November 8, 2008

Obama’s Polling and Media Teams Went All In

National Journal

By Jerry Hagstrom

To the list of those who deserve a place in history for helping Barack Obama win the presidency, add the many firms on his polling and media teams.

Atop the list is AKP&D Message and Media, the Chicago-based political consulting firm that includes partners David Axelrod, Obama’s chief strategist; and David Plouffe, Obama’s campaign manager. The key pollster was Joel Benenson of the Benenson Strategy Group, who said he joined the campaign in January 2007 when Axelrod called and said, “This is like putting together the team for Ocean’s Eleven. Are you out or are you in?”

New York City-based Benenson brought in Harstad Strategic Research, based in Boulder, Colo., to poll in the Midwest; Anzalone Liszt Research in Montgomery, Ala., to work in the South; Bennett Petts and Blumenthal, a Washington, D.C., firm, to work on the Texas primary; Brilliant Corners Research and Strategies, a Washington shop, to handle African-American issues and swing states; and David Binder Research of San Francisco to manage focus groups and qualitative research. During the general election campaign, Benenson added Bendixen & Associates of Miami, and Pineda Consulting, based in Pasadena, Calif., to handle Hispanic polling.

The most important decision, Benenson said, was to do no national polling in the general election. “We created a sample of battleground states,” he said. “As we tested ideas and messaging, we were focused on the voters we had to influence. We wasted no resources.”

Jim Margolis, a senior partner in Washington media consulting firm GMMB, signed up in February 2007 to share media responsibilities with AKP&D. During the primaries, the Obama team also included SS+K, a New York City-based firm specializing in youth-oriented advertising; Fuse Advertising, an African-American-owned agency in St. Louis; and Message, Audience & Presentation, an Austin shop that specializes in Hispanic-focused media.

After Obama won the nomination, AKP&D and GMMB continued to produce about 70 percent of the ads, Margolis said, but the campaign also brought in three other prominent Washington-based Democratic firms: Dixon/Davis Media Group; Murphy Putnam Media; and Squier Knapp Dunn Communications. Also tapped were Shorr Johnson Magnus of Philadelphia, and Hispanic firm Balsera Communications Group of Coral Gables, Fla.

Margolis said that the media consultants, who have been known for their competitiveness, were so determined to elect Obama that they avoided turf wars. “Everyone came out very, very close friends,” Margolis said. “We want to form a cartel; we want to fix prices among our firms.”

(The accompanying chart includes key pollsters and media firms for John McCain’s campaign and for Senate and gubernatorial races.)