If your household is like mine, your mailbox this week has been chock full of mailers from candidates and the charter committees. The photo here shows the nine mailings we received just today.
For candidates, especially first timers in council and school committee races, these mailings represent a huge part of their budget and countless hours are spent agonizing over each and every word, color and photograph.
Given that Village 14 visitors aren’t just likely voters, Village 14 readers will vote, I’m wondering what you do with these and what you consider to be an effective mailing or not? Do you take out a magnifying glass to read those 8 point type list of endorsers? Do you toss them? Save them? Share with family or friends who may not be as involved as you?
And most importantly do these mailings ever actually influence your vote?
I skim and then toss them, but I know who I’m voting for. But today alone I got 3 Fuller mailers…what a waste of resources to send three different mailers to one household!
MMQC Did you see the blatant gender card being thrown down? I would have tossed it too if Bill hadn’t pointed in out
@Greg, you must have been reading my mind! I got 8 of them in my mailbox today…and it seems I’ve gotten at least that many for several days. They do not have any influence on me at all, even from candidates I intend to vote for. What they really do is make me mad. I truly believe most people just toss them (hopefully in the recycle bin!) and that the cost of producing them is wasted. But what REALLY gets me is that many of these candidates tout their views on making the environment better and more sustainable yet every one of these flyers requires trees to be cut to produce the paper they are printed on. It’s so hypocritical! There is one candidate in particular that is all about saving trees in the City yet there was a flyer from that candidate in my pile! So candidates, please save the trees and the cost and stop inundating us with these flyers!
Ruthanne’s mailer today;
“To take charge of Newton’s future… ELECT THE RIGHT WOMAN FOR THE JOB”
On the back:
“Newton has never had a female Mayor, But Ruthanne Fuller is ready to change that_because of her long record of leadership and getting the job done”
With the Lennon and Fuller mayoral campaigns together raising over a half million dollars I’m not sure they know how to spend all that money effectively. More flyers, more flyers!
And still there will be plenty left over in their campaign accounts for the future.
Though I do not vote for a person because of a flyer, I might investigate further if I see flyer from someone with whom or with whose positions I am unfamiliar.
And, yes, I got the same 6-8 same flyers (forgot how many as I’ve already thrown them out). In defense of flyers, though: they but a face to the name. For people unfamiliar with candidates (a majority of voters probably), I would venture they are influential.
I’d be interested in knowing how much a city wide mailing cost? (Including design, printing, addresses and postage) Any candidates or former candidates willing to share?
They go straight into the recycle bin, without being read. IMO they are a big waste of money and not “green”. I did check out candidates’ websites, but that is only to get a first impression about them; my picks were made after I heard candidates in debates (online and around town), attending the odd coffee meet and great, Village 14 posts, reading questionnaire answers and having discussions with passionate voters while walking my dogs.
I think you know that you are a real Newton politics watcher when you can decide how you feel about a candidate based on their list of endorsers. Honestly, I wonder about that strategy because I think that a candidate has much more of an opportunity to turn a prospect off as to engage them. With most of the bullet points about what they’ll bring or do being general vanilla milquetoast promises, I find who they have sought endorsements from–and will be beholden to– illuminating and revealing.
Every one of them dumped into the recycle bin, as they are in every campaign. What a waste of resources.
In the digital age and changing demographics, candidates are going to have to figure out how to reach voters effectively.
Flyers are an effective way to get your message out there – particularly with a highly educated – but very disengaged – voting pool that we have here in Newton. Flyers – not only identify name to face but has the potential to say a lot about a candidate – hopefully – what their issues are, what their experiences are and why they are the best candidate for the job. I happen to think that I had really great flyers – because I talked about my accomplishments and my vision for the City – so for me – it was money well spent.
Cost depends on how many voters you are targeting. That’s why – at-large seats cost more money and why it is harder for less established newcomers to run city-wide.
VOTE NO on CHARTER!
Greg … Approx 30k households in Newton. Roughly 7k for an oversized Postcard
2,000 Writing & Design
4,000 Print & Mail Services
600 Postage
Postage for presort bulk high density
Most have gone straight to the recycle bin. I got about 5-6 in the mail today plus flyers for 3 candidates clipped together (Houston, Malakie, & Yates) at my door . I think today was the first time I skimmed a few but in general I have paid more attention to emails received from candidates. I have also read a lot here and also reviewed numerous videos of the candidates including the debates. I feel like the money spent on flyers is a huge waste,
I’m curious whether candidates typically mail to all households or only those who have voted in recent elections.
