Our Expertise and reach help prominent figures, leading advocacy groups and the world's most successful companies gain competitive advantage in must-win situations.
Integrated Campaign Management
Strategies to Win.
Skillfully managing the integration of campaign elements can mean the difference between success and failure. It requires organization, discipline and a relentless focus on strategic objectives and targeted audiences. To ensure your success we offer a proprietary management model proven to maximize campaign objectives. Our process includes the ability to harness the skills of the entire campaign team including client-side resources and other consultants. We provide a single point of contact for all of your campaign needs and take on the responsibility for ensuring the execution of approved plans and strategies.
Market & Public Opinion Research
We don’t guess.
When there is too much at risk to make a mistake, public opinion research ensures that you hit your mark. Whether you are planning for political candidacy, ballot initiatives, public policy, or private sector initiatives, we employ research methodologies designed to reveal the information that is critical to your success.
We take a behavioral approach to polling and other research techniques. We ask our target audience what they know and how they behave, then correlate knowledge and behavior to understand motivational drivers. This approach gives us a unique way of assessing the environment and developing the strategy and messages that will yield maximum results.
Advocacy Advertising
Driving Public Opinion to Public Action
Advocacy advertising allows you to define an issue of public debate on your own terms in order to shift public opinion and activate your audience. When properly executed, constituents become the amplifier for your message and the vehicle for affecting policy, legislation, and broader public opinion. However, because advocacy advertising promotes a point of view rather than a product or service, it requires a different approach to both creative development and media buying than traditional commercial advertising. At Mercury we have extensive experience in this area. We tap into the triggers that motivate your audience through public opinion research and leverage these insights across a comprehensive media strategy. We create award-winning campaigns that touch your audience on issues that matter to them.
Media and Public Relations
Respond. Control. Resolve.
At Mercury, we not only respond to specific situations, we actively control them to their successful resolution for both short and long-term goals. Our approach is designed to effectively deliver key messages to targeted audiences, build and maintain quality reputations and motivate and shape public opinion.
We take a multi-faceted approach to strategic media relations and public relations, engaging all possible angles in order to achieve our client’s business objectives in a timely and effective manner. Our strategies encompass a broad range of tactics such as:
- Media Training
- Editorial Board Tours
- Personal Meetings
- Public Events
- Story Pitches/Media Booking
- Op-Eds/Letters to the Editor
- Grassroots/Third-Parties
Grassroots/Grasstops
Identify. Educate. Amplify.
We amplify support for issues that affect our clients by identifying, recruiting, educating and mobilizing local support in lawmakers' home states and districts. Through creative grassroots endeavors we mobilize grassroots sentiment for legislative action. With an extensive campaign background and a team of professionals skilled in both the political and corporate arenas, we provide a unique, effective approach to achieving goals, seizing opportunities and solving problems for our clients.
We offer traditional grassroots lobbying services, unique grasstops services, in-state lobbying, political intelligence collection, local earned media and many other services. We have a strong presence across the country, featuring the most current and extensive national network of top-notch field operatives in the industry. With operatives across the country, we can tap the right people for any project.
Digital Communications
Fast. Far-reaching. Viral.
Effective public affairs campaigns can no longer rely on traditional media alone. Blogs and social media platforms have become a key influencer of the 24/7 news cycle and can often direct the course of a campaign. Speed of distribution and viral redistribution make this a powerful element of your public affairs campaign.
At Mercury, we see the digital landscape as an opportunity to create an ongoing and valuable exchange with your audience and have developed successful strategies for state and national political campaigns, corporations and coalitions. We create messages with impact, and we are skilled in the identification of online influencers who can spread a particular message about an issue, shape issue perception, and create the desired ripple effect online.
Litigation Communications
Winning your case is one thing. Protecting your reputation is another.
What happens in the courtroom is only part of the battle. Allegations can travel the Internet at warp speed and spread virally, generate national media exposure, activate special interests and mobilize organized opposition. Successfully navigating today's complex world of legal affairs demands sophisticated legal strategy, and equally sophisticated communications strategy.
At the intersection of business, law, government, politics and media, we are uniquely positioned to serve our clients in this arena. We employ a proven two-pronged approach: conditioning the environment outside the courtroom or hearing room with the desired legal outcome in mind, while safeguarding our clients' reputations, brands and business imperatives from the allegations at issue. We specialize in high profile, sensitive and complex litigation.
Crisis Management/Communications
We know what it takes to win in difficult situations.
During the most challenging and sensitive circumstances, how a company or individual responds governs the extent of damage to its reputation. Mercury has managed crisis situations in a multitude of industries and created successful outcomes through masterful application of transparency, speed and honesty. We deftly craft strategies that can evolve with political and regulatory changes, competitors, critics and changes in market conditions.
While every situation has its own set of facts and tactics, the key elements of managing a crisis are the same:
- A unified message and strategy with a specific business objective and timeline for success.
- Full disclosure of the known and confirmed facts.
- Speed and aggressiveness with credible facts to dispute inaccuracies and contain efforts by opponents to take advantage of vulnerabilities.
- Abundant communication to all key audiences, including customers, employees, the local community, media and government.
- Message consistency and discipline.
Government Relations
Modern. Policy-focused. Constituents-driven.
In today’s government, political power is often derived in the home states and districts of federal and state officials. To capitalize on this fact, we help our clients by identifying, recruiting and educating the appropriate forces in the home states and districts. This powerful process transforms local resources into persuasive communication assets for your objectives.
Our success in government relations stems from our outstanding bipartisan team whose extensive political experience is derived from decades of combined service within Congress, the executive branch, state capitols, and private-sector organizations. We focus on delivering measurable business results and every member of our organization is available to help you achieve your goals.
Political Consulting
Take control. Define the issues. Frame the discussion. Win.
Our team of experts has extensive experience winning political campaigns – evaluating every angle and opportunity to craft the best, individualized strategy for each campaign. We know how to help clients take control of the discussions that frame a campaign so they are in charge of the issues, not just responding to them. Our knowledge and experience in races at every level gives us the experience, relationships and expertise to develop effective and efficient campaign strategies that get to the core of every unique obstacle that may arise –tackling the challenges head-on and, most importantly, resulting in winning political campaigns.
From survey research, messaging and advertising to field operations and sophisticated targeting, Mercury’s experience in political campaigns from city council to President of the United States will give you the leverage you need to win.
International Consulting
The reach of our political and public strategy consultants extends far beyond the United States. We have advised and executed successful election and public affairs campaigns on five continents. We are successful because we don’t guess. Through market research, we ensure local knowledge and cultural understanding. Then we combine those insights with strategic practices — such as positioning, branding, social media, digital communication and grassroots mobilization — to achieve wins for our clients.
Latino Communications
Engaging the largest minority group in the nation
Mercury has teamed with Bendixen & Amandi International, the pre-eminent Latino public opinion research firm. Together, we help clients achieve success by comprehending Latino trends and designing communications strategies that influence and mobilize this growing community. The 2010 U.S. Census estimates that the Hispanic population will surpass 50 million by 2012 and that Hispanic purchasing power will top $1.5 trillion by 2015. That’s an audience worth understanding and engaging.
Our team leverages Mercury’s public affairs experience and Bendixen & Amandi’s Latino market expertise and insight to develop a targeted, researched-based strategy. We use quantitative and qualitative data, including surveys, focus groups and executive interviews with key industry stakeholders to ensure local knowledge and cultural understanding. Then we combine those insights with public affairs efforts — positioning, branding, social media, digital communication and grassroots mobilization — to achieve wins in the Latino public opinion arena.
