Could you use Foursquare for get-out-the-vote activities?

Location based marketing tools/games like Foursquare are continuing to make inroads in consumer's minds. Will they be part of the next Presidential campaign's "get-out-the-vote" strategy too?

Jordan Raynor has a great post on TechRepublican on how his firm is helping one of Florida county's Board of Elections turn every polling site into a Foursquare location. That got me thinking about how a campaign or advocacy organization could use this technology to proactively turn out more voters. How could you integrate this with early and absentee voting?

First of all everyone should go here and sign the petition to get Foursquare to create a "I Voted" badge. Now hopefully they will embrace this effort to open their service to a whole new market of political application.

Next we should accept that some sort of Foursquare badge is not going to replace your whole voter turnout strategy. It should be looked at as a add-on to get targeted younger (25-35), tech savvy professionals who are probably some of the very same people who have horrible records of voter turnout.

• What if a campaign was able to use fb and Twitter to identify all their supporters who used Foursquare? Then encourage them to cross-post their Foursquare checkin to all their social media platforms with a message like "I just voted early for Marco Rubio. How? Go here ...." the here might be a link to a campaign site that explains state and local law on how and when a voter can vote early or thru the mail.
• What if the Walorski for Congress campaign had a Foursquare location for a early vote rally outside a courthouse or city office where supporters could checkin and let all their friends know they are voting early and how to do it?
• What if a Congressman Aaron Schock skipped the photo op of voting on election day and voted early so his fans could say they voted on the same day as him and maybe post photos of them with him outside the polling site?
• What if Organizing for America offered a free carton of cigarettes to the Mayor of each precinct to reward people for voting as many times as possible? Ok, maybe that one is not a good idea.
• What if the Heck for Congress campaign offered  free VIP tickets to the next fund raiser to whoever was Mayor of their GOTV phone bank?
• What if Gov. Mitch Daniel's campaign for President used Foursquare checkins to monitor who has already turned out and voted for him at Iowa Caucus locations?

I think the possibilities are incredible once creative, tech minded campaign folks start thinking about how this technology can make their job easier.

How would you use it?

5 things you are too chicken to do with your campaign mail Part 2 White Space

The dictionary describes white space as "the unprinted area of a piece of printing, as of a poster or newspaper page, or of a portion of a piece of printing, as of an advertisement; blank space."


Commercial ads get this and use it effectively quite often.


Political ads and mail on the other hand seem to think that if there is more space you should just add more policy and issue bullet points. Because everyone is interested in your 27 point plan to reshape local government right? Not so much...


My point is instead of trying to make your next piece a "issue summary" why not pick one issue and use high impact visuals and compelling, but concise, copy to deliver a message that leaves an impression on a voter.


Do not believe that continuing to decrease your font size is the best way to squeeze in more text. Resist the urge to turn your mailing into a white paper on policy. Use your mail to push an interested reader to you web site. Your campaign site is that place where you can have the 27 point plan with 15 part appendix.


Last but not least please please please skip the stars, elephants and eagles that so many political candidates seem to think are mandatory. If your mailing says "Smith for Senate" then voters don't need a gratuitously huge flag and a elephant shooting stars from it's trunk...they get it, you are running for office.


Good luck and feel free to post your examples of really bad/good mail pieces to our facebook page for Fans of Political Mail .

5 things you are too chicken to do with your political voter contact mail Part 1

To clarify here I mean “voter contact mail” NOT fund raising mail. The kind that says your opponent has horns and kicks puppies or says that you are the greatest thing since sliced bread.

1. UNSUBSCRIBE – We put it on almost all of our electronic communications so why not put an email address or SMS code on your mail offering voters the option to “not receive any additional mail from the campaign”? Why do it? A hypothesis of mine is that - any and all efforts to engage voters and encourage feedback is a good thing - so why not try it in your mail. Let’s say that 5% of a mailing universe of 50,000 households responds (wildly high number that I doubt would happen) then you would have to remove 2,500 households from your voter contact universe and save, ball park $1,000 in your next mailing. Over the course of five more mailings you could save $5k…or more.

