Democratic trio launch new TV ad shop
Three experienced Democratic campaigners are launching a new media firm with a “screen-agnostic” spirit informed by their experience in recent high-profile election fights.
The new firm, Declaration Media, is a partnership between Meredith Kelly, the former communications director for Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand’s presidential campaign and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee; AJ Lenar, a longtime ad-maker who has worked for the Democratic firm GMMB; and Trey Nix, a former campaign manager and adviser for North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper as well as the Democratic Governors Association.
Declaration Media is joining a crowded landscape of advertising firms pitching their services to Democratic candidates and causes. The new venture has endorsements from high-profile Democratic officials — Cooper called Nix “instrumental” to winning his governorship in a statement, while Gillibrand praised Kelly’s “smarts, strength and loyalty,” and new Democratic National Committee Chair Jaime Harrison said Lenar was one of the party’s “best storytellers.”
But they noted that advertisers face the danger that voters are starting to tune out the often-recognizable tropes of political ads — and the national political environment drives more election results than ever. Their recent campaign experience demonstrates that personality and authentic stories are increasingly the main things that break through from political campaigns.
“People’s bulls--- meter is higher than ever these days. And once that goes off, it’s the kiss of death” for a political candidate, Lenar said.
The Declaration Media founders also alluded to the debate within the Democratic Party about where campaign money is best spent: on TV or digital media. While they called themselves primarily a TV firm, they said advertisers need to understand the modern digital media ecosystem and be flexible enough to change their approach to reach the most people in a particular area, not because one method of advertising is inherently better than another.
“At times there’s a belief that every one of these mediums is more powerful than it is,” said Nix. “Sometimes there’s a belief you can put a TV ad on the air, and in a week everyone will know your name. And that’s not how it is. And sometimes there’s a belief that Facebook is so powerful that you can pour your money there” and win.
Getting caught up in debate about which medium is the best way of reaching voters misses the broader point: that the answer won’t be the same in different places or at different times, Nix continued. After accepting that, he said, “then you can have a sophisticated conversation about how to win.”
Kelly said she was particularly excited to be launching the firm as a female voice and co-owner in an ad industry still dominated by men, painting it as a political imperative for Democrats.
“If you’re a Democrat trying to win elections, you need to appeal to women — full stop,” Kelly said. “And you need diverse voices on your team. I’m not the first female owner of an ad firm or the last, but I believe there are far too few of us.”
