Picture Perfect Campaigns Press Release

This is your flash test for every mail piece you send: Take your mock-up and show it to a non-campaign participant for two seconds per side. Did they get the message of the piece? Do they remember the candidate's name? Did they get a sense of what the candidate stands for?

Capturing the passive voter's attention through direct mail can make the difference between winning and losing elections. But how do you do that? Who cares what your candidate thinks? Hardly anyone.

In the big picture only the smallest percentage of the population cares who candidates are, what they've done and what they plan to do. Too often, when running a campaign, many novices (and even some pros) don a pair of blinders, assuming their candidate's positions and actions are in the public spotlight.They assume that after a long day, Joe Voter will drop his keys and set-aside dinner, TV, kids, and bills to spend several minutes reading junk mail from a politician. Some Hyper Civic Minded People (HCMP) do just that - consume, contemplate, and act upon persuasive mail. The ability to break past HCMPs and have your message read by the passive voter can separate winning from losing.

Putting yourself in the passive voter's mindset can be difficult for jaded politicos like ourselves. To appreciate quality political mail, put yourself in an objective environment. If you are fortunate enough to have the opportunity to view mail from across the nation, take a look at a mailer for a primary state legislative race not from your party from a state you've never visited and observe your interest level in the mailer. Would you remember anything about it? What, if anything, could capture your attention about some no-name from the sticks?

There are three basic campaign mailers:

1) Introduction-puff

2) Issue driven

3) Attack-comparison

While there are different elements required for each category, there are five universal rules to help ensure the message gets to the voter.

The Flash Test: This is your safety catch-all test for every mail piece you send. Take you mock up and hold it up to a non-campaign participant for two seconds per side. Did he get the message? What is the candidate's name? What does the candidate stand for? Many people (like myself) read their mail while standing over the kitchen wastebasket. The flash test ensures that your mailer, if flicked and tossed after the briefest of glances, will leave some impression with the reader.

Quality Photos: There is no substitution for professional photography. Even the best designs turn sour with shoddy photography. Dark eyes or a hint of a five-o'clock shadow because of bad lighting overpower the reader with negative thoughts about the candidate or issue. It's like going to a job interview and not bothering to comb your hair -"Nice suit, but geez the guy must not care about himself." If you are in a pinch or without proper funding and must take a photo,1) use good lighting - no fluorescent lights and 2) remove background shadows and distracting objects. If you are using a photo of your opposition don't overdo it with a super- unflattering photo of your opponent. This may backfire, causing sympathy for your opponent!

Graphics: Think clean - be clean. Graphics are meant to enhance your message and draw the voter to read further. Too many graphic images and font types portray a cluttered mind and will garble your message. The graphic on the cover of your mailer will be the main factor in increasing its chances of being read by voters. Since the postman places the mail label-side up in the box, be sure to include graphic images and a strong headline on the side to be labeled. First impressions are lasting. They set the tone for your message and must intrigue the recipient to read on. They say, A picture tells a thousand words, so let your graphics lead your message.

Color: Whenever possible, use full color. Many novices avoid using color because they fear being viewed as "slick." Never equate "slickness" with color. Color works! In every medium the public sees color. Color TVs, color billboards, color newspapers. Even the New York Times is in color. Color lets the public see your candidate in the flesh and allows them to see him as a real person. Avoid using a barrage of conflicting bright colors. Proper use of color adds to the perceived credibility and quality of the candidate and adds realism to the issues and message.

Text: Be Hemmingway, not Shakespeare. Punch with your words. Keep it brief and to the point, highlighting no more than three major issues. Use big headlines and jumbo quotes, with supporting text never smaller than 12-point type. Package the text adjacent to photos or graphic images wherever possible. Clever use of folds and text blocking helps break up the clutter if the message is complicated. Use of yellow highlighting over key text will help ensure message retention. Packaging press quotes and utilizing the same fonts from their newspaper origin establishes credibility with the reader. Remember, the clock is ticking and your readers won't last longer than a minute. Don't waste their time by making them strain to read small type or readjust their eyes to read a variety of fonts.

With these guidelines you should be able to break through to the passive voter. They, just like your mom, will care about what you think and your new career plans.

...By combining graphic design, creative input, printing and mailing under one roof, Picture Perfect Campaigns promised to eliminate much of the hassle traditionally involved with the production of campaign mailers. Better yet, this service bundling would help reduce the markups and other incidental costs that made budgeting for campaign mailings a traditionally challenging task. And Picture Perfect took it one step further. In an unprecedented move, they publicized their rates for direct mail pieces, even going so far as to print them in industry publications.

"When you consider that direct mail is the single largest campaign expense - it's a $3 billion-a-year business - you can see why this was revolutionary," explains Bieber. "We were able to promise our clients that, for the first time, they could actually plot out their budgets for mail."...

...While many bigger, higher-budget industry players watched warily, having long cornered the market on attractive, high-quality campaign mailers, small to medium-sized candidates and campaign managers were delighted...

..."We could help a candidate who couldn't afford huge expenditures," says Bieber. "We could give them an opportunity to look larger than life."...

..."I'd say they definitely have developed a reputation for doing very high quality direct mail," says Peter Wendell, managing editor of Campaigns and Elections, a campaign-industry magazine. "They do crisp, clean work that's creative and they frequently use humor to get people's attention."...