Digital Strategists

#85: Strategic Communication at the Council of the European Union, with Alexandra Ekkelenkamp

June 30, 2019 Digital Strategists


Alexandra Ekkelenkamp, Advisor to the Director of Media and Communications at the Council of the European Union, discusses how the EU Council uses social media for strategic communication.

Alexandra shares her insights about how social media campaigns reflect the Council’s work, how that creates authenticity, and how to incorporate local versus European narratives when communicating to the EU public.

#84: Authentic Campaigns, Social Media, and Politics, with Loren Merchan and Jonathan Barnes

June 16, 2019 Digital Strategists


Loren Merchan and Jonathan Barnes guest to discuss the concept of authenticity and authentic campaigns in US elections. We break down the concept of authenticity, and discuss how digital and social media can be leveraged to make a candidate seem more authentic during a campaign.

Read more about Authentic Campaigns here!

#78: Advertising and Fundraising for Political Campaigns, with Brian Lyle

April 29, 2019 Digital Strategists

Brian Lyle, Vice President of Digital Strategy at On Message, Inc., and AAPC 2019 Digital Strategist of the Year, guests to discuss his award-winning work during the 2018 US Midterms.

We discuss On Message’s approach to political campaigning – advertising, organic growth, and fundraising – and the role of digital media in each. We also break down differences in campaigning between challengers and incumbents, discover what makes a good campaign website, and talk about new forms of advertising like OTT and P2P texting.

#77: Ukraine Presidential Elections and Social Media Campaigning, with Mikhail Fedorov

April 13, 2019 Digital Strategists

Mikhail Fedorov, Chief Digital Strategist for Vladimir Zelensky, joins the podcast to discuss digital campaigning ahead of the 2019 Ukrainian Presidential Elections. We discuss how Zelensky, the election’s frontrunner, is using tools like Facebook, YouTube, and Telegram to grow a support base and coordinate volunteers’ canvassing efforts. We also talk about bots, trolls, and fake news in Ukraine ahead of the election, and how the Zelensky campaign is working to avoid information pollution on their online channels.

Be sure to check out the podcast’s Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube channels!

#74: Political Campaigning with Chatbots, Streaming Devices, and Social Media, with Adam Meldrum

March 10, 2019 Digital Strategists

Adam Meldrum, Founding and Managing Partner at Ad Victory, guests to discuss the cutting-edge trends in American digital campaigning. We look at some best practices and innovations from the 2018 Midterm Elections around ad buys, booking inventory, OTT campaigns, and Facebook Messenger chatbots. And of course, how social media fits into the modern political campaign apparatus.

#68: Private and Public Sector Digital Campaigning in the EU, with Marta Albertini

January 13, 2019 Digital Strategists

Marta Albertini, Digital Strategist at GPLUS, joins the podcast to share her experiences in digital campaigning across private and public sectors. We discuss differences in using social media in a B2B environment versus an institutional one, some of the challenges in running pan-European campaigns, and how generational differences matter when communicating policy online. Marta also shares her insights on what’s changed in the (social) media landscape between the 2014 and 2019 European Parliament Elections.

#66: Crisis Communication, Social Media, and European Political Campaigning, with Marco Ricorda

December 16, 2018 Digital Strategists

Marco Ricorda, Social Media Manager for the European Parliament’s President, joins the podcast to discuss livestreaming from the Parliament during last week’s terrorist attack in Strasbourg. From there, we discuss the state of digital campaigning in European politics, the role of data and data analysis for social media campaigns, and the upcoming 2019 European Parliament elections.

Check out the EuroPCom Podcast!
Here’s Marco’s Medium post discussed in the episode.

#62: P2P Texting for Democrats in the 2018 Midterm Elections, with Naseem Makiya

October 28, 2018 Digital Strategists

Naseem Makiya, founder and CEO of Outvote, guests to discuss the peer-to-peer texting technologies available to Democrats ahead of the 2018 Midterm Elections. We break down the features of Outvote and what sets it apart from other P2P platforms. In particular, we focus on the “Swing District” feature, a focus on contacting friends, and the use of emojis to signify a friend’s previous voting history. We also talk about the results generated from the platform during the primaries, and the P2P landscape for political campaigning now as well as in the future.

#54: P2P Texting Platforms for Political Campaigns, with Thomas Peters

August 27, 2018 Digital Strategists

Thomas Peters, CEO of uCampaign and RumbleUp, returns to the podcast to discuss his company’s new peer-to-peer texting platform: RumbleUp. Thomas shares his insights into how P2P texting (SMS and MMS) can be used by political campaigns to increase GOTV initiatives, polling, and fundraising. We talk about the differences between P2P texting and email, as well as some of the recent success RumbleUp has had in promoting Republican candidates. This includes a recent local primary election in Alabama, as well as drumming up support for Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh.

Here’s the link the Medium post on RumbleUp we discuss in the episode.

#52: Paid Media and Political Advertisements for Campaigns, with Anson Kaye

July 29, 2018 Digital Strategists

Anson Kaye, Partner at GMMB, discusses how a political advertisement for a campaign is crafted from concept to implementation. Anson has designed paid media for Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and Harry Reid, and he shares his insights into how the rise of social media platforms has influenced his work. We also look ahead into how the advertising landscape might look like in the 2018 U.S. Congressional midterm elections.