By FP1 Strategies
This awards-season, FP1 received 15 Reed Awards and 12 Pollie Awards for our industry-leading advertising and digital work. But one of our favorite spots of the cycle provides an important reminder that radio still packs a potent punch when deployed with creativity and strategic focus.
In the congressional race in Wisconsin’s 1st Congressional District that was open by former Speaker Paul Ryan’s retirement, we deployed a radio ad for the Congressional Leadership Fund (CLF) to set the frame of the election, disqualifying Democrat Randy Bryce as being unfit to serve in Congress.
Randy Bryce, a darling of the liberal resistance who was raising millions of dollars online, also had a rap sheet with nine arrests for everything from drunk driving to property damage and theft. In our radio ad, “Nine Arrests,” we created a simulated police scanner report from the scene of one of Bryce’s drunk-driving arrests. The ad, which began airing the day after Bryce secured the Democratic nomination, was creative, memorable and had a big impact on the race.
After trailing Bryce in the summer polling, Republican Bryan Steil ended up winning his congressional race by 13 points. Our radio ad played a significant role in driving this shift in the ballot, and it’s a great example of effectively harnessing the power of radio in political advertising.
The “Nine Arrests” radio ad for CLF won the following awards this year:
• Gold Pollie Award for Super PAC Radio Ad
• Gold Pollie Award for Best Use of a Negative in Radio
• Gold Pollie Award for Independent Expenditure Radio Ad
• People’s Choice Pollie Award for Best Use of Radio
• Reed Award for Radio Ad of the Year
• Reed Award for Toughest Radio Ad