… Our 2011 WebAward for the launch of the Congressional Civil Justice Caucus Academy Web site.  It’s one of the many great clients for which we are honored to work.

You can learn more about the award here.

The site was recognized for excelling in the categories of ensign, innovation, content, technology, copywriting and ease of use.

Congrats to the Academy on this award, and thank you for allowing us to be a part of your team. Thanks also to Integrated Web Marketing which, as always, was a great strategic partner on this project.

Today, we helped launch his campaign Web site, as well as an email program that is already touching tens of thousands of voters in DuPage County.

Onward to victory in 2012!

The LEC is a national center for research and education that focuses on the timely and relevant economic analysis of legal and public policy issues — and we’re fortunate to have them as a valued client.

Thanks so much to our strategic partners at Integrated Web Strategy for the wonderful design and development work.  As usual, IWS did a bang-up job.

In Homer Glen, IL, we served as general consultants for Mayor Jim Daley.  We put together an efficient campaign plan geared heavily toward online communications.  With the help of our friends at Integrated Web Strategy, we built a state of the art campaign Web site, engaged with voters through an aggressive voter email program and a targeted online advertising campaign, and directed a direct mail program that effectively delivered our campaign’s key messages to the voters we needed to reach.  It worked — as Mayor Daley won a three-person race by about 150 votes.

Also in Homer Glen, we built a direct mail program for Trustee candidate Tedd Kagianas that focused on turning out his base voters. The result — Tedd won re-election by more than 1,000 voters.

In Paris, IL (in southern Illinois), we served as general consultants on the “Yes 2 PCHS” school referendum campaign.  This campaign provided local residents the opportunity to build a new high school to replace their dilapidated 102-year-old existing high school. With limited campaign resources, the primary means of mass voter contact was via the campaign Web site, an aggressive voter email contact program, and a robust Facebook network.  In a race where only 3,600 votes were cast — we had a voter email list of more than 1,900 voters, and a Facebook network of more than 540 fans.  This online outreach helped fuel an impressive landslide victory (more than 60% voted “yes” on the referendum) in a tough political climate.

In the coming days, we’ll share more details of these individual case studies.  In the meantime, congrats to all our victorious clients!

The Academy is an educational program organized under the leadership of the LEC. Its mission is to provide rigorous and balanced education programs on a range of civil justice issues for the benefit of the general public and members of the U.S. Congress and their staff. The Academy is an independent, outside entity that shares the goals of the Congressional Civil Justice Caucus (the Caucus), a Congressional Member Organization.

In addition to launching the Academy’s Web site (another product of our great partnership with Integrated Web Strategy), we will be rolling out a full online communications program.

Please click here for a brief explanation of the Academy.

We plan to roll out a new Web site for the Law & Economics Center in the coming weeks.

Jim has a great track record of success (Homer Glen is one of the few municipalities in Illinois with a balanced budget) and is a rising star in Illinois politics.

We’re managing Jim’s campaign, and the site design is by our terrific strategic partner: Integrated Web Strategy.

Take, for example, our client, the U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform (ILR).

ILR is the nation’s leading lawsuit reform advocacy organization, working for state and federal reforms that protect individuals, employers and health care providers from the threat of lawsuit abuse.  They realize that one of the most effective ways they can accomplish their mission is by telling America the stories of real-life victims of lawsuit abuse.

Enter the Faces of Lawsuit Abuse campaign.

If you go to FacesofLawsuitAbuse.com, you will find a collection of short videos telling the stories (and featuring the victims themselves) of these victims of lawsuit abuse.  Not only do they use this Web site and social media sites to features these stories — they also put these stories in national broadcast ads, and even in movie trailers that run in key parts of the country.

This week, this released their newest “Faces” video, this one featuring a school district in Cabell County, WV that had to remove swing sets from their playgrounds due to a series of lawsuits filed by a parent.  Whether or not you agree with ILR on the issue of lawsuit reform, you’ll no doubt agree that this use of online video is a very effective way to tell the organization’s story — certainly more effective than any chart or table of economic statistics and numbers.

If you’re interested, you can watch their newest video of the West Virginia school district here:

Our firm had the pleasure and honor of managing Judge Powers’ campaign.  The people of Will County are fortunate to have him on the bench.

Congrats, Judge!

(Click here to read more about the work we did on his campaign).

In 2010, we provided strategic consulting services for the Will County Circuit Court campaign of Judge Michael J. Powers.  Will County is the fastest-growing county in suburban Chicago and one of the key “swing” regions in the state of Illinois.

