“The reversal of public attitudes was stunning a complete rejection of the proposal”
– Mountain Town News
Public polling showed ballot issue 2A in Pueblo, Colorado started with 70% of voters in favor of the municipalization of the electric company a.k.a. the “government utility takeover.” After the final votes were cast voters completely rejected the measure with 76% against the measure.
We were able to achieve this by framing the issue early and often as a “government utility takeover” that was too risky and would increase costs. It was important for us to show a real world example of how this same issue impacted nearby Boulder, Colorado. And, it was critical that voters hear from local Pueblo residents on why they were opposed to 2a.
Below are two more ads from the come-from-behind winning campaign that show how we introduced the concept of consequences from Boulder as well as local testimonials.
Harnessing the Power of Artificial Intelligence to Win
We utilized 57 unique creative video executions at any time. Our efforts showed dramatic overall video completion rates (71.37%) and engagement rates (35.22%). Our AI-powered digital and social advertising campaign was critical to our overall victory on the ballot measure. Through A.I., we could learn what messages and messengers voters responded to best – and adjust creative delivery in real time. As with polling in a lot of races, some messages worked better with Democrats and some worked better with Republicans. However, A.I. was able to analyze thousands of pieces of voting and consumer data on each voter (along with their engagement history on our 2A creative) and optimize content and match messages to messengers.
We also utilized AI-powered technology to identify and analyze key voter attributes within our original target audience that engaged most with our creative. AI identified one audience that stood out: people prioritizing “Low Cost Energy.” We could target an additional 6,000 people that fit that profile that we hadn’t previously fit our targeted voter profile. We expanded to include this new audience and found it incredibly perceptive to our message. This new audience watched our videos at a 72.87% completion rate and clicked our content (CTR) at a rate of 0.16% – much higher than industry standards (and in some cases higher than our other targeted audiences)
Public polling showed ballot issue 2A started with 70% of voters in favor of the measure. After the final votes were cast, voters ultimately rejected the measure, with 76% voting no—a complete rejection of the proposal. Below are 10 digital examples from the campaign: