PAC For a Change: Condoleezza Rice Confirmation Hearings

The Challenge: Build an online campaign for Senator Barbara Boxer’s political action committee, PAC for a Change, centered around the early 2004 confirmation hearings of Condoleezza Rice for Secretary of State.

The Solution: Blackrock worked with Senator Boxer to develop an online petition to demand “that Condoleezza Rice tell the truth about Iraq, weapons of mass destruction, the search for Osama bin Laden, the fight against Al Qaida, and the war on terrorism.”

The goal was to promote the petition campaign broadly to maximize participation. Senator Boxer launched her online petition campaign one week before the hearings by emailing her PAC list, encouraging supporters to sign the petition and pass the petition around.

To complement the email campaign, Blackrock designed a rapid, inexpensive online marketing campaign during the hearings. PAC for a Change purchased search engine marketing on Google and Overture -- for keywords like “Condi Rice”, “Barbara Boxer”, “Secretary of State”, and “confirmation hearings” ($1,500) and blog ads on influential progressives blogs, such as DailyKos, Atrios/Eschaton, and Smirking Chimp ($1,000). Finally, Senator Boxer conducted interviews with bloggers from DailyKos and began writing her own diaries on the DailyKos.

As the hearings proceeded, Senator Boxer continued to message her rapidly growing list, encouraging signers to pass the petition around, and urging non-signers to add their names to the petition. The hearings generated significant press and even earned Senator Boxer a classic parody on Saturday Night Live (via Crooks and Liars).

As the confirmation of Condoleezza Rice proceeded to the Senate floor, Senator Boxer was armed with almost 100,000 signatures and cited the public’s overwhelming response to her quest for the trust from Dr. Rice.

The Results: The yield from paid marketing was  7,500 new supporters for $2,500 ($0.33 CPA). The overall yield (with viral marketing) for the petition was 97,500 petition signatures in 3 weeks, tripling the size of the PAC for a Change email list -- and providing a powerful base for future fundraising efforts.