We are thrilled to kick off the New Year with the announcement of several new positions and promotions for our firm’s Washington, D.C. headquarters.

Since being named to Inc. Magazine’s list of “Fastest Growing Companies” in late 2010, SevenTwenty Strategies saw significant growth throughout 2011, while continuing to deliver integrated advocacy and communications solutions for some of America’s most iconic brands. With these recent promotions, as well as the addition of three new principle players rounding out our team, we are looking forward to 2012 for continued growth into the New Year.

Among the promotions, Chris Monnat has been promoted to Vice President, Web Technologies. Monnat provided critical insight handling transitions in SevenTwenty’s Technology Department and continues to manage programs for several of our key clients. He has consistently demonstrated invaluable expertise in a variety of technology areas and remains a vital member of the SevenTwenty team.

Dan Spar has been promoted to Senior Account Director for his excellent work managing and directing several major client campaigns in his three years with the company. His vast knowledge of our firm’s product offerings serves as a vital link between SevenTwenty’s tech team and client services division in ensuring delivery of the highest quality work for our clients.

Emily Blackwell has been promoted to Senior Designer for excellence in creative development that has enabled SevenTwenty to remain on the cutting edge of the industry. Her unique talents have enabled our design team to receive numerous accolades from clients and the PR community, including receiving the Platinum MarCom Award from the Association of Marketing and Communication Professionals, as well as two International Davey Awards for art direction and print design for SevenTwenty’s exclusive study, “Grassroots Advocacy in 140 Characters or Less: How Twitter is Shaping the Fortune 500’s Corporate Communications Techniques.” (Request a copy of our Twitter study here.)

Recent new hires include Joey Tackett, Senior Designer, whose more than 10 years experience in brand-building graphic design and communications management helps round out our Creative Department. As a freelance designer, Tackett has developed cohesive brand campaigns for a wide range of for-profit and non-profit clients.

Joining SevenTwenty’s Technology Department is Marco Ceppi, Senior Web Software Developer, whose considerable expertise working in the open source community adds depth to our already well-established tech team. Prior to joining SevenTwenty, Ceppi worked for one of the top five-rated business-class Web hosts in the U.S., as well as providing technology services to several Members of Congress on Capitol Hill.

Joining SevenTwenty’s financial department as Controller is Sherry Lupisella, who will oversee SevenTwenty’s finances, forecasting and strategic planning to ensure company profitability and financial stability. Lupisella comes from Vizual, Inc., an award-winning branding communications firm, for which she served as Chief Financial Officer.

With our team constantly growing and dedicated to our wonderful client base, we are looking forward to kicking off 2012 with a bang!

About Adam Wagner - Director of Communications

Adam brings nearly a decade of experience in grassroots advocacy, public affairs and public relations to his role as Director of Communications for SevenTwenty Strategies.

We are thrilled to announce that SevenTwenty Strategies took home the 2011 International Davey Silver Award in SEVEN categories! Our winning campaigns include:

1. The Association for Computing Machinery’s “Computing In The Core” Campaign (Education category). SevenTwenty Strategies developed an interactive Web and social media presence for the Association’s “Computing in the Core” (CinC) campaign, a national non-partisan advocacy coalition working to elevate computer science education to a core academic subject in K-12 education. See the website here.

2. & 3. Computer Science Education Week (Activism AND Education categories). Also conducted for the Association for Computing Machinery, SevenTwenty developed a campaign to promote awareness of and participation in Computer Science Education Week (CSEdWeek) by showcasing computer education as vital component to the future of American students and worthy of being included in core curriculum. Advocates were driven to this site to pledge to host or sponsor events during CSEdWeek.

4. Global Campaign for Education, U.S. Chapter (Activism category). Made up of a broad-based coalition of U.S. organizations — including faith-based groups, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), teachers unions, foundations and think tanks — dedicated to ensuring access to quality basic education in developing nations, GCE-US retained SevenTwenty Strategies to design and develop its campaign website to support its advocacy and communications efforts, including video, slideshows, events registration, Tell-A-Friend and a custom search function. See the website here.

5. Target Corporation’s “Red, White & Vote” campaign (Political category). SevenTwenty Strategies created a branded civic engagement platform on behalf of Target Corporation aimed at promoting employee and consumer participation in the 2010 general election. We designed and launched the “Red, White and Vote” election-focused website, www.redwhitevote.com.

6. & 7. SevenTwenty’s Twitter Study, “Grassroots Advocacy in 140 Characters or Less: How Twitter is Shaping the Fortune 500’s Corporate Communications Techniques” (Art Direction/Graphic Design AND Print Design categories). Modern strategies for government relations and grassroots communication are rapidly evolving with advancements in digital communication methods like Twitter; but how are Fortune 500 companies using Twitter for community building and grassroots advocacy outreach, and do they perceive it as valuable? SevenTwenty Strategies’ Vice President of Client Services, Lauren Tanner DiPaola, spearheaded our in-depth study of how corporations use Twitter for advocacy and communications with key audiences. This study is backed by extensive interviews with communications and government affairs executives from the Fortune 500 community.

