Our highly compelling and creative TV and radio ads have not only helped our clients win their elections, but have also won numerous awards– including 18 Pollie Awards! In addition to our TV and radio ads, we have also pioneered the use of non-traditional electronic ads for elevators and convenience stores such as 7-11’s, movie screens targeted by congressional district, and, of course, YouTube and the Internet.
Today’s advertising environment is a constant battle for the viewer’s attention – not only against your opponent(s), but against big corporate clients such as Budweiser, Apple, and Microsoft. Our creative, strategic approach gives you original ads that cut through the clutter of a crowded market and give you the edge you need to win.
Whether our clients are trying to advance ideas, advocate issues, or impact another campaign, we bring our experience, insight, and creativity to the job of charting the best course of action. In addition to 30 years of political media consulting experience, our principal, Dave Heller, spent four years as a senior analyst for one of our party’s largest polling firms. He knows how to turn raw data into actionable campaign strategy, and cold numbers into warm, moving, emotional ads. We delve into the personalities and issues, and the geographic, demographic, ideological and attitudinal components of each district, as well as the campaign environment, to develop and implement the best communications strategy to help each client win.
Campaigns often turn on improving and elevating the reputation of the candidate; your reputation and how you are seen by voters is, in essence, the product. At Main Street, we take pride in making ads that are both rooted in your polling data but also completely authentic to you – because voters quickly sense when something is fake or canned. We make it our mission to absorb your personal story, learn what makes you unique and sets you apart from your opponent, and find ways to amplify and persuade others to buy into your message.
We do this by making it easy for voters to see: a) their stake in your election; b) the degree to which you share their values; and c) your substantive differences with your opponent(s), without being overly negative and, in the process, alienating the very voters upon whom you will depend on to win. We make it a priority to tell your story – weaving your agenda for your district into your story, showing your values (rather than telling them), illuminating your confidence and principles (and showing how they inform your vision), and demonstrating why you are best qualified to lead. Throughout, we ensure that an appropriate balance is struck here between your past achievements and putting forth a confident, forward-looking vision for the future.
ROLL CALL, ON REP. MIKE MCINTYRE'S 2012 RE-ELECTION CAMPAIGN (NC-7)
In today’s media environment, it is not enough merely to make creative ads that grab the voter’s attention; successful campaigns require a fully integrated approach to television, radio and the Internet. Having an energetic online presence can accelerate traffic to your website, earn free media coverage, expand your volunteer base, increase your fundraising capacity and help persuade target voters – giving your campaign a critical edge when every dollar matters.
At Main Street, we not only handle your traditional media needs – television, radio and Internet ads – we also provide digital strategy and content planning that will set you apart and increase the reach of your advertising investment. Whether you are looking to build or improve your campaign website, grow your social media presence, stream live video events, reach voters with Google Ads, or engage the netroots with targeted blog content, we help you find the online opportunities that can make the biggest impact for your campaign. And we help bring together your online and offline strategies so that all aspects of your campaign speak with one voice.
Our media buying is on time, on budget, and on target. At MainStreet, we start by giving you the full menu from each station, not a pre-designed buy designed to spend your entire budget. You will see the cost –and cost-per-point – for each show on TV and understand why we selected that program rather than another. We then overlay your polling and campaign targets over the Nielsen data to give you a buy specifically tailored to your campaign’s individual needs. Most important, we call through each station everyday, working tirelessly to get you the very best rates while still ensuring that your spots actually get on the air.
Take a look at our TV ads. You will see one thing makes them standout: the quality. The colors are sharper and more vivid; the graphics are cleaner and crisper, with eye-catching movement; and the writing is more clever and more focused. Voters take their cues from TV; if the ads are both emotional and visually compelling, voters are more likely to feel good about supporting you. Dave Heller is an award-winning writer, director and producer. He has won 18 Pollie Awards for his work and his ads are routinely featured on CNN and in Campaigns& Elections’ “Best Political TV Ads.” Even our colorful logo won an award for best design.
Part of the reason the ads look so sharp is the quality of our production team. Our director of photography, Nick Gardner, has been nominated for four EMMY Awards, and helped shoot the movie Die Hard 4. Our gaffer and camera assistant each worked for Netflix on House of Cards and for HBO on its critically acclaimed show, The Wire, andregularly shoot for the Discovery Channel and the National Geographic Channel. Together, we make high-quality adsthat are more creative, more humorous, and far better looking than the typicalpolitical ads we see over and over – the kind which voters so quickly tune out!
Another reason is the quality of our cameras. Our ads are shot with a RED EPIC camera – astate-of-the-art camera used to film many first-run movies. Many firms shoothigh-definition digital. But few shoot RED. What’s the difference? REDprovides the same breathtaking look and depth of field as 35mm film – at afraction of the cost. Its image quality is unmatchedand, because it is chip-based, there are no tape costs (and no recordinglimitations). Perhaps most important, RED allows us to shoot at 120frames-per-second instead of the usual 30 frames-per-second. The result? Eachscene encompasses more than 12 million pixels for a resolution that canonly be called “Ultra High Definition.” Our cameras capture far moreinformaton than traditional HD cameras – and in so doing give your ads a muchricher, more cinematic feel.
In fact, because the quality of our video is so high, we can actually pull still photographs right off of the video. RED is the first and only true DSMC (Digital, Stills and Motion Camera). Because each frame is shot at 5K resolution, each frame can be frozen into a scene usable on a website, a billboard, or even your direct mail – with no loss of quality whatsoever! Indeed, with our color correction system, the colors and the video can be enhanced further still. In so doing, you can save literally thousands of dollars by avoiding a separate direct mail shoot and allow your campaign to put more of its dollars on the air.
Finally, we ensure you get a sharper looking picture, richer with color, because we color-correct every frame of my ads on a 2K color corrector – the same machine used to correct film in first-run movies.The result is noticeable – in every frame of every ad, skin tones are consistent and vibrant, and the candidate always looks perfect. We also use state-of-the-art graphics to give the spots a higher-end look. The end result is an ultra-high-end product at an affordable price that looks as good as the $100,000 corporate ads seen on TV – and far, far better than most of the standard political fare voters are used to seeing.