@Jerry: Usually those who have voted in recent elections, although the voter screen can vary widely. For an election like this, I would recommend something along the lines of: people who have voted in at least 1 of the last 3 municipal elections, PLUS people who voted in the preliminary.
There is a major problem to this in that it is self-selecting. If you’ve never voted before in Newton, you don’t get election mail, which makes you less likely to vote or know what’s going on.
@Greg: The price can vary widely depending on size, shape, size of audience, etc. Union printing is more expensive but in Democratic politics, it’s pretty much sacrilege to not go union. I think in this campaign, the widest universe of voters that you can reasonably expect to vote is about 15,000 households. I’m guessing the Mayoral campaigns hit that universe hard, whereas some of the smaller mailings would’ve been more in the 5k-8k range. I wasn’t involved in pricing this time so I can’t really give you a hard dollar amount.
Unfortunately, flyers work for those who haven’t made up their mind, yet. As people were saying there is a point of saturation.
Hmmm. Thought I just posted something but perhaps there is a delay, so I apologize in advance if this shows up as a duplicate.
I am struck with some conflicting messages from Ruthanne this week. In her ad and at least one mailer she uses the line “I want to be mayor…not to be something but to do something” which I read as a subtle dig at the fact that it has been reported that Scott Lennon aspired to be mayor of Newton since he was a young boy. But perhaps that was to subtle and ineffective since he has done plenty in his years of service.
So now Ruthanne’s message is that she wants to be something…the first female mayor of Newton
I think we the posters of Village 14 are more active in our community and have more awareness, however I wonder how many people the mailers influence?
I know many in the younger generation that don’t read their mail on a daily basis. Their bank statements, investment statements, and other old school paper arrive in their electronic mailbox. How are the candidates reaching the next generation?
I am also amazed that someone would mail me a flyer (or two or three) and advocate for green energy and the environment. I have a stack on the coffee table from this week alone, and we aren’t going to toss the pile until the election is over. I want to see how many we can get.
I actually love the flyers, look forward to my mail & think it is a good use of campaign funds. I agree with @amysangiolo (well with the exception of the last sentence and plug for her charter vote 🙂 ) This year particularly there are so many new names, faces and ward numbers to keep track off I still don’t know who is running against whom till I get into the voting booth.
#5MoreDays
@Greg
Your question is one I’m asked to advise on often – Just today I need to decide whether to advise a retailer who has always done holiday direct mail whether to continue this year. Often it’s a tough call.
This political season, I did do a direct mail campaign for a city council candidate that was integrated with a Facebook ad campaign. Integrating multiple touchpoints is key. (And at least for now, Facebook advertising is where the game is being played)
We didn’t do the typical ‘information dump.’ We sent a separate message to each Ward that was tailored specifically the Ward – The piece had a bold design, personable language and clear messaging that could be scanned and easily absorbed by the reader. The consensus is that these dm cards were successful. We’ll see next week.
Often candidates (as do clients) get too far into the weeds of wordsmithing and directing a marketing piece. Throughout my career, I have found clients – including candidates for office – Are horrible at leading their marketing efforts. They’re too close and opinionated, and the result is generic and uninteresting. This makes a case for hiring the best designer/writer that you can afford. Ultimately, the quality of the piece – Both in design and message will determine whether it makes a difference or not.
Also, keep in mind that an ad or dm piece has a much greater chance of being noticed when the consumer/resident is actively in a decision-making process. It would follow that you, Greg Reibman, given you’re embedded in the process, would think all mail pieces are useless. Whereas a resident, one week from the election who has not paid attention may find a well-timed, informative mail piece useful.
When they come to MY mailbox, If they are middle of the road, I don’t even notice them. If exceptionally good or bad, I do take note. I received one from the Fuller campaign last week that stood to me as being poorly designed and a missed opportunity.
If we go to 100% At Large Councilors, I suspect we we see even more flyers because it will be too difficult and expensive to canvass/door knock. Those who are engaged, like folks here on Village 14, will get educated online. But those who aren’t engaged will probably rely on whatever gets pushed to them.