This is the second recent award for our Twitter study, as earlier this month, we announced it was awarded the Association of Marketing and Communications Professionals’ highest honor, the Platinum MarCom Award. To download a copy of the Twitter study, go here.

On behalf of everyone at SevenTwenty, we thank and congratulate our clients for these recent wins and continued support!

About the International Davey Awards

The largest and most prestigious awards competition exclusively for the “Davids” of creativity.

David defeated the giant Goliath with a big idea and a little rock — the sort of thing small firms do each year. The annual International Davey Awards honors the achievements of the “Creative Davids” who derive their strength from big ideas, rather than stratospheric budgets.

The Giants Behind the Davey

The Davey Awards may be for smaller organizations, but the judges have big reputations. The Davey is sanctioned and judged by the International Academy of the Visual Arts, an invitation-only body consisting of top-tier professionals from a “Who’s Who” of acclaimed media, advertising, and marketing firms. IAVA members include executives from organizations such as Condè Nast, Michael Kors Inc., Disney, The Ellen Degeneres Show, Microsoft, HBO, Monster.com, MTV, Polo Ralph Lauren, Sotheby's Institute of Art, Victoria's Secret, Howcast and many more.

About Adam Wagner - Director of Communications

Adam brings nearly a decade of experience in grassroots advocacy, public affairs and public relations to his role as Director of Communications for SevenTwenty Strategies.

This week, new legislation was introduced that could reverse the landmark Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission Supreme Court decision. While the legislation, which calls for a Constitutional Amendment, has virtually no chance of passing in this Congress, it's more evidence that the reform movement is alive and kicking, calling for sweeping campaign finance legislation and a rethinking of the rights granted to corporations - messages prevalent in the Occupy movement.

SevenTwenty Strategies continues to monitor this issue on behalf of our clients. The following article first appeared in the newsletter of the National Association of Business Political Action Committees (NABPAC):

This week, Congressman Jim McGovern (D-MA) introduced H.J.Res 88, the latest attempt by the "reform" community to reverse the historic Citizens United decision. McGovern's legislation calls for passage of a 28th Amendment to the Constitution stating that, " ... the words people, person, or citizen as used in this Constitution do not include corporations, limited liability companies or other corporate entities established by the laws of any State, the United States, or any foreign state, and such corporate entities are subject to such regulation as the people, through their elected State and Federal representatives, deem reasonable and are otherwise consistent with the powers of Congress and the States under this Constitution."

In explaining his legislation, McGovern said, "Corporations are not people," McGovern said in a news release. "They do not breathe. They do not have children. They do not die in war. They are artificial entities, which we the people create and, as such, we govern them, not the other way around. The Citizens United ruling marks the most extreme extension of a corporate rights doctrine, which has eroded our First Amendment and our Constitution. Now is the time for a 28th Amendment that lifts up the promise of American self-government: of, for and by the people."

Clearly, this resolution has no chance of passage in this year (or possibly any year), but it does continue to demonstrate how vigilant the "reform" community remains in their quest for passage of sweeping campaign finance legislation.

About Sherry Stanley Whitworth - Chief Product Officer

Sherry Whitworth has over 20 years of experience helping mastermind how trade associations, corporations, non-profits and constituents communicate with their elected officials.

With so much at stake, groups of every stripe will work to impact the 2012 elections. Whether their interests lie with Wall Street or Main Street, health care or welfare, groups will launch voter education and Get Out the Vote (GOTV) campaigns like never before. An educated electorate generates higher turnout at the polls - and now is the time to lay the foundation for pushing your organization's public policy agenda forward.

Where does your organization stand with planning its election strategy? What issues and challenges are staring down your industry? Can you risk waiting to plan your stakeholder engagement effort? Are your opponents waiting to implement theirs? These are all questions you should be considering, if you haven't started already.

Whether your goal is to shape the outcome of the elections or simply to offer your stakeholders resources that they can leverage to participate in the elections - such as providing tools to aid in voter registration, learning about the candidates or finding their polling place - there is a wide range of options for you to consider. SevenTwenty Strategies can help you get started, from advocacy and election tools and websites, to offering voter registration booths at your company facilities, to direct mail and full scale GOTV campaigns.

Contact SevenTwenty Strategies today and learn how you can maximize your organization's potential in making a difference in the 2012 elections. We have the proven tools and experience to design a GOTV campaign to best meet your needs in 2012!

About Vlad Cartwright - Executive Vice President

With over 15 years experience in public affairs, public relations and grassroots advocacy, Vlad specializes in developing and implementing community-based campaigns in the areas of legislative and regulatory advocacy, and public education.