So are you losing the ability to talk to 2,500 households? Realistically, if they are willing to go thru the effort to do that they are either hard core supporters or hard core haters. Either of which probably don’t need any more mail from you. I am sure there will be a few in there who are just angry independents and may be undecided but, again, if they are willing to go thru the trouble of emailing or texting you then they really don’t want to get any more mail from you.

Let’s take a closer look at the hard core supporters who respond (say 1,000 households of the original 2,500) why not offer them the additional choice of unsubscribe AND get a yard sign or unsubscribe and volunteer. Maybe you could take them off the voter contact universe and add them to a fund raising list. See Malcolm Gladwell’s notes on Mavens.

As with anything else the devil is always in the details. If you wanted to try this you would need to make sure you had some sort of follow up mechanism in place (insert intern joke here) to clean your list and respond to those interested in getting more involved in the campaign. This, of course, is where most campaigns will suffer an epic fail and not do the follow up.

Naturally, most of my clients are not chickens so when we have data on this I will share it.

Faulkner Strategies is Hiring

Faulkner Strategies is looking for a Graphic Designer/Web Coder to work out of our Granger Indiana office. Must be able to create all graphic elements plus code the websites. Come and join our fun and creative team of professionals. Email Larry@Faulknerstrategies.com if interested for more details.

Faulkner Strategies Congratulates Winning Clients From the Indiana Primary

Faulkner Strategies would like to congratulate our clients on a successful primary campaign:

Congressman Mark Souder, IN 3

Jackie Walorski for Congress, IN 2

Todd Rokita for Congress, IN 4

Larry Bucshon for Congress, IN 8

Todd Young for Congress, IN 9

Indiana Chamber of Commerce

State Representative Tom Dermody

State Representative Dan Leonard

Dick Pfeil for State Representative

Jim Banks for State Senate

Rebecca Kubacki for State Representative

Heath VanNatter for State Representative

Francis Ellert for State Representative

Rhonda Rhoads for State Representative

Cindy Kirchoffer for State Representative

“All of our clients worked really hard and I am extremely proud of their success. I want to thank all of them for choosing Faulkner Strategies to be a part of their winning team,” stated Angela Faulkner, President of Faulkner Strategies.

Faulkner Strategies is a Republican mail firm that specializes in delivering targeted and personalized communications for campaigns throughout the country. They work one-on-one with each candidate to develop a strategic plan that fits the individual candidate’s needs and positions them for victory.

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Three Reasons to Use Location Based Services

No Matter Where You Go, There You Are.

In the past couple years one of the biggest new trends in technology and social media is the integration of Geo-Social Networking and Location-based applications. Even though location-based technology has been around for a long time, it seems like every week a new player is joining into the game of location-based applications.

Some of the first sites to use this type of technology were simple geo-tagging applications like Google Maps, YouTube, and photo sharing sites like Flickr. These sites allowed people to group together things based on a shared location or community. Sites such as these paved the way for location based social networking communities such as Foursquare, Gowalla, Yelp, and numerous others.

With more and more websites, networks, and applications using these location based services. As a consumer you may be wondering, why should I be using these services?

Here are three reasons why you need to be using these services:

1. Network and relationship building

Foursquare, Gowalla, and Yelp all allow people to “check in” to locations and businesses. If a business or location is not there already, users are able to create a profile for one. By using this feature it lets other people see what you are doing and where you are located. This “check in” process creates a stream of content that contains all of your daily travels. Other people can then follow this stream and engage with you on items that relate to them. The more information you know about someone the more you get to know them. You can also follow other people’s travels to see where they are going and where they have been. If your friends are using this service as well, you can know where all of them are located in a city without ever making a single phone call.

As a business owner you can learn a lot of valuable insights about your customers by monitoring your brand presence across these mediums. You can identify your biggest supporters and people who are upset with your company. You can then engage with these people and make sure they continue to be supporters of your brand, or do all you can to correct the situation. As the old saying goes if you give somebody great service they will tell one person, but if you give somebody bad service they will tell ten people.

