Category Archives: Campaign 2004

Effective political branding – simple, elegant positioning and consistency

I did finally find a document that described why they chose the “courage” theme, and then “The Real Deal” based on various focus groups, but the challenge was trying to wrest the message from Dean at the time who was offering change versus experience (sound familiar?). When you read Al’s article, note the strange similarities, which is why I thought it incredible instructive. Continue reading

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Deja Vu: McCain 08 looks a lot like Kerry 04

I do not like predictions on campaigns, but the way I see this campaign going – especially with the infrastructure and organization the Obama Campaign has pushed forward, I see a poor showing for McCain – even with an October Surprise. Continue reading

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Blast from the Past – Kerry’s 2004 Online Fundraising Performance

We were seriously worried about the software doing on contributions since it was relatively cheap and had not been tested under serious load conditions, but when New Hampshire went to JK, I was there all night long watching the server load, making sure we were okay. And, we made it quite nicely. It wasn’t until SuperTuesday that we discovered the fallacy of low-cost solutions in an enterprise world. Continue reading

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And just what is the impact of TV on the web?

One of the questions I have been asked in the past two years was what it was like in the trenches when the campaign suddenly began to take off. As I have written in the archives, the change was astounding – but none so remarkable as what occurred on the night of the 19th. As all know, Kerry pulled off an incredible feat in winning the primary in Iowa – but what is not known is how difficult it had been to get Kerry to recognize the power of his own voice when helping the Internet side of the campaign. Continue reading

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Part 2: Greater Democracy – History of DemComm

Creating the DemComm group was a step in the right direction, but the challenges of the campaign priorities and operational efficiencies impacted the potential success of the team’s efforts. Continue reading

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