The study — produced by the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism and the Pew Internet & American Life Project in partnership with John S. and James L. Knight Foundation — asked survey participants how they access information about their local communities, breaking responses down into 16 key topic areas, from weather and traffic, to schools and politics. The study also broke responses down by age categories: 18-39 years old, compared to 40+ years old.

The results suggest a more nuanced understanding of the role each media type plays in serving the community.

While local television news remains the most popular source for local information, Americans rely on it primarily for three categories — weather, breaking news and traffic — and younger adults are relying on television even less, which may suggest a growing vulnerability for the medium.

Despite the latest problems facing print journalism, newspapers (both print and online) command a larger audience for a much wider range of information than any other source. Interestingly enough, most Americans (69%) say that if their local newspaper closed up shop, it would not have a major impact on their ability to keep up to speed about local information impacting their community. Yet the data suggest newspapers (both print and online) play a much larger role than many may realize, ranking first or tied-for-first as the source people rely on most for 11 of the 16 categories of local information asked about.

Perhaps no surprise, the Internet is more heavily relied upon by the younger generation, ranking as the top source of information for most local subjects for Americans aged 18-39. Web-only news outlets are critical information-providers for specific subjects, such as education, local businesses and restaurants.

Within this complicated information ecosystem, word of mouth still plays a significant role — especially when it comes to learning about community and civic events, local businesses, and restaurants and clubs.

Overall, the Pew study suggests Americans use a blend of both new and traditional sources to learn about their local communities than researchers had previously thought.

The Pew study includes an interactive chart, broken down by category and age group, to illustrate how local residents are accessing information about specific topics. See the interactive chart here.

About Adam Wagner - Director of Communications

Adam brings nearly a decade of experience in grassroots advocacy, public affairs and public relations to his role as Director of Communications for SevenTwenty Strategies.

This has been an amazing year for SevenTwenty Strategies. From new products and services, to new offices in San Francisco and New York - 2011 has been a BIG year! Too big to say it all in words. So, we've put together a video reel, highlighting the new services and illustrating some of our biggest accomplishments on behalf of some pretty amazing clients. And if we do say so ourselves, we think you're gonna be REEL(ly) impressed!

Click to play the SevenTwenty Reel.

It's no secret that more and more people are opting for smartphones when making their mobile phone purchasing decisions. Nielsen's puts the U.S. market share at more than 38% for smartphones, and Android activations (the most popular smartphone brand) are up to 350,000 a day.

As more and more consumers are buying smartphones, the amount of time people are using their smartphones to browse the Internet is also increasing - now 74 minutes each day, up from 64 minutes a year ago. Today, about 8.2% of all Web browsing is done via mobile devices, and 81% of smartphone users access the Internet via their phones.

Smartphones and tablets have opened up brand new avenues for consumers to access information, changing the way we interact with electronics, consumer products and each other. As this trend continues to evolve, businesses and organizations hoping to tap into these audiences must also evolve, by adjusting their marketing, communications and engagement strategies to cater to audience preferences.

SevenTwenty Strategies' recommended grassroots tool is now available in a mobile-friendly platform, optimizing CapwizXC's advocacy sites specifically for viewing on mobile devices.

The new platform will help you get more out of your subscription by making it easier for your stakeholders to stay engaged on your issues and take action when needed. By offering a layout specifically optimized for mobile devices, you are better equipped to reach your on-the-go stakeholders.

The mobile version simplifies your advocacy site, optimizes it for mobile viewing, downloads faster on mobile platforms and makes for a friendlier user experience. Best of all, it's FREE to subscribers!

The mobile platform offers many of the same features as a traditional version, with simplified navigation and action alerts that are "front and center" on the screen (see the screenshots below). It focuses on the functionality that is most critical for advocate engagement and mobilization, including: a congressional directory, mailing list signup, "Smart" alerts and more.

Clients can set up alerts specifically for viewing on mobile devices and keep this activity separate from activity on your non-mobile site. Robust reporting features separates mobile activations from advocates who took action through traditional means, which provides you with a statistical gauge to help you see which advocates are taking action and by what methods.

Statistically, we've found that advocacy websites lose between 30% and 50% of their audiences with each click required to take action. Utilizing this new mobile-friendly platform reduces drop-off by optimizing its presence for mobile devices. 

Don't allow your advocacy website to be dragged down with a clunky user interface that requires mobile viewers to zoom in multiple times, just to access your tools. Optimize your site for the mobile experience!
If you'd like to learn more about creating a mobile strategy, or if you'd like this functionality for your organization, contact me at Sherry.Whitworth@SevenTwentyStrategies.com.

About Sherry Stanley Whitworth - Chief Product Officer

Sherry Whitworth has over 20 years of experience helping mastermind how trade associations, corporations, non-profits and constituents communicate with their elected officials.

Unfortunately for many, lobbyists' messages may not be getting through. In fact, many committee members and senior congressional staffers are reporting that -- at least for this debate -- lobbyists aren't enjoying their traditional access to policymakers.

