The Mellman Group is pleased to have been honored with two 2011 Campaigns and Elections Reed Awards and recognition as a finalist for a third. We were thrilled to have been part of so many winning campaigns in very tough year for Democrats, but we are particularly proud of this salute from our peers.
The Mellman Group won:
A special Reed award for “Best Use of New Technology” recognizing our innovative ad testing, using randomized online experiments. Campaigns wisely spend significant sums developing messages through polls and focus groups, and even more money putting those ads on the air. However, in moving from message to paid media much can get lost or garbled-hence the need to test ads before spending millions to air them. Our web-based ad tests, honored by Campaigns & Elections, played critical roles in producing victories for Senators Reid and Boxer, as well as in several other races-telling us which ads worked, which didn’t and helping us understand how to make ads maximally effective.
The “Best Campaign Comeback” honored our work for Senator Harry Reid, and was shared by our colleagues on the campaign, Manager Brandon Hall, Senior Adviser Rebecca Lambe, media consultants GMMB and direct mail consultants Ambrosino, Muir and Hansen. Our work in Nevada gained national recognition as scores of polls and pundits declared Majority Leader Harry Reid politically dead. Reid was kind enough to tell the press The Mellman Group was “the best pollster in the country,” in part because ours was the only polling that accurately showed Reid leading, nailing the final result on the head.Perhaps more important, as part of one of the best campaign teams ever assembled, we helped craft a strategy, based on the research, that secured a victory others judged nearly impossible. Working for Harry Reid, a principled and productive Leader, in the single most important race of the year, has been one of our firm’s greatest privileges.
In the “Best Use of Targeting Technology” category we were selected as a finalist for our advanced microtargeting for the Chandler for Congress campaign.
The Reed Awards recognize excellence in political campaign management, political consulting and political communication. The awards, named after Campaigns & Elections founder Stanley Foster Reed, embody his mission to strive for excellence in political campaigning.
“The 2011 Reed Award recipients represent the best and brightest in our industry,” said Campaigns & Elections Executive Editor Costas Panagopoulos, Ph.D. “Their achievements have raised the bar considerably, and they are revolutionizing campaign practices. We are honored to recognize this work.”
Winners were selected by a panel of over twenty-five judges, chosen from among the industry’s top campaigning experts.
The Mellman Group emerges from this most difficult cycle not only with an enhanced reputation for both accurate results and winning strategies, but also with two firm records still intact: we have never lost an incumbent re-election for Governor or Senate and we have helped pick up a Republican seat in every election cycle we have been in business.