First Selectman (Mayor) Peter Tesei, Running in an Open Seat Race in Connecticut

“TV offered greater exposure, a way to reach a broad segment of the community and raise the caliber of the campaign.”

Peter Tesei entered the race for First Selectman — his city's mayoral equivalent — with a solid reputation in the financial arena and ten years' service on the city's finance board. “I've had an interest in and served my community since I was 18,” he says.

Peter's marketing objective was to showcase his record of listening to people and learning about the community's needs. He invested in mailings and yard signs and attended community events, but wondered if this type of voter outreach would be enough to bypass his competitor, a member of the planning and zoning commission. So while his opponent limited his campaign to the traditional tactics, Peter turned to Spot Runner to bolster his marketing efforts...and get his message on TV.

“TV offered greater exposure, a way to reach a broad segment of the community and raise the caliber of the campaign,” says Peter. He'd considered cable, consulting a colleague who ran the predecessor's campaign. “He had done a live shoot and used video. It cost him a lot of money to put it together,” says Peter. “When I found out about Spot Runner and how much more affordable it is, it seemed like it would be money well spent.”

Spot Runner showed Peter how he could create and run a high-caliber, professional television ad for just a fraction of his overall budget. “It was really easy to find an ad in Spot Runner's library of commercials that resonated. The concept for the spot was creative, direct and simple. It really honed in on what I was trying to get across,” says Peter. “We added shots of local buildings, so it looked more like our town.”

Raising the game to TV wasn't enough for Peter. Spot Runner also developed a radio campaign, ensuring that both the TV and radio spots were thematically similar to and complementary of each other. By advertising on news-focused outlets, says Peter, the radio and television ads helped reach voters who were more attuned to the issues, and more likely to vote.

For this financial industry veteran and long-time public servant, his efforts paid off. Topping his competitor by a margin of nearly two to one, Peter won the race in a landslide.