This is due to two main reasons: 1. There's a time crunch -- the Super Committee is tasked with identifying $1.2 trillion in mandatory budget savings for the next 10 years, and they were given just a couple of months to do it. There's just not enough time to meet with all of the voices that will be impacted by the committee's findings.

And 2. With so many eyes on the Super Committee's final recommendations, committee members are concerned about transparency. The last thing they want is for the American public to perceive their actions as being controlled by lobbyists. Thus far, they have for the most part limited their contact with lobbyists, relying on their own counsel instead.

The result is that more and more organizations are looking toward non-traditional lobbying tactics -- grassroots, grasstops and earned media tactics, in particular -- to generate support for their programs. Their focus is on generating constituent support from voters and demonstrating how the Super Committee's recommendations will impact their home states and districts. Congressional district offices are being targeted just as much, if not more, than D.C. offices.

And they're not just targeting the "Gang of 12." So too are groups targeting staffers and other lawmakers -- especially those close to Super Committee members, as well as vulnerable legislators facing uphill battles in the next Congressional election. After all, the Super Committee's recommendations still must win approval from Congress.

While the $1.2 trillion in cuts will impact nearly every major industry in the country, expected to be particularly hard hit are defense contractors and the health care and agricultural sectors, if for no other reason than the sheer size of their industries, in terms of current government spending. The future of some programs, such as Medicare Part D, are very much still up in the air.

If you haven't considered your strategy for impacting the debt ceiling debate, you need to, and soon. Preliminary recommendations are due October 14 and are to be finalized by November 23. If the committee's recommendations aren't enacted by December 23, the $1.2 trillion in cuts will still go into effect with an across-the-board cut largely targeting Medicare and defense spending.

Contact SevenTwenty Strategies today to get started.

About Jeff Oldham - Managing Director

For more than 15 years, major clients in a variety of industries – from defense to health care, from consumer products to telecommunications – have turned to Jeff Oldham to build the coalitions, coordinate the campaigns and mobilize the influential voices

SevenTwenty Strategies Celebrates 12 Years
Public affairs and public relations firm marks 12 years with new brand, East and West Coast expansion

The award-winning public affairs and public relations firm, SevenTwenty Strategies, is celebrating 12 years as an industry leader this week, marking July 20, 2011 by announcing the opening of new offices on both the East and West Coasts and the launch of its new brand.

Since its founding, SevenTwenty Strategies has consistently delivered integrated advocacy and communications solutions for some of America's most iconic brands, including nearly two dozen of the Fortune 500 and major players in the energy, health care, insurance, pharmaceutical and major retail sectors.

In the last year, SevenTwenty was named to Inc. Magazine's list of "Fastest Growing Companies" and added several key positions to its senior staff, including Managing Director, Jeff Oldham, and Chief Technology Officer, Dean Valentine. Today's announcement takes the D.C.-based firm national, by expanding its office locations to two new major markets - New York, NY and San Francisco, CA.

"We're thrilled to mark this milestone with our expansion into San Francisco and New York, giving us an opportunity to work more closely and effectively with both our clients and partners," said Pam Fielding, President of SevenTwenty Strategies. "We've grown a great deal in 12 years, and while we still offer the same commitment to our clients since launching our first advocacy website, we now provide an entire spectrum of advocacy, consulting and communications services to assist in engaging a wide range of stakeholders, from employees to consumers, Congress and the media."

SevenTwenty Strategies offers a full suite of public relations and public affairs services. The New York office will be managed by Managing Director, Jeff Oldham, and the San Francisco office by Executive Vice President, Vlad Cartwright. "Given its position as the world's eighth largest economy, California has been and remains a critical market for SevenTwenty Strategies and our clients. Our expansion to San Francisco allows us to dedicate more focus and better serve the market on a range of issues from education and health care, to consumer engagement and brand management."

SevenTwenty Strategies is the proud recipient of top industry honors over the past decade, including multiple American Association of Political Consultants' (AAPC) "Pollie" awards, the Silver Anvil Award from the Public Relations Society of America, and two Grassroots Innovation Awards from the Public Affairs Council. Harvard University, AAPC and PoliticsOnline recognized the firm among its inaugural list, "Top 25 Who Are Changing the World of the Internet and Politics."

You can reach SevenTwenty at:

# # #

720 Strategies Names Jeff Oldham as Managing Director
Oldham to Head Day-to-Day Operations of Leading Public Relations/Public Affairs Firm

720 Strategies, named by Inc. Magazine to its list of fastest growing private companies, today announced Jeff Oldham as the firm's Managing Director. Oldham, a 15-year public affairs veteran, will lead 720's day-to-day operations and bring to the D.C.-based public relations and public affairs firm significant strategic experience working with Fortune 500 and trade association clients on critical public affairs issues.

Oldham's experience overseeing and managing complex public affairs programs for a diverse group of clients adds considerable depth to 720's offerings and helps expand its growing grassroots field network in every congressional district and designated market area in the country. As Managing Director of 720, he'll draw on substantive expertise serving clients from defense to health care, energy to infrastructure, and from consumer products to telecommunications, in order to support the firm's growth.

"The addition of Jeff as Managing Director is an exciting new chapter for 720 - and one that will see significant expansion for the firm geographically and strategically," said Pam Fielding, President of 720 Strategies. "Jeff has worked with 720 as a client and colleague. He has seen firsthand the power and impact of 720's integrated communications programs, and we are thrilled to have him on our senior management team." Oldham added, "I've been a big fan of 720 Strategies for a number of years, and I am excited about what the future holds for us."

Prior to joining 720, Oldham served as a managing partner with Sextant Public Affairs, where he assisted clients in building strategic partnerships and crafting tailored messaging to meet their advocacy communications agendas. As Deputy Vice President for Alliances, Affordability & Access for the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), he helped build and manage the organization's global field network of public affairs operatives and oversaw grassroots and public affairs campaigns on critical, complex health policy issues.

Prior to that, Oldham served as Senior Vice President for Direct Impact, taking the reins of some of the company's most challenging public affairs projects, providing sound strategic oversight and resourceful campaign implementation. He also served as Senior Manager of Constituent Relations for Boeing, overseeing the Boeing Government Action Network, a team of employees, retirees and suppliers, which, under Oldham's leadership and coordination, became effective grassroots activists.

# # #

About 720 Strategies
720 Strategies is an integrated public relations and public affairs agency that specializes in helping America's top brands listen to, engage and interact with their most important stakeholders - online and off. America's top companies turn to 720 when they must reach and influence their most valued audiences. Using a savvy integrated mix of digital marketing, social media advocacy, earned media, grassroots and issues management, 720 supports the public affairs and grassroots programs of some of the nation's most dynamic Fortune 500 companies and trade associations. To learn more, visit 720 Strategies at http://www.720strategies.com.

The results from a new research study conducted by 720 Strategies' social media specialist and Senior Account Director, Lauren Tanner DiPaola, on how Fortune 500 companies are using the social media platform Twitter for advocacy and communications, will be released in a webinar discussion on Tuesday, March 1, 2011 at 11:00 a.m. EST.

The study focuses on how Fortune 500 companies approach engaging consumers, advocates, the media and the public at large through the popular social media site - now estimated to support nearly 200 million users, generating 65 million "tweets" per day and handling more than 800,000 search queries daily. The webinar will provide results from the study as a way to better understand current trends in effective grassroots issues advocacy.

"Modern strategies for government relations and grassroots communication are evolving rapidly with the growth in popular social media sites like Twitter and Facebook," said Tanner DiPaola. "This study sheds light on specific insights some of the most successful companies have discovered through their own exploration of Twitter as a resource to advance their advocacy agendas."

Twitter has changed a company's ability to communicate with important constituencies that influence its business. Via Twitter, organizations have new means of quickly disseminating information on corporate issues, while also gaining insight into the pulse of their constituencies.

Study participants cited value in engaging the "Twittosphere" as an ability to participate in the conversation that's occurring online about their brands, "with or without (them)," in an effort to help shape public perception about their products or company.

"... Everyday there are about 5,000 conversations online that mention our brands and many of those are on Twitter," said one participant in the study, who represents the food and beverage industry. "We want to do a better job of participating in the conversations that surround our brand."

Through extensive interviews with communications and government affairs executives from Fortune 500 companies, the study found that corporate respondents view the 140-character messaging platform as a valuable social media tool for reaching the public, adding authenticity to their messages and building online communities.

And while Twitter provides ample opportunity to engage consumers and their networks in direct conversations about products and issues, the study findings suggest that respondents are not fully utilizing Twitter for grassroots advocacy, as well as using a variety of non-standardized metrics to attempt to evaluate their efforts.

The webinar will discuss strategies and resources that help develop an effective presence in the social media realm, and highlight the importance of establishing a corporate social media policy to help maintain order, gauge success and set ground rules for communication outreach on platforms like Twitter.

To register for the webinar, click here. To download results from the study, click here.

# # #

About 720 Strategies
720 Strategies is an award-winning, grassroots advocacy and political persuasion firm, specializing in integrated communications campaigns that leverage the best of online, video, print and on-the-ground strategies. We work with organizations to develop their social media strategy, establish an online community of advocates and communicate regularly to add transparency and authenticity to their messages so that their advocate pool can be mobilized, when needed, on a moment's notice. For more information on our products and services, please visit us online at www.720strategies.com.

But how are Fortune 500 companies using Twitter for community building and grassroots advocacy outreach, and do they perceive it as valuable? This question has largely been unexplored until now. I recently conducted an in-depth study of how corporations use Twitter for advocacy and communications with key audiences. Through extensive interviews with communications and government affairs executives from Fortune 500 companies, we found that corporate respondents view the 140-character messaging platform as a valuable social media tool for reaching the public, adding authenticity to their messages and building online communities.