Normally, winning judicial candidates receive far less votes than those at the “top of the ballot.”  In this election, however, Judge Powers received more votes in Will County than any other candidate.  That includes higher-profile candidates for U.S. Senate, Governor and Congress.

How did we do it?  Simple:  we focused on efficiency and engaged a robust, groundbreaking online program.

• We went against the commonly accepted political tactics by spending more than 40% of our direct voter contact budget for online communication.  We built a targeted email list of more than 25,000 Republican and Independent voters in Will County, and delivered more than 350,000 emails to this list in the months and weeks leading up to Election Day.

• During the final three weeks of the campaign, we also delivered more than 2 million impressions of online, expandable, rich media ads (see graphics at top of this post) within Will County — and garnered more than 40,000 interactions with these ads.  That’s analogous to sending out 2 million direct mail pieces and knowing for a fact that 40,000 people opened and read your mail.

• Our interaction rate was almost 300 times better than the average “click-thru rate” garnered with standard, static banner ads delivered by the vast majority of campaigns.

Quite impressive — and powerful.

We also built a network of activists on Facebook — delivering content and tools that kept these activists engaged.  We also delivered more than 7 million impressions of Facebook ads to a targeted group of voters in the district.

Through email and Facebook, we also deployed a number of tools — including “E-Yard Signs” and a Facebook app that allowed people to share these signs with Facebook friends — designed to empower our activists to evangelize on behalf of our campaign.

In the final weeks of the campaign, we also filmed short “endorsement” videos from local opinion leaders and shared them via Facebook and email, with clear calls to action for our network to share with their friends, family and colleagues.

To be sure, the campaign also engaged in more traditional means of communication, such as door-to-door campaigning and direct mail.  We limited these activities, however, to a very targeted universe of likely voters and favored repetition of message (quality vs. quantity).

All of the above resulted in an efficient campaign that that elected Judge Michael J. Powers to the Will County Circuit Court.

During the last three weeks of these campaigns, we delivered 12.6 million impressions of online, expandable, rich-media ads.  These ads garnered more than 448,000 interactions.

So, if you compared it to a traditional direct mail campaign, it would be analogous to sending out 12.6 million direct mail pieces and knowing that the piece was opened and read 448,000 times.

Further, our 3.8% interaction rate beats the industry average (3.45%) and is almost 400 times better than the “click-thru rates” of standard, static banner ads.

Following is a breakdown of highlights of each of these campaigns:

Mark Kirk for U.S. Senate

• Delivered 7.6 million emails to targeted voters in suburban Chicago during last three weeks of campaign.
• Delivered 7.6 million impressions of online, expandable, rich media ads. (Click here to view example).
• Garnered 218,000 interactions with those ads.

Bobby Schilling for U.S. Congress

• Deployed 159,000 emails to targeted voters in district during last three weeks of campaign.
• Delivered 4 million impressions of online, expandable, rich media ads. (Click here to view example).
• Garnered 202,000 interactions with our ads.

Randy Hultgren for U.S. Congress

• Deployed 75,000 emails to targeted voters in district during last three weeks of campaign.
• Delivered 861,000 impressions of online, expandable, rich media ads. (Click here to view example).
• Garnered 29,000 interactions with our ads.

• The Illinois Chamber of Commerce hired our firm to engage in aggressive email and online rich media advertising campaigns in support of Republican Congressional challengers Bobby Schilling (IL-17) and Randy Hultgren (IL-14). Both Bobby and Randy scored huge victories — with Bobby winning a seat that has been in Democrat hands for almost 30 years.

• The Illinois Chamber also had us engage in an email and online ad campaign in Chicago’s suburbs on behalf of U.S. Senate candidate Mark Kirk. Kirk scored a major victory for what was President Obama’s former Senate seat — and won with more than 50% in each of the suburban counties in which we engaged.

• We did a similar suburban program (for the IL Chamber) on behalf of Bill Brady. Although that race is still too close to call — Brady scored more than 50% of the vote in every county in which we engaged.

• Our firm also managed the overall campaign for Will County Circuit Court candidate Michael Powers. The highlight of our campaign was an online rich media ad program that delivered 2 million online impressions — and it paid off with a Powers victory. Most impressive: Powers garnered almost 100,000 votes and was the leading vote getter of any other candidate in suburban/exurban Will County, IL.

