March 5, 2007 - E-Advocates, the nation's premier full-service Internet advocacy consulting firm, received the American Association of Political Consultants' (AAPC) highest award, the 2007 Pollie Award, in the category of Best Issue Advocacy Web site for SetLoveFree.com. The Pollie Awards honor the very best in political campaign advertising and expertise. The award was presented February 22 at AAPC's Pollie Awards Ceremony in South Beach, FL.
Southwest Airlines hired E-Advocates to design and launch the "SetLoveFree.com" campaign to repeal the Wright Amendment which restricted travel into and out of Dallas Love Field (Southwest's hub) for large commercial airliners and prohibits flying from Love Field to points beyond the four states surrounding Texas. This amendment was tacked onto the law that deregulated U.S. airlines in the 1970's by then-Speaker of the House Jim Wright who wanted to prevent competition between the two airlines headquartered in his Dallas-area district-Southwest and American Airlines.
The Website was the centerpiece of the campaign with over 800,000 visitors, offering information resources and encouraging letter-writing along with setlovefree.com t-shirts, easy-to-use Website banners, viral marketing tools such as Tell-A-Friend and streaming recent television ads.
"SetLoveFree proves that involving customers in public affairs campaigns is a win-win for the company and the public they serve. This effort also demonstrates the power and success of integrated campaigns," said Pam Fielding, President of E-Advocates.
The online and offline campaigns were introduced on May 5, 2005 and Congress passed the Wright Amendment Reform Act sixteen months later on September 29, 2006. President Bush signed the act into law on October 13, 2006 and additional service out of Love Field began only six days later.
This unprecedented program used online and offline techniques to publicize the issues, recruit new supporters and get the attention of policymakers, the press, and the public. This campaign garnered more than 100,000 supporters and generated over 200,000 messages to Members of Congress and the media. The campaign also attracted significant press coverage, including a column by syndicated columnist George Will and over 26,800 mentions of "SetLoveFree" in a Google search.
"Love has been set free and Southwest Airlines thanks the thousands of people who got involved. An effort like this would not have been possible without SetLoveFree.com and we especially thank E-Advocates for their creativity and excellent Web site campaign services," said Susan Goodman, Director of Legislative Awareness at Southwest Airlines.
SetLoveFree.com also received the highest honors for grassroots innovation at the 2006 National Conference for Political Involvement Professionals.
E-Advocates is a recognized pioneer in the field of cyberadvocacy with Pollie wins in 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, and 2007. Areas of expertise include: Internet campaign strategy, design, and execution; community building, cyberactivist recruitment and retention; issue advocacy; and online advertising design and placement. For more details, visit www.e-advocates.com.
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