And while Twitter, like other social networking sites, provides ample opportunity to engage consumers and their networks in direct conversations about products and issues, we found that respondents are not fully utilizing Twitter for grassroots advocacy requests. Additionally, the interviews revealed that America’s top corporations self-manage and maintain their Twitter campaigns in house, and use a variety of non-standardized metrics to attempt to evaluate their efforts. Our study results highlight the importance of establishing a corporate social media policy to help maintain order, gauge success and set ground rules for communication outreach on platforms like Twitter.

720 Strategies can help your corporation or organization engage in the “Twittosphere” by providing resources that help you establish an effective presence in the social media realm. We will work with you to develop your social media strategy, establish an online community of advocates interested in your effort(s) and communicate regularly to add transparency and authenticity to your messages so that your advocate pool can be mobilized, when needed, on a moment’s notice.

Interested in learning more? Request a copy of our study.

About Lauren Tanner - VP, Client Services

Lauren joined SevenTwenty Strategies in 2008, bringing with her vast technological experience with the Digital Age and her artistic eye to deliver top-notch interactive strategy.

If so, you are not alone. 720 Strategies would like to cordially invite you to join our first Power of Coalitions webinar on Wednesday, February 16, 2011 at 11am.

We recognize that sometimes you can go it alone, but other times you need a little help from your friends. Our free 30-minute webinar will address the importance of coalition work, starting and growing coalitions, and fully engaging coalition members. If advancement on your issues would benefit from in-tandem communications with like-minded, third-party allies, consider exploring 720 Strategies' coalition building and management services.

Ray Quintero, VP of Strategic Alliances, will provide insight into the power of coalitions during this upcoming webinar. Register for the Coalition Building webinar here.

10. We welcomed 10 new team members to the firm, increasing our numbers in every department. They include: Joe Wasser (PAC); Emily Blackwell (Creative); Richard King  (Creative); Jessica Wdowiarz (Accounts); Harrison Keith (Accounts); Laura Meditz (Admin); Ray Quintero (Coalitions); Adam Wagner (Marketing); Chris Monnat (Technology) and Nick Fortenberry (Technology).

9. Our creative team was featured twice in Smashing Magazine, a well-respected news and information magazine for Web designers, graphic designers and developers. Read "I Want To Be A Web Designer When I Grow Up," a whimsical thought piece by 720's superstar Art Director, Mike Aleo. Also, take a look at "Remembering George," a provocative wallpaper homage to George Harrison by our multitalented Graphic Designer, Emily Blackwell.

8. In 2010, we expanded our products and services to include:

• PAC Management Technology
• Coalition Building
  
• Full-Scale Video Production

For more information on our PAC Management services and technology offerings, please contact Joe Wasser, VP of PAC Services. For coalitions, please contact Ray Quintero, VP of Strategic Alliances. For video production, please contact Michael Buie, VP of Creative Services. And, of course, all can be reached at (202)962-3955 or info@720strategies.com.

7. We partnered with Arent Fox, one of the nation's foremost law firms, for PAC compliance services. This innovative PAC management partnership ensures on-time and accurate FEC and state election commission compliance so you can concentrate on inspiring your key constituencies to make a difference. For more information on our PAC Management services, please contact Joe Wasser, VP of PAC Services.

6. We played a pivotal role in helping Fortune 500 clients and major trade associations galvanize support around their issues and increase participation in the political process during the 2010 Mid-term Elections. From campaign websites to personalized direct mail, we produced communications to rally support for employers, healthcare, energy and transportation... to name a few.

5. 2010 was also the year in which we did a lot of socializing... social media, that is. Lauren Tanner DiPaola, 720's uber-talented Senior Account Director and resident social media expert, conducted a fascinating study on Fortune 500 companies' use of Twitter as a grassroots tool for creating groundswell support for their issues and policy positions. The results are truly astounding! Be on the lookout for the study's release in the following weeks.

4. We also organized employee town hall meetings and issue events nationwide, featuring U.S. Senators, U.S. Representatives, state legislators, industry thought leaders, corporate CEOs and household names such as the Honorable Sandra Day O'Connor, former U.S. Supreme Court Justice.

3. 2010 also translated into several top awards. 720's client, Target, received the prestigious Grassroots Innovation Award from the Public Affairs Council for for its social media efforts. In addition, we also took home a Gold Pollie Award, as well as an Honorable Mention from the American Association of Political Consultants in the categories of "Congressional Franked Mail" and "Best Use of Twitter," respectively.

2. We were named one of the nation's fastest growing companies by Inc. Magazine. 720 Strategies ranked on Inc.'s fourth annual "Inc. 5,000" list, which represents the most comprehensive look at the most important segment of the economy — America's independent-minded entrepreneurs.

1. And our Number One Accomplishment in 2010... (drum roll please)... we celebrated our 10^th year in the public affairs arena!

