This week’s MSHC Insights post by Jason Miller, an MSHC Account Executive on the direct mail side of the firm, covers the key challenge in our business - engaging the audience:
One of the biggest obstacles we face in direct mail is identifying the best ways to engage our audience. Unlike television advertisements, mail requires its recipient to make a choice: to read or not to read. And because recipients must elect to read our piece, the design needs to be accessible, interesting and relevant to our message and strategy.
Our audience looks at visuals first and reads text second. And if we don’t nail the visuals, we can’t possibly expect that they’ll bother reading our text. As Hal likes to postulate, a great visual can turn a mediocre piece into an award winner. The best visuals are those that communicate our message without words. They do the heavy lifting by engaging our readers and doing the talking for us.
But, as we know, there’s more to a great mail piece than compelling visuals. Once we catch our reader’s attention, we need to make sure we’re saying something that’s worth reading.
In a direct mail campaign, issues and topics may change from piece to piece. But while issues and topics are variable, the mail should have a recurring strategic theme that’s constant. For example, if our underlying strategy is to connect our opponent to George W. Bush, we may do a piece on health care and a piece on the war in Iraq. While these are two very different topics, our strategic objective is to help our reader conclude that our opponent is just another George W. Bush yes-man. The issues might change, but our job is to be disciplined enough to connect them back to the broader message we’re working to convey.
In direct mail, the real magic doesn’t happen until we link the visuals in our mail with our strategic theme. The visuals we choose can tie the myriad issues we’re covering back to our overarching strategic objective and give us the flexibility to carry the visual theme (or some variation of it) across our mail campaign. Using a recurrent visual theme can make the delivery of our message much more effective. Well-crafted visual themes can make even the harshest attacks seem light and entertaining. And, if they’re used correctly, they can give our audience something to look forward to in our next mailer.
Of course, there are a lot of different ways to make effective mail, and different circumstances merit different tactics – as the saying goes, there’s more than one way to skin a cat. But combining message discipline with a compelling, recurring visual thematic is an effective formula for getting your mail noticed.
Today’s MSHC Insights post is from Interactive Account Executive, Mike Hutchinson (yes, he of Pump My Ride fame - see below). Mike would like to call attention to a new phenomenon in online advertising - ad blocking software:
Is Adblock Plus, one of the most popular free add-ons to the alternative web browser, Mozilla Firefox, the end of the internet? Probably not, but Adblock Plus does challenge fundamental assumptions of the online economy, just as it poses problems both big and small for publishers and advertisers.
Adblock Plus works by blocking the requests sites make from ad servers when they load a new page, allowing all the content and usability of a site to remain intact, only without the soothing LowerMyBills.com ad or the (sometimes) relevant Google text ads being shown.
Presently, Firefox is used by about one in six to view sites online. In the big picture the loss of a few million sets of eyeballs out of about a billion is not devastating. However, the use of Firefox continues to increase just as the number of those who use Adblock Plus does. According to recently released data from Addons.Mozilla.org, there have been almost 14 million downloads (averaging over 60,000 per day) of Adblock Plus with a total of over 3 million daily active users of the software. (Wladimir Palant, who incidentally created Adblock Plus, writes extensively on how exactly these statistics are gathered here.
We are going to start digging into some data as this week’s MSHC Insights post comes to us from our Targeting department. Joel Rivlin, Senior Targeting Analyst, has laid out the two decisions that every voter makes and what that means for campaign strategy:
Consciously or unconsciously, every registered voter makes TWO distinct electoral decisions before each election. The first decision is whether they are going to vote. The second decision is which candidate they prefer.
Whether these decisions are conscious or not (the decision not to vote is usually not a deliberate decision as much as a lack of interest or engagement in a campaign), it is useful to view voters through this prism to differentiate the persuasion and mobilization sides of campaigns.
For many voters, one or both of these decisions are decided well in advance of the election. Some people always vote, and barring a bout of pneumonia or a death in the family, there is nothing that will keep them from casting their ballots. Other people are simply not interested in politics and will never vote – regardless of the amount of media attention, television ads, door knocks, phone calls or offers of rides to the polls the campaigns produce.
Similarly, some people will always prefer the Democratic or Republican candidate, regardless of the particular nature of a candidate or the campaign and are committed to their decision
The table below shows how voters can be divided between these two decisions. Many of those who always vote or never vote may be undecided on their candidate support (boxes 4 and 6). Many of those who are unwavering in their candidate preferences are undecided as to whether or not they will vote (boxes 2 and 8 ). Some may be undecided both on their decisions to vote and who they support (box 5).
Time for another MSHC Insights post. This week’s is a quick look at advocacy campaigns and it’s written by Joe Fuld, partner, campaign expert, and generally the happiest guy in the office.
After being involved in political direct mail campaigns for the last ten years, my slow but steady introduction into advocacy campaigns over the last four has provided some surprising insights. I have learned that some of the core techniques that are hallmarks of political persuasion mail—defined, demographically driven targets and short, to the point mail with strong calls to action—have gotten strong results in advocacy campaigns. I have also learned that while I have always been a huge fan of photographically-driven mail, type-driven mail pieces can work very well for our advocacy clients.
Integration across mediums in these campaigns is a must. During our advocacy campaigns we have used internet, phones, mail, print, grassroots, patch-through calls and outdoor advertising as ways to successfully engage constituents. There are case studies on some of my favorite campaigns, like the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network Red Bra campaign on this site. In that effort, we blended phone calls, internet, grassroots and print campaigns with great results. Integration has become such a necessity because our target audience is not reachable through just one means of communication. For older voters, mail and phones are still a strong medium. But to reach younger activists, online tools have proved to be very effective. Outdoor billboards and collateral have also allowed us to reach people in places that they would not expect. We did a great bathroom campaign for the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network that reached bar patrons to inform them of the implementation of a new smoke free law. These campaigns allow us to take targeting in a different direction and we enjoy the challenge.
