Public Relations Campaign Report for 2020 Primary Election
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June 9, 2020 Linda Lamone Administrator Maryland State Board of Elections 151 West Street, Suite 200 Annapolis, MD 21401 RE: Public Relations Campaign Report for 2020 Primary Election Thank you for providing KO Public Affairs LLC the opportunity to develop, implement and oversee a statewide public awareness campaign to encourage individuals to participate in the State’s first vote by mail election on June 2, 2020. Under the scope of work, KO was charged with developing a statewide campaign, including earned media, TV, radio, and digital to supplement the State Board of Election’s social media campaign. The public education campaign also included broad stakeholder engagement to help educate voters about the vote by mail election. In order to build the campaign, KO partnered with a number of stakeholder firms to help us develop the campaign and reach target audiences throughout the State. Our partners included: • Mission Media – a full-service advertising and marketing firm to assist with creative design, campaign production and media buying. • Sandy Hillman Communications – a public relations firm and minority business enterprise to assist with earned media and oversee broad stakeholder engagement throughout the state. • GreiBO – a public relations and marketing firm based in Baltimore to assist with stakeholder outreach to the African American community statewide, including key influencer messaging, in-community events and social media for Baltimore City residents. • Cool & Associates – a full-service management consulting firm that brings Hispanic strategy, workforce development, education, marketing and outreach to the forefront of any organization. Veronica Cool and her team assisted with stakeholder outreach to the Latinx community, Spanish-speaking earned media, and assisted with translation of all MD State Board of Elections: Public Relations Campaign Report for 2020 Primary Election 1 campaign materials, including radio, social media, and a web-tutorial created by the State Board of Elections. • Campfire Communications – is a full-service communications firm led by Henry Fawell. Along with Hillman Communications, Campfire helped to drive earned media coverage, stakeholder outreach and rapid respond during the campaign. While the media buy, along with creative design and production, with Mission Media accounted for almost 80% of the overall budget for the emergency procurement, nearly 70% of the remaining budget went to the MBE firms above for statewide stakeholder outreach, earned media, translation services, Spanish-speaking paid media, and in-community engagement for Baltimore City. Overall the public education campaign, through a combination of paid media, earned media and stakeholder engagement, reached millions of Maryland voters in the three weeks leading up to the June 2 primary. Some highlights of the campaign include: • Traditional media reached millions of Marylanders across the state, including TV, radio and print, • The digital campaign resulted in 84,540,096 impressions, • 4,648,105 views of the campaign videos (not including those who saw the video on TV) and 554,917 clicks on the ads, • More than 740 journalists at more than 330 small, medium and large outlets in every county of our state, resulting in 227 media placements during the three-week campaign. • Nearly 700 stakeholder organizations were engaged to share vote by mail election details • Approximately 20,000 flyers were distributed in Baltimore City through COVID-19 safe street teams, Black Girls Vote and food distribution sites partnering with Thread and Johns Hopkins. While there were communications challenges during the campaign, most notably with ballots arriving later than expected and the need to add drop box and voting locations in Baltimore City, the campaign was successful in helping to educate Maryland voters about the election, how to vote-by-mail, where to vote in person or drop their ballots, and how to obtain a ballot if their ballot did not arrive by mail. The campaign included messaging to make sure voters understood that their ballot was valid even though it contained the original April 28 primary date and the need for voters to sign the oath on the back of the envelope. As a collective team, we are proud to have a played a role in helping to educate Maryland voters about the election process, and believe the campaign helped to achieve significant voter turnout surpassing that of the 2016 primary. Attached we have included an analysis of the paid media campaign, including both traditional and digital platforms, and the results of the earned media and stakeholder outreach program. MD State Board of Elections: Public Relations Campaign Report for 2020 Primary