We will have more detailed breakdowns of these campaigns — and the groundbreaking work we did in them — during the next few days.

In the meantime, we are enjoying the results of what was a very successful Election Night.

This ad is up and geo-targeted into a Congressional District here in Illinois.  We’re halfway through the ad campaign, and so far we have the following results:

• We’ve delivered 600,000 impressions of the ad.
• 91,000 people have interacted with the ad.

So, what does this mean?  Simple — compare the 600,000 impressions to, say, a total amount of direct mail pieces sent out by a campaign.  Or the total amount of times a TV ad runs on television.

What you don’t know about a direct mail piece or a TV ad, however, is how many people actually read the mail piece before tossing it in the trash, or how many people sat and watched your commercial without getting up for a bathroom or snack break.

But with online ads — we know that 91,000 people cared enough about the ad to interact with it.  They scrolled their cursor over the ad and read more about the candidate.

To put it in other words (hat tip to our media buyer, Chandler Howell, for using this analogy) … having 91,000 people interact with your ad is like having the undivided attention of a professional football stadium full of fans to deliver your message.

You simply can’t measure that with TV or direct mail.

We’ll share some more case studies after Election Day.  But these initial results show the power of online video.

We know that the mainstream media — and voters — are following his Tweets, and they’ve even used it to get leads to break real news stories on the evening news.

Now, it appears that some on the county board are trying to shut down this effort at open government by banning the use of Twitter by county board members.

This, of course, is a political gesture — perhaps even a personal effort aimed at Commissioner Peraica.

Either way, it’s wrong.  If County Board members don’t like what Commissioner Peraica is sharing on Twitter — then they should start their own Twitter accounts and counter his arguments.

Partisan politics is no reason to stymie open government.

The LEC is a national center for research and education that focuses on the timely and relevant economic analysis of legal and public policy issues.  This new Web site will be part of a new, modern communications strategy for the center, designed to reach academics, policymakers and key media.

We’re excited to be a part of this new chapter at the LEC!

But, as Mashable reports, the company’s CEO is crediting its use of social media — specifically Foursquare — for its resurgence:

CEO Chris Moore points to the rise in online orders — which now account for 32.7% of all orders — as proof that their web and social media efforts are paying off.

Moore reports that when it comes to the web, “Our main Facebook site now has in excess of 36,000 fans … In addition, we have led the way with social media initiatives such as affiliate marketing, our superfans programme and the development of a link up with Foursquare.”

Moore concludes that, “all of these web-based activities offer a dual benefit of driving pizza sales online and building customer loyalty.”

You may recall that the Foursquare promotion rewards mayors of UK stores with free pizza; other patrons who check-in receive a free side dish. The promotion was initially piloted in select locations but later rolled out nationwide after the program proved to successful.

Are you a retailer who is still resisting social media as a “fad”?  Still criticizing those who use Foursquare?

Get in the game.  As you can see from the Domino’s example, you can’t afford not to.

We’re fortunate to work with a great group of clients that challenge us each and every day.

And we’re pleased to announce the addition of some new clients to our team:

• Metropolitan Chicago Healthcare Council (email advocacy)
• Illinois House Republican Organization (email advocacy)
• Gary DeMoss for Maryland State Senate (online communications … Web site coming soon)

We’re also tackling some new projects for JUSTPAC (the political action committee of our existing client, the Illinois Civil Justice League) and look forward to some upcoming projects for the Illinois Chamber of Commerce.

We’re excited to work with each and every one of these organizations, and look forward to contributing to their success.

“part of a ‘new breed of Republican politics’ — a young, energetic politician who tapped into social networking and worked hard throughout the state.”

Jason made the e-campaign an important part of his campaign, including building one of the largest Republican voter email networks in the state, and a large and active following on Facebook.  It is interesting to note that Jason won the campaign by approximately 4,700 votes — and had about 4,700 supporters on Facebook.

Jason made a strong commitment to building his campaign’s strategic online program, and we were honored to help him build a strong, statewide online grassroots network that was a strong component of his winning effort.

Over a three-month period, our firm helped the Plummer campaign build one of, if not the largest, statewide Republican voter email networks, as well as one of the strongest “social networking” outreach efforts in Illinois.

We also were honored to work on the gubernatorial campaign of former Illinois Attorney General Jim Ryan.  Jim came up short in a closely-contested Republican Primary, but we were proud of the work we did for his campaign — and honored to work for a great man and a dedicated public servant.