2. Learn more about a location

Now that you have met some people in the area and know of a few local businesses, you can rely on the community to get some information on them. These sites allow you to create reviews, tips, advice, recommendations, comparisons, and even “To Do Lists” within a location. If you visit a restaurant and it has the best chicken dish in the world, instead of keeping it to yourself, now you can share it with the world by posting it on one of these sites. The more you learn about a location or business the smarter you become as a consumer.

Reviews always mean more when you have a relationship with the person they are coming from. User generated content is the best source of this as it is more often than not unbiased and from real customers. However, this doesn’t mean it can’t come from the business. If you work to develop strong relationships with your customers they will trust you when you market them with information that is worthwhile and relative to them.

Even the History Channel is getting involved with location based services. They are launching a campaign with Foursquare that gives users a historic bit of information when they check in to certain locations. It is a good example of how these types of services can enrich a person’s overall experience within a location.

3. Promote your business by engaging with your customers

As a business owner you should look for incentives to bring people to your location. Gowalla and Foursquare both have competitive elements to them that track and reward users for visiting local businesses. You should take advantage of this marketing medium that is already developed for you and use it to motivate people to come to your business.

Whoever has the most “check ins” to a certain location becomes the Mayor of that location on Foursquare. You can offer a reward program to whoever is the current mayor of your location or whoever “checks in” over a certain threshold as a loyalty program.

When you notice people are checking into your location via Facebook and Twitter this gives you another chance to engage with the customer. You can offer these customers tips, advice, specials, information or promotions. This gives you an additional way to interact with them and ensure they had excellent experience at your location.

The more “check ins”, reviews, shouts, and mentions you have throughout your social networks the better it is for your search engine optimization. Google Maps and Bing Maps use Foursquare venues when people use the local search option. All of the tips, shouts, and reviews you gather are used as citations which search engines use in their rank algorithm which work to help increase your rank. This makes your business easier to find on search engines, which brings more customers to your door. So take advantage of these sites and use them to promote the activities of your business. Show the world how your location is different from all of the others.

For more information on ways to promote your business on Foursquare read the post “5 Ways to Use Foursquare for Business” by Kyle Lacy.

And remember, if you never go out, then you can’t go home.

Dyngus Day at Faulkner Strategies

Even though it has officially been spring for eleven days, these are the first few days in Northern Indiana that it truly feels like spring time. Days are getting longer, the sun is shining brighter, temperatures are finally getting up into the 70’s and most importantly, election season is right on the other side of a long weekend.

Monday, April 5^th brings to us Dyngus Day, which is a holiday heavily celebrated in South Bend, Indiana that kicks off the coming political season. Dyngus Day occurs the Monday following Easter Sunday and is celebrated in largely Polish and Christian based cultures.

Here at Faulkner Strategies we are going to be holding our own celebration by hosting our 2^nd Annual Dyngus Day Breakfast complete with all you can eat pancakes, delicious toppings, and traditional Polish sausage. We will also be having a special guest in attendance, Congressional Candidate Jackie Walorski, will be joining us for breakfast. Plates will only be $20 a person and all proceeds will benefit Mrs. Walorski’s campaign. Follow us throughout the day using the #Dyngus hashtag. Feel free to bring any friends and family to the event. We would love to see you here!

Monday is a very big day around the area as it also marks the first day of early voting in Indiana, and the deadline to register or update your voter registration for the upcoming May 4^th, primary election.

Indiana residents are eligible to vote in the primary if they

· Will be at least 18 years of age at the next General Election on November 2, 2010,

· Are a citizen of the United States and a resident of Indiana,

· Are not currently in prison after being convicted of a crime, and

· Will have lived in the precinct where they plan to vote for at least 30 days prior to the election.

Take the time to make sure you are updated and registered for the upcoming election season.

How to get a job in politics.

I was in College Park MD this weekend teaching a campaign school for American Majority . It was a decent size class with some potential candidates for various offices. One of the students during a break asked me "How do I get to do what you do?" It is not an uncommon question and I always have to chuckle a bit when I get it.

