With an arsenal of marketing capabilities including clear, clever copy writing and clean, powerful design coupled with strategic planning, it is no mystery why VFC is tagged to manage political campaigns every season. Although this process will probably work best if we agree with the candidate”s politics, this agency is completely non-partisan.
“We start by understanding the issues in the race,” says VFC Creative Director, Todd Palmer. “Just like a commercial marketing campaign we attempt to identify differences between our candidate and their competitor and exploit those differences.”
When you think about it, an election really does come down to positioning. There is a target audience, the voters and they are fed marketing messages and positioning statements from each campaign just like a consumer group in a demographic. Unfortunately these particular consumer groups are already skewed or predisposed to select one product over another and our challenge becomes swinging voters.
“Getting a Republican to consider a Democrat as a candidate is a lot like getting a consumer who is fiercely loyal to one brand to consider another,” adds Palmer, whose agency has successfully contributed to races three years running with their first loss coming last Tuesday.
“A lot of factors beyond the control of the campaign team go into the final outcome of a local election including big party machines and National temperature,” continues Palmer. “We know our messages got through and that people were swayed by the truth that they conveyed but it wasn”t enough to combat the bigger picture.
“Additionally, sooner or later every marketing campaign comes down to budget.”
Most recently VFC developed a direct mail campaign for Elaine Milito, a Democrat running for Supervisor of East Vincent Township in Chester County, Pennsylvania. VFC directed strategy, copy writing and design of a trio of impactful postcards that worked in tandem with an Internet mission to dispel untrue rumors about the candidate. Milito was unsuccessful in her bid for that office but the messages were honest and clear helping to slowly convert a demographic naturally adverse to Milito”s brand..