Our MSHC Insights post this week is a continuation of our earlier post on Direct Mail Creative Principles. Today Kate Petty, MSHC’s Body Copy Manager, covers two intertwined principles: relevance and photography:
1. Establish relevance.
Maybe this guideline is as obvious as “put a stamp on you mailer,” but a surprising amount of direct mail gets trashed for not being relevant. A piece must pertain to the personal lives of its audience. To give your direct mail that magic ingredient, “relevance,” you have to address concerns that your audience shares, using language to which they respond, and showing images with which they identify.
Take the following two covers, sent by the AFL-CIO to its members, as example:
Anyone who’s spent their day worrying about bills – there’s one, maybe two Americans that can relate – is going to take a second look at these covers. The difference between these mailers and bad mailers is that these focus on people, instead of asking the audience to think about politicians, or unions, or clichés. The photographs are believable, self-evident, and emotionally charged. And the headlines cut straight to important issues without stylistic frills - healthcare costs; making ends meet.
Financial concerns are bounced around Capitol Hill daily, but to get voters to listen mailers have to position that issue, or any issue, in a personal context.
Check out our view on photography and some more examples after the jump.
Today’s MSHC Insights post is from Nora Anderson, an Account Assistant in our Interactive Department. Nora is fresh off the campaign trail and new to Interactive marketing, so she has a unique perspective on how effective these tools can be. Read on for a quick look at why it is important for political campaigns to consider Interactive marketing for spreading their message and not just for raising money. There are a countless ways to accomplish your messaging goals online, and we will try to highlight many of them here in the coming weeks and months. Here’s Nora’s take:
As a young political professional who comes to MSHC’s Interactive Marketing team from a presidential campaign, I’ve seen the cutting edge of online political marketing from both a campaign staffer’s and a consultant’s perspective. While on the campaign trail, I took notice every time an opponent came up with a new, interesting online feature or banner advertisement. Now, working on the other side of the equation, I see how difficult it is to convince many political campaigns what corporations have already discovered: that interactive marketing is a cost-effective, highly targeted way to get your message across quickly and stay relevant in today’s ever-changing media environment.
My colleagues and I are part of a growing group of voters who read DailyKos and the New York Times online every morning, but who don’t have a home phone number and who skip television ads. The best way to reach us is with interactive marketing: ads on our favorite blogs, viral videos and even text-messages sent to our cell phones. At a time when all of these techniques are still new and innovative for political candidates, people definitely sit up and take notice when one candidate is ahead of the curve. Even if I don’t click on the ad, it makes a strong impression on me to see the same candidate’s ad every time I read Election 2008 stories on Politico.com. It makes me feel like the candidate is paying attention to me- especially since online advertising can be targeted by geographic location, demographics like age and gender, and the context of the articles that I read. If I ever head back on the campaign trail, I know I’ll be spreading the gospel of interactive marketing to whoever will listen!
Today we have a couple MSHC team members in the news.
First up is Chris Mann, MSHC’s Vice President of Targeting, quoted in a New York Times article discussing how food habits can give insight into voting.
Next is Amy Gershkoff, Director of Analytics, addressing the same topic on WNYC (New York’s NPR) radio’s Brian Lehrer Show.
Take a look (or listen). But just as a note, don’t take any of the microtargeting “examples” too literally. I love me some Dr. Pepper, and I’m definitely not a Republican!
Check out the (purposefully cheesy) video below starring MSHC Interactive Account Executives Mike Hutchinson and Emily Williams and learn how to maximize your gas mileage and minimize your car’s impact on the climate!
The video was produced for The Alliance for Climate Protection — a nonprofit, nonpartisan effort founded by Nobel Laureate and former Vice President Al Gore. The organization aims to halt global warming by educating people in the US and around the world that the climate crisis is both urgent and solvable. Learn more about how to pump your ride at http://www.climateprotect.org/at4.
Today marks the first of a series of posts we are calling MSHC Insights, where we will try to share some of the lessons we have learned over the years. We will try to post at least one of these per week and cover topics from every area of our firm (Direct Mail, Interactive, Targeting, Creative and Production).
Today’s post is by George Hamp, Partner and Art Director, who covers the basic creative principles that we apply to our mail pieces. Give it a read:
You know the story. You get home from work, open your mailbox, and drown in a flood of sales circulars, credit card offers, and the occasional political brochure or postcard. The last one is fascinating – or at least, we at MSHC think so. As a direct voter contact firm, we put a lot of energy into those “glossy mailers” you read about in The Washington Post.
Direct mail is one of the most powerful mediums for communicating with voters. But what’s the point of investing time and energy in mail pieces if the creative strategy behind them is not effective? Over the years (and after thousands of projects), we’ve identified eight creative principles that serve as our guideposts in producing effective, high-quality direct mail. After all, just because you send it doesn’t mean people will read it.
The following eight principles are field-tested and focus-group-proven. Print ‘em up, post ‘em at your desk. If you pay attention to them, you’ll stand a better chance of cutting through mailbox clutter and delivering your message. Check them out after the jump.
Hello and welcome to the MSHC Blog. We are just getting this page off the ground, but over the next few weeks we will begin to post regularly. Our hope is to make the blog a window into what we do as a firm and a place to have a conversation about what’s new and cutting edge in the world of political, issue advocacy and public affairs campaigns. We also want the blog to serve as a resource to any campaign out there, big or small, for ideas and information about how to utilize the tools available to everyone.
Please feel free to comment on this post with any ideas or topics you’d like to hear from us about. You can also write us at info@mshcblog.com.