In 1996 my first campaign "job" was yard sign guy. That's right, I was the guy with the rusty '85 Chevy S-10 who drove around with no air conditioning with a neighborhood map, list of locations and 50 signs in the back. I had just gotten out of the Marines and was working a retail job. Angela and I did not have any kids yet so we had lots of time. We had just moved to South Bend Indiana and had no clue where anything was. So with no GPS I learned about every neighborhood in Northern Indiana while putting up yard signs for a doomed congressional campaign. The primary came in May and my guy got trounced by State Senator Joe Zakas. In the small world that is professional politics, ironically, the guy who managed the Zakas for Congress campaign who won the primary but later lost the general election was none other than Steve Schmidt who would become more famous in 2008 running McCain's campaign for President.

Despite the loss in the primary I was even more eager to continue full time volunteering for a campaign. My next gig was campaign "coordinator" for a state senate campaign. What is a coordinator? Well, it was whatever the candidate needed. I walked a LOT of doors, got chased by a few dogs, organized press conferences, recruited volunteers and put up even more yard signs. Again, election day came and I was disappointed to see my candidate lose. It was only later I figured out how some districts are real long shots based on gerrymandering.

So I was 0-2…but people kept asking me to get more and more involved on campaigns? Was I lucky? Obviously not, as I still had not been associated with a winning campaign. People still wanted my help because I did whatever was asked of me, did not complain and did every job assigned as if that job was "make or break" for the candidate. I was young and inexperienced enough to believe that everyone approached campaign volunteer work this way.

So how do you get a job in politics? Hard work on whatever job is given to you is the best answer. Now, I am not going to try and tell you that knowing the "right" people is not important. Networking is crucial to success in jobs in politics. The good news is even if you are a guy who never went to college, never was a CR, doesn't know anyone in DC and lived in a "fly-over" state you can still out-work other people with more advantages to end up with a great series of jobs and eventually a consultant.

Do you have a "Rabbi" or "sugar-Daddy"? There are a million different ways to describe this relationship. Is there a senior person in politics (elected official, consultant, chief-of-staff, etc) who knows you and likes you? It is a little known fact that most consultants seek out junior people to develop and place on campaigns. Do we always do it out of the goodness of our hearts? Most of the time, personally, I just like to see the right people get plugged into a job that fits them on a campaign. Now, if they end up in a position where they need some mail then, of course, my hope is that they call me.

How do you limit your potential and ensure being passed over for jobs on political campaigns? That is, actually, pretty easy. Follow these simple steps:

• Insist on being involved in a "senior" position right away.
  
• Only work hard on the "important stuff".
  
• Blab to the press or other people about internal campaign stuff.
  
• Do something illegal.
  
• Lie.
  
• Complain to the candidate or anyone else that you are not being given important stuff to do.
  

Good luck on your job search. If you are looking currently I would HIGHLY recommend a profile on LinkedIn.com and let me know if I can help.

 

Chris Faulkner

Why the GOP needs a (free) Twitter

Twitter really is addicting.

In my pre-Faulkner Strategies days, I wandered the sidewalks of my college campus, pointing my finger and laughing at those social media elitists “tweeting” away on their crackberries. Silly kids, Twitter is for old people, I thought.

So wrong.

A coworker forced me to make a Twitter account 3 hours into my first day of work. I grimaced, sucked it up, and made an account. Since that day, I’ve traveled far and wide in the Twitterland universe, hacking hashtags and conversing with complete strangers. But alas, my journey of Twitter happiness may come to an abrupt end soon.

At a recent media summit at the Sun Valley resort, Twitter rumors ran wild. Although the summit was closed to the media (ironic), it was leaked that the media gurus discussed the possibility of Twitter charging their users for the service.

Bad idea.

The fee to use Twitter probably wouldn’t be real high. But we’d see a decrease in the number of young Twitter users. Which could mean bad things for the Twitter world. And , I believe, bad things for the Republican Party.

