Michigan's Supreme
Court Race
Down Ballot, Underfunded, and Under-Appreciated:
Making the Case for Justice
Bridget Mary McCormack
and Elizabeth Welch for
Michigan Supreme Court
In 2020, the Michigan Democratic Party came to us asking for a smart, targeted program to help them gain the majority on the state’s highest court. To do this, we needed to flip one seat and retain another. With no partisan designation on the ballot and low name recognition amongst the candidates, we created a program that ensured Democratic-leaning voters knew their candidates’ names and reminded them how important it is to finish their ballot.
By early September, nearly 2 million Michigan residents had already requested their early vote ballots. With this information in mind, we created a three-pronged approach to most effectively target our audience:
- TARGETING VOTERS WITH BALLOTS IN-HAND.
- EXCLUDING EARLY VOTERS ONCE THEIR BALLOTS WERE RETURNED.
- TARGETING IN-PERSON VOTERS.
All of our targeted voters were list-matched across a multitude of advertising techniques, resulting in nearly 40 million touches to likely voters and building valuable name ID for our candidates.
Over 30 million list-targeted ads.
We used Facebook
& Instagram Pages
Display and pre-roll
video across the web
And addressable streaming
TV, OTT, and VOD premium
video content
To reach voters in the right place at the right time
All of our targeted voters were list-matched across a multitude of advertising techniques, resulting in nearly 40 million touches to likely voters and building valuable name ID for our candidates.
Over 30 million list-targeted ads.
We used Facebook and Instagram Pages
display and pre-roll videos across the web
and addressable streaming TV, OTT, and VOD premium video content to reach voters in the right place at the right time.
An aggressive search campaign,
right at the top of the page.
We used search ads to effectively target anyone searching for the court candidates. This resulted in over 7.3 million additional search ads served to voters.
And lastly, texting.
We sent 1.6 million text messages to our list of voters, using a combination of GIFS, videos, and website links
The open seat went to the Democratic candidate by a nearly 240,000 vote margin, 3.2pp over the nearest competitor.
The Overview Stats
Reed Award
Best Use of Online Targeting for Statewide Campaign
(Non-Federal)
Pollie - Gold
Internet Advertising
Best Use of Search Engine Marketing
Internet Advertising
For Statewide (Non-Federal/Non-Gubernatorial)
Pollie - Silver
Digital Independent Expenditure
For Statewide (Non-Federal/NonGubernatorial)
Ready to chat with our team about your State Supreme Court project?
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