Strategic Communications

Bayne was contracted by the DC Board of Elections to plan and execute a public information campaign in support of the 2020 DC primary and general elections. Bayne developed the Vote Safe DC Campaign, which included a robust mixture of media relations, community outreach and marketing. The purpose of this campaign was to encourage voters to use mail-in ballots or utilize early voting if they needed to vote in person.  

Bayne developed two television commercials, multiple radio commercials, bus ads, digital ads and various promotional items for the campaign. Bayne also provided media training to senior DCBOE surrogates and secured over 50 local and national media interview opportunities for agency surrogates.

The project included a $700,000 advertising budget. Bayne was responsible managing and negotiating the media buys for the project. Bayne was able to successfully negotiate advertising contracts with over a dozen radio stations, two television companies and across 5 newspapers. Bayne also secured advertising space on WMATA trains and managed a digital media buy.

As a result of the public information campaign, the District was able to surpass its goal of having 75% of all votes cast prior to election through either mail-in ballots or during the early voting period.