In late 2017, long time Columbus, Georgia City Councilor Skip Henderson contacted Naartjie Multimedia and told our team that he had decided to throw his hat into the 2018 mayor's race. Because of Skip's long time service to the community, he was seen as the early favorite to succeed Teresa Tomlinson as mayor. With six other candidates and an unconventional election day in late May, the campaign had its work cut out for itself. The obvious goal of the campaign was to get Skip Henderson elected as Mayor, but in campaign strategy meetings, the biggest dream was to win outright on Election Day and avoid a run-off and a longer fight. In order to avoid a run-off election, Skip would need to win at least fifty percent of the vote plus one additional vote. This feat was not common and would be tough in a crowded field with seven candidates. 

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As an account executive, I worked directly with Skip Henderson and the campaign manager to come up with the campaign strategy, budget, message, and advertising plan from the official announcement that Skip was entering the race, to the victory party on election night. I designed and organized the campaign website which enabled the campaign to accept monetary donations and requests for yard signs and bumper stickers. I set up and managed all of the social media and ad campaigns and I worked with Facebook to obtain verification for his page. 

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As the campaign drew closer to election day, members of the campaign became less confident that Skip would be able to win without a runoff. I remained confident that Skip would be able to win because I was seeing indications that our digital strategy was paying off in the days leading up to Election Day. That confidence proved to be well-founded when it became official that Skip Henderson won the election with 57% of the vote and would head to the mayor's office without a runoff. 

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This was one of my favorite projects while working at Naartjie Multimedia. Typically I had worked on projects where the goal was to increase sales or awareness, but the election got my adrenaline going because the competition was so public. If we won, everyone in the community would know how effective our campaign was. I personally put in a lot of work on this project, literally giving my sweat and blood (always wear gloves when placing campaign signs in the ground). I chose to spend my time after work and on the weekends supporting this campaign by delivering yard signs, attending town halls and debates in every part of the city, and by waving campaign signs in the days leading up to the election, because I knew that in order to win, it was important that I understood what voters were asking about, and that his supporters had what they needed to share their support. Now, as I drive downtown and look up at the Government Tower, I am proud that Skip Henderson serves our city as mayor and I'm proud to know that I helped put him there.