Trend Watching at Campaigns & Marketing Summit

On a daily basis, I read a variety of digital marketing and public affairs newsletters to keep up on tactics being used in successful campaigns. I also attend a couple conferences per year that force me to clear my schedule and spend time thinking about ways to have more impact for my clients. My goal at each event is to find a few nuggets to take home either for implementation or further learning.

I recently attended the Campaigns & Marketing Summit in Washington, D.C. Following are a few items I took away from the gathering.

1) 95% of people read text messages within 3 minutes. No other messaging medium gets that kind of attention, and it’s hard to ignore SMS as a campaign tool. But while texting is commonly used in political campaigns, most public affairs campaigns are still trying to figure it out. I have a couple clients for whom I think there could be an application, and I’m hoping to incorporate texting into more advocacy efforts next year.

2) KiKi L’Italien gave an interesting presentation about integration of voice services (Alexa, Siri, etc) into campaigns. I can think of a few ways it could work for issue campaigns, but it’s hard to justify investing time and resources without good metrics being available. But this is definitely an area to watch.

3) The Wikipedia platform is a beast, but I 100% agree that it’s important. However, I’m also glad there are other consultants I can partner with when a client has a need! Josh Greene from The Mather Group gave a lot of good advice on navigating the site.

I’m looking forward to trying a couple new things in 2019!

Heather Lauer, Owner of Villageous LLC, is a senior public affairs professional specializing in grassroots campaign strategy and management. She has over two decades of experience in communications strategy, digital advocacy, stakeholder relations, coalition building, and brand and reputation management.