We started as e-Advocates, one of the first online grassroots advocacy firms in the nation. Today, we are 720 Strategies, a fully integrated multimedia agency that combines grassroots, public affairs, public relations and advertising strategies to meet our clients' objectives. Amazing!

About Michael Buie - VP, Creative Services

Michael is an award-winning writer, creative director and strategist with years of experience producing persuasive political advertising for Presidential, Congressional, Gubernatorial and state-legislative candidates.

Welcome to 2011! It's a new year and, from a public affairs perspective, that means a chance to reflect on the strategies and tactics your organization utilizes to meet its legislative and issues agenda. Of course, with a new year comes New Year's resolutions! Here are a few resolutions — 11 for 2011 to be exact — that your organization can adopt (without needing to go on a diet).

1. Get smart about social media. Companies and associations increasingly engage their audiences through social media more than ever before. If you haven't checked how your peers use social media to advance their public relations and issues agenda, make 2011 the year you do something about it.

To get you started, 720 Strategies will host a special webinar on Thursday, February 10, 2011 at 11AM EST, discussing how Twitter is shaping Fortune 500's corporate communication techniques, packed with supporting research from an exclusive study conducted by 720 Strategies' social media specialist and Senior Account Director, Lauren Tanner DiPaola. Sign up for this free webinar here.

2. Learn the power of coalition building. Sometimes you can go it alone, but other times you need a little help from your friends. If advancement on an issue would benefit from in-tandem communications with like-minded, third-party allies, consider exploring 720 Strategies' coalition building and management services. Ray Quintero, 720's VP of Strategic Alliances, will provide insight into the power of coalitions during his upcoming webinar on February 16, 2011 at 11AM EST. Register for Ray's Coalition Building webinar here.

3. Start building at the community level. If "all politics is local," the influence of grassroots communications can't be overstated. No matter if your tactics are online or on the ground, building your advocate base begins at the community level. 720's in-market field teams provide entrée into every legislative district and DMA in the country, while our online recruitment strategies can target specific states and localities most affected by your key issues.

4. Create inspiring communications. Whether you're recruiting advocates for a cause or educating PAC-eligibles to reinvigorate your fundraising efforts, success depends on the power of your communications. 720's award-winning designers and advocacy writers are well-equipped to generate eye-catching, compelling communications for all your public relations, grassroots and PAC-building needs.

5. Document your link to jobs and the economy. During tough economic times, lawmakers on Capitol Hill need to understand how your issue, company or industry delivers on the promise of jobs and a robust economy. Bring your message down to the district level in order to make your case. Several clients have found success using 720's Asset Maps to provide district-by-district snapshots of what facilities, employees, shareholders and other economic assets are impacted by key issues facing targeted legislative districts.

6. Benchmark to reach your goals. You can't improve your position if you don't know where to start. Strategic planning begins with understanding where you currently are, benchmarking yourself against peers and issue competitors and then setting measurable goals to achieve over a defined timeline. 720 has conducted extensive audits of clients' grassroots, PAC and social media programs to help them identify the successes and challenges of their efforts to date, and then recommend strategies and tactics to achieve their issues agenda.

7. Network with your peers. The start of a new year — and a new Congress — brings new issues, new agendas and new calendars of events to light. Keep these conferences on your radar: the Public Affairs Council's National Grassroots Conference (January 25-28), the National PAC Conference (February 21-24), and the Innovate to Motivate forum for PAC and grassroots professionals (February 8-11). NABPAC and Women in Government Relations (WGR) also host annual conferences later in the year. 720 will be on hand to help kickoff these industry events.

8. Renew and refresh. Don't make the mistake of letting your website go stale. Website traffic depends on new and fresh content to keep your audiences engaged and coming back for more. So, now may be the perfect time to develop a fresh look for your PAC brand or grassroots program(s). Explore 720's award-winning Web design, development and hosting services today!

9. Build with an eye toward the future. Don't wait until disaster strikes to make a decision on a contentious issue facing your company or industry. Lay the groundwork with issue education and recruitment programs built to mobilize your advocates at a moment's notice. 720 has helped clients from Fortune 500 companies to associations and non-profit organizations develop cutting-edge integrated advocacy campaigns. See examples of our work here.

10. Invest in telling your story. Sometimes communications are most compelling when there's a face associated with your campaign. We're seeing more and more companies turn to video communications for their issue advocacy and PAC fundraising initiatives. If you're thinking about how video communications can supplement your public affairs actions, contact Michael Buie, VP of Creative Services.

11. Take credit. Potential advocates and contributors want — and need — to know the success of your efforts to date. We can help you turn your end-of-the-year PAC assessment into a full-fledged PAC annual report that clearly and succinctly illustrates the work you're doing to establish a voice in your industry. Now is the time to show off your success. Make your voice heard in 2011!

If you need help keeping your resolutions this year, call us. Wishing you and yours a happy, healthy and productive 2011!

About Pam Felding - President

A policy writer, Internet strategist and author, Pam has successfully leveraged the Internet as a tool for public affairs and activism in numerous online campaigns over the last 15 years.