Obama captivated the majority of young voters in 2008. He was everywhere: on TV, in college newspapers, and even on college campuses. His presence on the Internet helped young people relate to him. The Republican Party hasn’t done much to appeal to the young voting population – until now.

Unlike Facebook, Twitter allows users to follow celebrities and high-profile politicians. And, not surprisingly, young people are eager to do so. According to a recent survey by Pace University, 54 percent of young Twitter users follow famous individuals.

So what does this have to do with the Republican Party?

According to a February Washington Times article, the Republicans seem to “finally get it” when it comes to using new media. At the time of publishing, 49 of 219 Repubs in Congress were Tweeting, compared with 27 of 317 Democrats. Other high-profile Republicans, such as Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck, and Newt Gingrich are also daily users. The GOP presence on Twitter provides the Party with something it hasn’t had thus far: a direct link to the young population. Their 140-character spin-free messages quickly reach readers, and provide them with an inside look at the politicians’ thoughts. The use of this innovative technology is priceless for Republicans, who young people often view as “old” and “out-of-touch” with the times.

If Twitter remains a free tool (for the sake of my attention span in lecture, let’s hope it does), Republicans have the potential to increase their popularity among young voters. Since utilizing Twitter is the most youthful thing the GOP has done since Sarah Palin had a baby, this is a big deal.

The Early Years: Making the Most out of Campaign Events

My boss (Chris Faulkner) isn’t always a chatty person in the office. But this week, I got the pleasure of listening to him talk for 15 full minutes on his latest podcast, “The Early Years: Making the Most out of Campaign Events”. By listening to it, I learned more in 15 minutes than I did in an entire semester’s worth of “Elections 2008”. Then again, I didn’t expect to learn much when I realized my professor was incapable of moving past his slides plastered with Sarah Palin photographs. Sick old man.

But seriously – take a few minutes out of your day and listen in.

Chris offers a step-by-step way to improve the “usual” campaign event strategy. He talks about the importance of what can be taken away from an event. Sure, coming in and firing up the crowd is important, he says, but that fire will cool off soon after the event ends. To be successful, a candidate must have a system in place at the event to churn up support afterward. Nothing butta’ than that. (Laugh.) To do that, utilizing volunteers effectively is necessary.

Campaigns shouldn’t just blindly herd a group of volunteers. Rather, assigning specific responsibilities will produce better results, he says. For example, Chris talks about creating a “bumper sticker team” (not to be confused with Bloomington liberals). The team will be at events, armed with campaign bumper stickers, Windex, and paper towels. As people exit (and when enthusiasm is high), the volunteers can ask the drivers if they’d be okay with having a bumper sticker on the back of their vehicles. This way, the bumper stickers actually end up on cars and not small children’s t-shirts. And, as we all know, car travel is much faster (and therefore effective) than kid travel. Unless your child is a Transformer.

The bumper sticker team is just one of Chris’s suggestions. Listen to the rest of the podcast to learn how to gain contact information from prospective voters and volunteers and how to engage event attendees with some simple photography.

To hear more of Chris’s suggestions, you can download his podcast on iTunes (search for Chris Faulkner) or by going to AmericanMajority.org.

Cubs' PR is Pretty Ridiculous

When you’re in baseball, you can get away with saying a lot more than the average person.

Last month, Chicago Cubs manager Lou Piniella singlehandedly demonstrated the need for better PR management in the sporting industry.

Rather than trying to accurately convey the idiotic statements by Lou, I’ll let his “words of wisdom” do the job:

(6/27) "Look, I'm 66 years old. I feel like 68." (Lou is actually 65.)

(6/26) "Look, I have smoked dope one time in my life. And it didn't do a damn thing for me, and I never tried it again. I'm fortunate because of that. A lot of people do. You can even buy it in California from a pharmacy.”

(6/17) "What do I need to show fire for? I'm not a dragon."

(6/17) “I wouldn’t know a steroid from a reefer.”

