The Narrative

Guest on the Digital Politics podcast is Kelley Moran, Moran Associates, a public affairs and political consulting firm in California.  Kelley shares his insights about how political and advocacy stories are created and the impact they have on voters.  Kelley wonders how the expected $100 million dollars Meg Whitman is projected to spend on her run for California governor will drown out the stories of other candidates.

Why the picture of Lassie?  Kelley talks about the role a spokesdog can have in a campaign–he actually used Laddie, Lassie’s successor.

Listen to this interview with an expert political storyteller.

Bookmark Us

Virtual Book Parties

Recorded in mid-December 2009, these virtual book parties for About Face: The Dramatic Impact of the Internet on Politics and Advocacy (E-Voter Institute Press, 2009) make for interesting listening and might even make you want to buy the book.  These bi-partisan discussions with many of the contributors to the book add an update and further reality check for strategists, candidates, and campaign managers.

Go to the E-Voter Store for details on how to get the About Face book in print or eBook format.

First Virtual Book Party

Topics include targeting, voter expectations, mobile, search and online ads.

Participants

Karen Jagoda, Shaun Dakin, Kathie Legg, Tony Winders, Colin Delany, Jason Krebs, Porter Bayne, Cyrus Krohn

Second Virtual Book Party

Topics include the new face of political and advocacy campaigns, trends to watch for in 2010 and 2012, and reaching the loyal base as well as swing and Independent voters.

Participants

Karen Jagoda, Michael Bassik, Tony Winders, Rich Berke, Ben Katz, Dan Schnur, Mark Davis

Bookmark Us

Email Strategy

Digital Politics podcast this week features Ben Katz, CTO, Aristotle talking about best practices for email campaigns and how to maximize the impact of messages. Ben provides insights about SPAM filters, subject lines, and building email lists. He also emphasizes the importance of mixing up the kinds of emails sent —long form, short form, embedded video of the candidate– and the need to test messages to increase the likelihood that the target constituents will respond.

Listen to this interview with an industry insider.

Bookmark Us

Role of Visionaries

The Digital Politics podcast this week focuses on those with a passion for looking into the future. This seemed like a good week for the topic as we note the 40th anniversary of man landing on the moon, the passing of Walter Cronkite, the tragic death of Nicholas Givotovsky at 44, and the ComicCon event being held here in San Diego.  What combines all these elements is the fact that those who look into the future are often seen as ahead of their time or just plain crazy.

My guest on the podcast is Read Scott Martin, senior consultant to The Media Trust Company.  Read not only worked with Nick on some recent ad tracking projects but also knew him in high school.  I had known Nick since working with him in 1991 on a project with AOL and the Library of Congress.

How do visionaries influence the rate of change in society?  Can those with an eye on the future help us better manage risk in the short term? What role do accidents play in how it all turns out?

Listen to the interview with Read. Post your comments about Nick.

Bookmark Us

Political Strategists

In the Digital Politics podcast this week with Patrick Ruffini, partner in Engage, the topic was how political strategists need to adapt to take advantage of web tools.  In addition to Patrick’s general reaction to the Personal Democracy Forum held in NY this week, he also describes how campaigns need to embrace the creativity of constituents to build momentum and develop relationships.  Tips on what might go viral in social media and the use of humor are also covered in this conversation with a genuine industry leader

  .

Bookmark Us

Online Branding of Candidates and Causes

Digital Politics Podcast today focused on the increasing tendency to employ branding techniques developed for consumer goods and business services to sell political and advocacy campaigns of all types.  Guest was Brian Keeler, VP for Politics and Advocacy for VShift, New York.  Brian agreed with me that voters have become much more brand savvy and that political consultants are starting to realize how important it is for candidates to focus on the details of a branding campaign (online and off) and not just the message.

Brian is currently working with some candidates running in 2009 and of particular interest are his efforts for the re-election campaign of Jon Corzine for Governor of New Jersey.  While Brian was not going to reveal any secrets about the soon to be re-launched site JonCorzine09.com, he did hint at some techniques to integrate content across multiple web locations.  The few Governor races in 2009 will certainly be a chance to test, at a state level, many of those lessons learned from the 2008 campaigns.

Hear the entire discussion.

Bookmark Us

Optimizing political campaign budgets

The gap is widening between how consultants spend campaign dollars and what voters expect candidates to do online.  Once we get the final tally, the numbers will speak for themselves but the E-Voter summer 08 research shows some surprising details about how political consultants view Internet effectiveness.

http://sandiegonewsroom.com/news/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=748:optimizing-political-campaign-budgets&catid=48:national&Itemid=49

Bookmark Us