Rubio For Senate A Communications Perspective

Where The Campaign Began Marco announces his campaign via YouTube on May 9, 2009 The first poll with Crist as a candidate showed the governor winning 53%-3% (Quinnipiac, 2/09) 69% of Floridians hadn’t heard enough about Rubio to form on opinion (Quinnipiac, 2/09) Crist has “sky-high job approval” Crist announces on May 12, 2009

Where The Campaign Ended Rubio wins: Three-way race by 19.2% (R-48.9, C-29.7, M- 20.1). By more than one million votes. 62 of the 67 counties, including Miami-Dade. Both male (55%) and female (44%) vote. Republicans (87%) and Independents (51%). 55% of the Hispanic vote.

Key Events 5/9/09: Rubio Announces On YouTube 6/15/09: Sen. DeMint Endorses Summer ’09: Straw Poll Victories 9/7/09: National Review Cover 2/18/10: CPAC Speech 3/28/10: Fox News Sunday Republican Primary Debate 4/29/10: Crist Switches To Run As An Independent May ‘10 – July ‘10: Gulf Oil Spill And Special Session Overreach August ‘10: Changing ObamaCare Positions Fall ‘10: 5 Debates Fall ‘10: Ad War

Narratives That Developed The Narratives: Establishment Vs. Anti-Washington And Grassroots Moderate Vs. Conservative Typical Politicians Vs. Principled Leadership Show And Tell: Establishment Endorsements Vs. Straw Poll Victories. Crist Hugs Obama Vs. Rubio On National Review Cover And Talking To CPAC Crist’s Ever Changing Positions Vs. Rubio Telling The Truth On Social Security.

Elements Of Success Messenger With A Clear Message Clear Strategy Focus On Earned Media Gave Voters A Reason To Vote For Marco Grassroots Focus Advantage In Information Management Integrated Campaign

Messenger With A Clear Message Message: Marco Rubio is the only candidate who will go to Washington and be a clear alternative to the policies that are taking our country in the wrong direction. Everything Revolved Around That Message: Ads, Ideas, Press Releases, Fundraising… Show And Tell: What were the data points that backed up that message? The Stimulus ObamCare Spending Ideas To Reclaim America

Clear Strategy Primary Strategy: Marco Rubio is the true conservative, Republican voters question Crist. General Election Strategy: Drive Up Republican Vote, Get One-Third Of Independents, Deprive Crist Of Democrat Votes. Communications Geared Toward This Strategy: For example, Crist’s changing positions were highlighted to make him unacceptable to Republicans as more liberal and unacceptable to Democrats as someone not true to their issues.

Focus On Earned Media Dominate A Media Market: Spend a day in one media market doing local press event and then in-studio interviews. Thirty Seconds On A Local TV Stations Could Be Worth Up To $30,000: Local TV interviews usually were two minutes long. In The Primary, The Race Had A Nearly 60 Point Swing Without One Ad Being Aired. In The General, Crist Was On TV Constantly During The Gulf Oil Spill And Was Up 11 Points By The End Of July: Rubio campaign compensated by launching the Ideas to Reclaim America.

Gave Voters A Reason To Vote For Marco Conservative Alternative Ideas To Reclaim America (80 ideas on the economy, spending, Gulf Coast recovery, health care, education, veterans, seniors and agriculture)

Grassroots Focus A True Bottom Up Approach Team Leaders Online Community Asks…

Advantage In Information Management Campaigns are inundated with information. The key is to be the campaign that see information first and can quickly judge importance. Explosion of information sources. Have to build monitoring infrastructure. In Florida, it was a game changer: We saw all local TV, could judge how far and wide information was spreading, could see new TV ads before they were released and could watch opponent interviews from across the state. Crist ObamaCare Flip-Flop is a prime example

An Integrated Campaign Website: 2.6 million page views, 55% of all visits List: 1 in 3 subscribers made a contribution Twitter: 2,095 (5/09), 17,543 (11/10), 58% of all Twitter followers Facebook: 1,244 (5/09), 130,999 (11/10), 72% of all Facebook likes YouTube: Uploaded 275 videos, viewed average of 5,007 times, 1,267,277 total views, 85% of all YouTube views First: U.S. Senate Candidate To pass 100,000 Facebook likes and 1,000,000 YouTube views. Stimulus Bomb Fundraiser (2/10) In His Own Words Video Series Fox News Sunday Debate: Rubio Put Out 7 Response Videos, Crist 1 (Over 100 Views For Every Crist One View)