I’m all for letting the old man speak for himself. It’s important to show fans an honest image of their team’s head honcho. But someone needs to lay down some ground rules before Piniella admits that he has no idea what he’s doing (because, as the Cubs’ record shows, he doesn’t.)

As he should be, Lou continually tries to take the fall for his team’s mistakes off the field. Geovany Soto admitted to using marijuana, so Lou admits it, too. Sammy Sosa gets outed for steroid usage (duh?), and Lou tries to cover it up with his own lack of street smarts.

But apparently no one’s told the longtime manager that his team is terrible, and that he needs to be taking some of the blame for their pathetic performance on the field. Rarely does Lou admit he did something wrong (which I guess is difficult to do, considering he doesn’t actually do ANYTHING).

Lou’s own pride is part of the problem. But the Cubs’ public relations staff needs to remind Lou that his first priority is what happens on the field. And also that the term “reefer” went out a long time ago. Until that happens, Lou will continue to serve as an example for the entire sporting industry (or, arguably, the world) of what not to say to the media. Let his words be a reminder of the importance of good public relations management for all industries.

For more examples of bad PR, check out Carrie Muskat’s articles on cubs.com. Instead of answering fan’s questions directly, she makes jokes and tells riddles. It’s good stuff.

Sidewalk Campaigns

“9/11 was a HOAX.”

“Barack Obama kills babies.”

“McCain SUCKS!”

These are just a few of the messages I subconsciously noticed last fall as I walked the sidewalks of Indiana University. Our student body, like many across the country, has a fascination with “chalking”. This rather childish marketing technique involves hoarding together as many students as you can, bribing them with Chipotle, and herding them around campus to spread their message via sidewalk chalk.

Political groups especially seem to love the chalking experience. IU’s College Democrats organization even includes chalking in the description of their public relations efforts. The hippies are apparently so confident in Obama’s socialist health care plan that they’re willing to jump the gun on back arthritis. Sadly, my accidental water bottle spill over one pink-and-yellow “HOPE” chalking didn’t seem to have an impact on the Dem’s work; Obama is almost bigger than Bobby Knight down there.

One must wonder whether the chalking technique is an effective one. Unless you’re Barack himself and walk with your nose in the air, at least some of the messages naturally seep into the brain. Whether that’s a good thing or not, I don’t know. I wonder how many easily-influenced (and perhaps stupid) students started questioning the events of 9/11 after walking to class.

Chalking is cheap, easy, and could be fun (after a bar crawl, maybe). But when everyone’s doing it, the clutter becomes a problem. At times last year, our sidewalks were literally packed with pastel-colored slogans and meeting times. It was a little like the internet, without a bookmarking system in place. Scary.

Let’s hope this type of communication stays on campuses. Twitter seems to serve as a better outlet for people to share ideas or market products. Plus, if chalking ever did get hot, it wouldn’t rain enough to keep overzealous Kool-aid drinkers off the streets.

Facebook Trumps Unemployment

After witnessing my 51-year-old father curse out Facebook when it failed to find all of his old girlfriends, I doubt the social media fascination will ever fully extend to all generations. However, Facebook is tremendously useful for a lot of things when you’re young.

Rather than dealing with the awful business of conversation, Facebook stalking allows you to follow every second of your friends’ lives. When you’re in need of an insult, memorizing and reciting (mockingly) another’s profile quotes in front of a large group of people seems to do the trick. And, most importantly, keeping up on sorority gossip is made simple with the provided message function (which comes without a spell check function – perfect for maintaining the ultrahigh Greek ego.)

But one 23-year-old managed to tap into a new (and actually useful) way to use the social media outlet. Yonnick Hammond, used Facebook to trump unemployment and land a job in politics. He made a Facebook ad, which was shown alongside profile pages on the site.

“When I had thought of the ad, I was over three months into unemployment,” says the former RNC staffer and legislative assistant to Rep. Henry Brown Jr. (R-S.C.). “When I applied for jobs, my resume and portfolio would get buried under literally hundreds of other resumes.

