Voters overwhelmingly approved Amendment 4 - Florida's land conservation amendment.

Florida Campaign Uses Humor, New Media to Spur Election Victory

November 06, 2008

TALLAHASSEE - In a year where the presidential campaigns spent a record billion dollars, and billions more were spent on campaigns for candidates and issues nationwide, a smartly conceived and executed Florida environmental campaign received nearly 70 percent of the vote on a shoe-string budget.

Voters overwhelmingly approved Amendment 4 - Florida's land conservation amendment. An innovative messaging campaign conceived by Ron Sachs Communications played a key role in the measure's success.

With limited resources and intense competition from the historic presidential race and a full slate of other amendments, Ron Sachs Communications pursued an internet-based social media strategy using YouTube, Facebook and Twitter to bring the Amendment 4 conservation message to voters.

"Faced with a huge presidential election year and limited resources, we decided that social media and viral videos were key avenues to spread the campaign's conservation message," said Ron Sachs, president and CEO of Ron Sachs Communications. "We are proud to help pass such an important piece of public policy to conserve Florida's natural heritage."

Ron Sachs Communications produced a series of unique Web videos, featuring talking animals urging voters to save their habitat from development. In contrast to the complicated ballot language, this memorable message helped voters connect Amendment 4 with wildlife conservation.

The campaign sent a series of HTML e-mails featuring links to the videos to e-mail lists held by Citizens for Conservation Land and dozens of partner organizations supporting Amendment 4. The conservation campaign videos are posted at http://www.youtube.com/user/FloridaBearfor4. The videos also were featured on targeted newspaper Web sites.

The campaign also employed guerilla tactics, including putting a person in a bear costume outside voting locations waving an Amendment 4 sign. The sign-toting bear was featured in a CNN Election Day live shot.

"We decided to go for a smile instead of the sneer and snore strategy that was all too common this election year," explained Ron Sachs Communications' vice president Ryan Banfill who served as the chief communications consultant for the campaign. "Clearly, with this Florida landslide for land conservation, the campaign worked. We reached voters across the state with a memorable message encouraging support for Amendment 4 - all the while smartly allocating limited resources."