Blackrock Associates dominates new media at 17th annual “Pollie” awards
04/28/2008
Leading political online marketing firm receives accolades across the board in new media categories, including text messaging, web sites, and e-mail advocacy.
Berkeley, CA – Blackrock Associates, LLC, the leader in online marketing for progressive candidate and issue campaigns, received four “Pollie Awards” at the 2008 Conference of the American Association of Political Consultants. Since 1991, the prestigious annual awards have recognized the best in public affairs and political communications. This year’s awards recognized Blackrock’s multi-faceted approach, integrating online media with traditional communication outlets and text-messaging, to deliver powerful results for clients.
“We are thrilled to have made another strong showing at this year’s Pollies,” said Blackrock principal and co-founder Brent Blackaby, who represented the firm at the national award ceremony in Santa Monica, CA.
“Our firm was founded to develop ground-breaking, comprehensive online solutions for Democratic campaigns and progressive causes,” added Blackrock principal and co-founder Larry Huynh. “After receiving four Pollie Awards in 2007, we could not be more pleased that the AAPC has once again recognized Blackrock’s broad expertise and leadership in political marketing for the 21st Century.”
Blackrock Associates, in conjunction with the Mobile Commons platform and development partner Articulated Man, received the top two awards in the Best Use of Mobile Technology category for its “Sick of Blue Cross” text-messaging campaigns. Blackrock worked with client It’s Our Healthcare to develop a text messaging campaign to draw attention to California’s healthcare crisis. The “Text-to-Screen” effort marked a milestone for citizen democracy, allowing any individual with a cell-phone to reach lawmakers via text messages, which were projected in real-time on a large screen in the shadow the State Capitol in Sacramento.
Together with design and development partner Articulated Man, Blackrock won another “Pollie Award” for its work with It’s Our Health Care in the State Grassroots/Issue Advocacy/Public Affairs category. The award recognized the cutting edge SickOfBlueCross.com web site, which combined a unique design, a humorous viral web video (“Always Look on the Bright Side of Death”), and several online advocacy campaigns to pressure Blue Cross of California to improve its health insurance practices and to cease stifling healthcare reform efforts.
Blackrock Associates also received a “Pollie Award” for its work with Senator Durbin’s campaign to wage a double-pronged “Protect Our Lake” online advocacy effort against the British Petroleum’s plans to increase toxic dumping in Lake Michigan. Over 70,000 concerned citizens participated in the effort, which included an online letter writing campaign targeting British Petroleum’s CEO and a simple online petition to voice opposition to the plans. Blackrock integrated several forms of media to promote the campaign -- e-mail, blogs, online advertising, and even radio advertising -- which ultimately caused it to “go viral” and force BP to call off its dumping plans.
“The broad range of Pollies awarded to Blackrock this year is testament to the firm’s reputation for pushing the envelope in every form of ‘new media’ – from web sites, text-messaging, and e-mail to online advocacy and advertising,” said Blackrock consultant Mike Disharoon. “As a comprehensive approach to political online marketing becomes increasingly imperative to electoral success, we look forward to working with our clients to integrate tried and true methods with emerging technology opportunities, in 2008 and beyond.”