Hammond knew he had to do something creative to make himself stand out from the young and eager masses waiting in line for jobs on the Hill. After learning how to create effective online ads through a friend’s consulting shop, Yonnick put his skills to the test.

“I figured if I can receive ads urging me to ‘meet hot young singles’ in my area, I can use an ad to sell myself to employers.”

Yonnick says he was overwhelmed by the reaction to the ad. By looking at Facebook reports, he learned that 166 people clicked on the ad within four days of its creation. Others messaged him through Facebook with encouragement or praise for his innovative use of technology.

“I found that both younger and older people were very receptive,” he says.
However, Yonnick targeted the ad for people in their mid-to-late twenties. He said he felt that audience would be most likely to hire him because they’ve already established themselves professionally. The pin-pointing was obviously successful; Yonnick is now working for the Republican Party of Virginia as their Absentee Ballot Director.

Despite his struggles, Yonnick doesn’t believe young Republicans looking for work should stay away from DC. However, he does think recent college grads should be prepared to take a different route to their preferred job.

“The best advice I can tell anyone who is trying to find a job is to roll up your sleeves and be willing to work, even if it’s not your ideal job.”

Keep it simple, stupid.

Super Bowl commercials have become increasingly lame over the last few years. This year’s game featured only one commercial I found worth my time.

The entire second I dedicated to the Miller High Life commercial was the best second of the entire night (I hate the Steelers).

I had heard about the ad on the radio, and stayed glued to my screen to make sure I didn’t miss it. Sure enough, the trademark Miller High Life guy (Windell Middlebrooks) eventually popped up on the screen, and yelled, “High Life!” The ad really was just one second. If I had blinked, I may have missed it. But the uniqueness of the advertisement and the simplicity of it stuck with me long after I had finished trash-talking Big Ben.

If you pay attention to the advertisements and marketing pieces you notice, you’ll find a common trend: simplicity sells. Making eye-catching promotions requires attention to the eye’s capabilities. Long, drawn-out commercials often get muted. Visually complex billboards get blurred out or overlooked. And wordy writing gets ignored. (I could go off on a rant about exclamation points and the uselessness of them, but I’ll save that for another day.)

Does this mean all TV commercials should be reduced to a mere second in length? Probably not. But it does mean the marketing community needs to refrain from overcomplicating messages.

This is especially true in the direct mail business. Most people will assume your mail piece is just another piece of junk mail. A simple message that’s easy to find will help your readers pay attention. A mail piece that’s visually cluttered will tend to be automatically avoided. No one has time to search for the message. Take a look at Faulkner Strategies’ portfolio to see some examples of visually simple yet effective mail.


Here’s some examples of visually-simplified marketing that works – and visually-complicated marketing that doesn’t:

Bad: 2009 Toyota Prius commercial: This ad reflects what I picture when I listen to my mother reminisce about her experiences in the 60’s (mixed with some Across the Universe clips.) There’s way too much going on visually to focus on the car. However, the childlike unrealism of this ad helps explain why all Priuses are plastered with Obama bumper stickers.

Good: Google.com. Compared to Yahoo.com, it’s much more visually clean. Don’t let your 3rd grade art teacher’s lessons confuse you: white space is necessary. The simplicity of this search engine giant makes it more mobile accessible, too.

Awesome: The fact that The Office is my favorite show doesn’t bias my positive critique of its marketing. The very essence of the show is simplicity: there’s no absurd settings (except maybe Dwight’s beet farm), the plots are rather ordinary, and the characters themselves are, well, simple-minded.

NBC has capitalized on this simplicity with an equally simple marketing scheme. The TV commercials are full of short sound bites. The fan gear is usually black-and-white. And the photos used to promote the show are almost as plain as Pam’s wardrobe. But it all works.


Don’t let visual possibilities overwhelm your marketing message. Yes, Photoshop does allow you to tie-dye every aspect of a print design in a different shade of blue. No, you should not do this (unless you’re attempting to bring back Eiffel 65’s 1998 hit, “I’m Blue”. If so, carry on. That song still rocks.)