There are 100s of people in Newton who live in the “political bubble” – maybe even up to 1000 people. There are 30,000 households in Newton, about 15,000-16,000 households who will vote. When I go door to door – which I’ve been doing since July most people are totally unaware of what’s going on. They know about the Mayoral choices and they know about the Charter vote – though they are unsure how to vote, even as late as yesterday: but they have NO IDEA about City Council and even less about School Committee. The companies who make these flyers love our election this year because so many people are running. We who are candidates have no other way to get our names in front of voters without these mailers. I hope that everyone will understand that this is just simply getting your name and your values out to the people – most of whom are totally unengaged in Newton politics.
I’ve been impressed by the handful of candidates whose ads are showing up when I’m visiting online news sites (For example, I saw a Jake Auchincloss ad when reading USA Today and Fuller ads even showed up on Village 14*) and Facebook.
Online ads and Facebook ads are easy to target and, if you know what you’re doing, very cost effective.
*For the record, Village 14 and its bloggers make no money from the ads here and we are not involved in selling ads either. We use a company called Serpcom that hosts and manages our site for no cost to us in exchange for any ad revenue.
I’ve been seeing Lennon ads on Instagram which I think is smart. They are hard to miss on an Instagram feed, so there’s a more captive audience. Plus, it helps engage a younger demographic.
QuiteMary If you do Facebook ads with a business account, adding Instagram to the campaign is an easy one-click option. FB owns Insta
I’m gonna need a bigger recycle bin! 8 more dead trees today…
This is getting ridiculous. What a waste of paper!!! And so many candidates claim to be green.
Did anyone else get an exceptionally large Fuller one today? It got stuck on my mail slot!
I did not get a Fuller one today but did get 2 Lennon ones, one addressed to me and another to me and my daughter. Same mailer. Maybe my husband’s will arrive on Monday?! Out of control wastefulness.
I appreciate the ones that are plain cardboard (i.e., recyclable) vs. the laminated ones. They’re more eco-friendly and also less likely to cut me when I’m pulling a pile of them out of the mailbox.
I’ve gotten what seems to be every campaign at least once, and none of them have changed my mind. (The Sangiolo flyer in the primary almost shifted my vote away from her, because although I am 100% with her on the need to normalize overrides, I disagree with pretty much her entire stance on growth and development in Newton and being reminded of it hurt.)
That said, (and I have a spreadsheet tracking candidates by race, with notes for each), the three non-union flyers I’ve gotten have all been from candidates with “no” or worse next to their name. (Options are “yes” “maybe” “no” and “%$!£ no” …. in a three pick two race, having one of the latter can make me vote for a maybe instead of bullet voting)
The Union Printing thing is interesting to me. Not so much now but at one time I was buying 300k in printing for clients. Never did anyone request Union. I usually recommend Local for political campaigns but I didn’t realize Union was even a consideration anymore. Especially with online printing being so inexpensive and reliable.
What kind of flyer distributing-mad-dash-to-the-finish is this?
I had one slew of massive oversized postcards this morning and then my dogs went wild when a RAF volunteer/staffer came by thist afternoon to hang one on my door handle. Had I not been in the middle of something I would have kindly asked them to take it with them.
This is out of control. I understand the objective of reaching voters that may not otherwise be educated or reminding voters or giving a different perspective to voters but there has got to be a better way than having this asinine over flow of paper in the last 7> days.
Each day that I find another wave of flyers I lose more of my patience. It’s now day 2 where I’ve received 2 from the same candidate. Yesterday was SL today was RAF… actually today in total I got 3 from RAF ( this includes the door one).
The councilors have been ok, I’ve had a few moments of intrigue but really it just reminds me to go online and see who hasn’t sent out mailers (aka those that I don’t recognize from my spam mail). Because if everyone is voting for the citywide mailers those that aren’t will not receive as many votes. I’m going to vote with intention and education so I might also well cast a protest vote. For issues I feel particularly strong about I will obviously vote for what I believe in, but for those where I am undecided the candidate that did not send out a mailer will get my vote. I realize this is not effective but for the love of the trees please stop.
** Special appreciation to the candidates in all races that branched out and utilized facebook and Instagram ads. I may have been annoyed to see an ad in my feed but at least I could click, read, and move on versus grieve for the trees.**