Councilman Bob Briggs, Challenger for Non-Partisan City Council Race in Colorado

“The fact that Spot Runner could target voters by zip code made it more effective than other marketing efforts.”

As a challenger in an at-large city council race for a suburb of Denver, Bob Briggs faced an uphill battle. “There are no districts,” he says. “We have to reach out to the entire community of 109,000 residents.” So how does this candidate stand out among seven tough competitors?

It's simple. Just let the voters know what you stand for. Bob is passionate about the “Open Space” initiative, which aims to dedicate a third of the community to open space, parks and recreation. His campaign objective was to communicate his position to the majority of residents who, Bob believed, would share his enthusiasm for open space in their community.

Bob initially invested in an intense direct-mail campaign. He hadn't planned to incorporate TV, figuring it was “too expensive” and not targeted enough. But when Spot Runner showed Bob how cost effectively he could reach exactly who he wanted, he was convinced. “The fact that Spot Runner could target voters by zip code made it more effective than other marketing efforts,” he says. To maximize the money allocated, Spot Runner, using its powerful media planning technologies, helped Bob identify the neighborhoods with the most potential voters that would respond to his message, and focused the ad campaign there.

It worked. Bob unseated an incumbent and won. If he could do it again, Bob says he'd dedicate a bigger part of his budget to television. “Nobody mentioned receiving my post card, but I heard from at least 25 people who said they saw me on TV.”

Bob was the first-ever candidate in his area to use television in a local race. That's big. In fact, a former council member and political activist told Bob that he'd just “brought a city campaign up to a new level.”