? And by the way, the candidate wants to be on TV no less than three times, costing $3 million total, making it the most expensive comptroller race ever run. How do you make that happen?
OUR RECOMMENDATION:
Diamond Strategies had brand management responsibilities where we were approving any and all marketing collateral for our client’s political campaign. The $3 million of our campaign budget was dwarfed by our opponent’s $9 million campaign war chest. How could we compete?
First, we employed some deep, hands-on strategic thinking to mobilize our supporters, volunteers and vendors for help. We organized the state of Illinois by region to instruct the 102 party chairs to leverage strategic locations across the state to pick up and deliver collateral to each regional area. In addition, we created branding kits with instructional guidelines to help the participants in spreading the campaign’s messaging. To assist, we set up our campaign website with Google Maps so that the party chairs could know where to pick up, accurately distribute the collateral and visually account for collateral across the state. By exporting addresses and importing them into Google Maps on a daily basis for each chair, they could see their unique set of locations and needs for collateral. Orchestrating and providing the campaign, the drivers, volunteers and vendors with up-to-date online documentation and inventory analytics was key to its success.
Next, we implemented a popular “Chat” feature on the campaign website to answer all of the aggregated questions from potential voters on the candidate’s family life, plans for the area, etc. Strategically, we wanted the website to answer all the questions. Therefore, for the Chat team, we organized the most popular questions and documented approved answers. When there were new questions, not documented, the website was updated with approved copy. With the “Chat” feature and processes in place, the website was updated weekly with fresh content and improved copy.
Suddenly, with far fewer dollars, we were using the precision of marketing technology to use minimal staff and maximize the volunteers in the most time-efficient and clear manner while making the user experience of our campaign website more accessible than our opponent.
Marketing:
brand management, website, social media, collateral, email marketing
Technology:
Systems integration of Google Maps
and website Chat
Results:
The newest rising star in politics
RESULTS:
Thanks to our comprehensive management of digital marketing and state-wide coordination of supporters, volunteers and vendors, our client scored a stunning victory in the hotly contested Comptroller campaign while spending $6 million less.