Election 2 2020 Primary Election June 2 Mail-in Ballot Integrated Campaign Campaign Results ★ Strategy Overview Table of ★ Creative Index Contents ★ Digital Media Performance ★ Website Performance Strategy Overview OVERALL STRATEGY ★ To promote awareness of Maryland’s primary election on June 2, traditional and digital media campaigns targeted residents across the state to inform them of mail-in and in-person voting options. The campaigns ran from 5/15/20 to 6/2/20 with the exception of Google Search which started on 5/8/20. Traditional media started 5/18/20. STRATEGY OVERVIEW STRATEGY ★ The campaigns targeted all eligible Maryland households ★ geographically by splitting the state into regions which were given budgets relative to their total populations. ★ The campaigns promoted awareness of the mail-in vote, steps necessary to mail the ballot securely, and in-person voting options. DIGITAL STRATEGY OVERVIEW ★ The Google Search campaigns were launched early to accommodate piqued interest due to the historic mail-in vote. ★ The digital campaigns targeted all eligible Maryland households geographically by splitting all of the state’s counties into five geographic regions which were given budgets relative to their total STRATEGY OVERVIEW STRATEGY population. ★ ★ In addition to the targeting of Maryland households, registered voters provided by the State Board of Elections were targeted on platforms that allowed email address targeting matching. TRADITIONAL STRATEGY OVERVIEW ★ Print, Radio, TV, and OTT (over-the-top/streaming) channels were used to spread awareness across all parts of the state. ★ Additional station-owned streaming and digital impressions augmented the traditional media buys. ★ A broad audience was targeted by media market, with market STRATEGY OVERVIEW STRATEGY budgets determined by each area’s relative population. ★ ★ Radio stations were selected across all genres to reach a diverse voting population. ★ TV was largely focused on news programming, with limited Prime programming as well. ★ The Baltimore Sun and Washington Post utilized a mix of Print and Digital to reach their full readership. AFRICAN AMERICAN AND LATINO STRATEGY OVERVIEW ★ Specific paid outreach was targeted at Latino and African American residents throughout the state. ★ A mix of Print (including Spanish language ads), Radio (including a Spanish radio spot), Influencer and Video pushed through Social STRATEGY OVERVIEW STRATEGY Media was used to reach individuals in Baltimore and around the ★ state. NOTABLE HIGHLIGHTS ★ The digital campaign received 84,540,096 impressions during its run, as well as 554,917 clicks and 4,648,105 plays of the video. ★ We’ve tracked 470,925 users to the landing page directly from the campaign (not including those who may have seen an ad and come back later to the website). The average user is staying on the STRATEGY OVERVIEW STRATEGY landing page for :37 seconds, which improved from the :26 seconds ★ reported on in the mid campaign report. ★ The campaigns to Maryland households spent in full daily to reach Maryland residents in all counties. ★ Google Display led to 61,841,949 impressions (73.15% of total) meaning this channel drove the most views on the campaign ads. NOTABLE HIGHLIGHTS, CON’T. ★ In addition to the traditional media placements, the :30 video ran as an ad on YouTube and on Facebook. The average cost per view of the video was $0.02 which allowed us to get an extremely high number of views for the media budgets. ★ The registered voter list provided by the State Board of Elections STRATEGY OVERVIEW STRATEGY targeted registered voters on Gmail, Google Display, Snapchat, and ★ Facebook/Instagram. This tactic proved extremely effective at directing the message to those who are more likely to vote; the average click-through from a registered voter is 66.15% higher than the general Maryland households targeting. ★ On social media, the average user watched :12 seconds of the :30 video. On YouTube the average increases to :22 seconds, or almost the entire video. MEDIA ALLOCATION AND PERFORMANCE Media Buy % Allocation Digital 84,540,096 impressions 42.0% Print 35 1/2 page ads 9.1% Radio 1,625 radio spots state-wide 13.4% TV 2,346 broadcast and Xfinity spots state-wide 33.6% STRATEGY OVERVIEW STRATEGY ★ OTT 346,307 impressions 1.8% African American and Latino Paid Outreach Varied — Baltimore City Influencer Video 94,773 impressions — Total — 100.0% ALLOCATION BY MEDIUM Media % Allocation Media % Allocation Print 15.7% Search 15.3% Radio 23.1% Video 20.8% TV 58.0% Social 29.5% STRATEGY OVERVIEW STRATEGY OTT 3.2% Display 34.3% ★ Total 100.0% Total 100.0% Traditional Digital ALLOCATION BY MARKET Media % Allocation Media % Allocation Baltimore 40.3% Central 39.0% Washington 36.0% Eastern 6.0% Salisbury/Eastern 7.9% Northern 6.0% Shore STRATEGY OVERVIEW STRATEGY