From alternatives to renewables, energy independence to production and safety issues, 2011 is sure to bring much debate and attention to the energy industry in the 112th Congress. Are your grassroots advocacy efforts where they need to be?

Erin Simonsen, Director of Market Research for Blue Ridge Partners joined 720 Strategies' Sherry Stanley Whitworth to share this insightful research.

If you weren't able to secure your front-row seat to this webinar, but would still love to hear about the subject area or check out the report, contact us at (202)962-3955 or contact info@720strategies.com and we'd be happy to fill you in.

The third wave of webmail is beginning to gain momentum.

Why is this important? For the last ten years or so, we have all been receiving a barrage of slick HTML marketing emails from countless companies, organizations and campaigns trying to capture our ever-diminishing attention. People have grown immune to the teaser subject lines or the enticing (but static) imagery. More often than not, the images are blocked all together. Enter Hotmail's Active Views.

Active Views seeks to bring the dynamic experience of Web 2.0 into the content of your emails. It will enable Javascript and AJAX within the body of the email to make it interactive. Watch the video below for an example.

The old model of mass email communications was to send an email with a teaser subject to get the recipient to open it, hope the graphics and content are enticing enough for them to click your call to action, which would take them to your website, asking them to fill out some form. Surprisingly, in this day and age, that's an exhausting number of steps that doesn't have as high an engagement level as we would like. The new model, being piloted through Active Views, will allow that action right within the body of the email.

You will be able to review and approve that Facebook friend request right within your email. You will be able to book or update your Orbitz flight reservation information. Take it one step further and imagine sending a video that will play right within your email, asking them to donate to your cause or write members of congress and have them complete the action right within the email.

This is big because it's lowering the barrier to participation. It's taking the action to the user rather than forcing the user to come to your website. This is the future of email and we will likely see more of this coming down the road. The end result for your email campaigns will ultimately be a higher level of engagement.

About Tom Cochran - Chief Technology Officer

Tom has over ten years of experience in architecting web applications, having developed software for numerous government agencies and political campaigns during the '04 and '06 cycles.

Earlier this year, Facebook applied for a patent on inferential ad targeting. You're probably asking, what is inferential ad targeting, why is this important and how does this affect me?

Facebook captures and stores an unbelievable amount of demographic and attribute information on its users as they self-identify their own likes and dislikes - a marketer's dream. This information is captured when people edit their own profiles, like content and pages, share links or videos, and most interestingly, browse content on Facebook or Facebook-connected pages. All these data points are used in aggregate to paint a marketing profile for each Facebook user, which can then be used to target them with relevant ads.

Self-identified user information is very useful in identifying what the user likes through his or her actions; but Facebook is now pushing to identify what the person likes through what their social circle does on Facebook. This is the next leap for social marketing, expanding on the power of "Friends of Connections" ad targeting.

Facebook employs algorithms to quantify a user's relationships based on their online interactions. In layman's terms, if you frequently post on someone's wall or comment on their photos, you are probably good friends with that person. This level of engagement with your Facebook friends is tracked across your entire network to determine who your close friends are and is used to determine what content will show up in your news feed. Your cumulative interactions with Facebook friends are used to determine your close network of friends. Thus, this algorithm can then make an inferential assumption to determine which relevant social stories to show you in your news feed. 

The power of social networking is in leveraging the data available through quantifying your relationships. If relationships can be accurately quantified, then information that is not self-identified in your own profile can be inferred through these relationships. It's very easy to target Pepsi advertising to someone that liked the Pepsi Facebook page. But, if we have a user with very little self-identified likes, it's going to be challenging to target ads to this person. However, when you expand your information about this person to include their social network and quantify their relationships, you open up an enormous amount of information to be analyzed, which allows us to assume potential likes and tastes.

The average Facebook user has a network of 130 friends, and they typically have strong and frequent online interactions with between five to ten of them. If a person has not self-identified himself as liking Pepsi, but he has ten close friends that do like Pepsi, we can assume with a degree of confidence one of two things - he either likes Pepsi and has not self-identified himself, or he is likely to be influenced and persuaded by his close friends to like Pepsi.

Facebook has built and cultivated an enormous empirical database which quantifies human relationships, and this social data expands what we know about users to improve how we market to them. This is the power of inferential ad targeting.

By now, it should be evident that this can dramatically impact both electoral and issue campaigns. If your friends like the Facebook page of a political candidate or show support for legislative issues by updating their status, it's likely that you are of the same mindset. Ad targeting is greatly improved by augmenting existing behavioral and attribute data about users with information about their social connections, helping us infer what was previously unknown. Facebook can now capitalize on these relationships to create a clearer picture of each user based upon their interactions with others.

About Tom Cochran - Chief Technology Officer

Tom has over ten years of experience in architecting web applications, having developed software for numerous government agencies and political campaigns during the '04 and '06 cycles.