Anyone work on a campaign but lose? What did you d...

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Rising Star

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Chief

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Chief

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Enthusiast

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Enthusiast

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Rising Star

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Rising Star

Hey! I was the voice of the campaign and executed the communications plan I wrote early in the campaign. My responsibilities included:

1) External Communications:
- Landing TV interviews and news articles—which I managed to do in CNN, ABC, NBC, PBS, NPR, the Washington Post, Business Insider, Yahoo, DW, BBC, AFP, Reuters, and lots of local outlets, achieving coverage locally and across the US, plus (as a bonus) Canada, UK, Australia, Germany, France, Dubai, India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Sweden, Brazil, Chile, Nigeria, and more;
- Proofreading content to ensure all communications were charismatic, error-free, consistent with the brand identity, and resonating with our audience;
- Segmenting audiences and creating efficient strategies to engage segments
- Translating complex policy and research into clear stories and talking points that stakeholders could easily understand;
- Writing talking points that reflected the candidates voice, vision, and positioned to resonate with the audience we were trying to reach, as well as speeches, endorsement questionnaires, campaign policy formulation, research, and messaging, publishing op-eds, strategic communication plans, newsletters, emails, site copy;
- Managing endorsements from mayors, politicians, nonprofit leaders, household celebrities, and more.

2) Digital Marketing:
- Marketing events, digital campaigns, and side-efforts with Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Clubhouse, and TikTok, growing local audiences 21,300% in 18 months, and prompting a rare Twitter exception to verify our campaign before the primary;
- Managing the digital budget and placing buys for Google, Facebook, and more;
- Managing the campaign website, SEO, merch store
- Managing direct mail and ground game logistics

3) Internal Leadership:
- Oversaw the big-picture strategy and day-to-day execution of the campaign’s marketing & communications strategy, providing advice to the candidate with a growth mindset and tolerating ambiguity in a rapidly changing environment;
- Analytics (e.g., Designing PivotTables with Excel spreadsheet data for interactive visuals on precinct-level early voter turnout - using the insights to build an outreach strategy for most effective precincts to drive campaign visibility during early voting, positioning the campaign’s limited resources in the most efficient locations to drive objectives and maximum impact.);
- Managing internal communications, including team zoom meetings, Slack, email, and other platforms;
- Managing communications consultants, volunteers, interns, and associates - and collaborating with them on communications and marketing projects;
- Advising the candidate on stressful communications and personal matters, like when someone threw a brick through her car windshield and left a threat on the hood this past Monday morning, or when one of the kids in her middle school (she's a counselor in local public school) lost his life in a mass shooting over the weekend;

This just scratches the surface but I think it paints a decent picture of the day-to-day. This was our candidate's first campaign. She started with no fundraising contacts or nestegg, little local name recognition, and had a lot of ground to make up in 18 months — against a 30-year incumbent.

I did all that for $250/month because the campaign wasn't in a position to pay more, it was a side hustle, and I was passionate to get involved with the issues of the campaign. C1 pays me quite a bit more, but I enjoyed using my creative, strategic, and entrepreneurial muscles to overcome challenges and make an impact on issues I care about. I'm still quite young and have a lot to learn — whether in politics or industry, but it was a great experience.