Christopher Tocci's SGA Presidential Campaign
As the campaign manager, I was responsible for creating and distributing publicity materials to the campus, to build name recognition as well as increase voting turnout, all within a week duration.
This campaign was the one that I learned so much from about publicity and branding. As the name suggests, the campaign was to encourage students to vote for Chris Tocci as the president of the Student Government Association at WPI. On a personal note, I agreed to working on this campaign not to learn about publicity at first, but to support Chris, a fellow Beta brother.
The first challenge of this campaign was to build name recognition for Chris. Chris considered himself as the underdog, compared to the other candidate, who was then the SGA Treasurer and was well-known by many clubs and organizations on campus. Chris' social circle size is not in his favor. That's why the first goal of all the publicity was to make sure people have heard of the name Chris Tocci come voting day. This goal was successfully achieved through the many printed materials distributed around campus. Indeed, there were materials in almost every building on campus. It could be even considered as excessive. Yet, the strategy worked. The quality of those materials was also a focus. Those materials needed to clearly conveyed his goals as SGA president, and why he would be suitable for the position. There were videos about his goals, posters about his experiences, and table stands about his action plans.
The next step for the campaign was to increase voting turnout. Though SGA's impact on clubs and organizations is significant, the student body does not care too much about the election, or even the SGA. Many even went against the SGA and criticized them for not being effective. Thus, our campaign also had to focus on voters turnout. We did tabling, where Chris would stand in the Campus Center, meeting new students and tell them why their votes matter. We sent out electronic invite on social media to ask individuals to vote. Our effort in this matter was a success, as more students voted for that election than previous years. Moreover, many said that they were "better informed" during this election as well.
Though we did not win the position, we were still extremely proud of the work Chris and I put in together.
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