In the past, successful government relations and lobbying efforts mostly required a good pair of shoes and the ability to develop and sustain relationships with lawmakers and staff.
Although relationships and sturdy shoes remain important, winning efforts today require pressure to be applied from outside as well as from inside the Capitol dome. Lobbying in the digital era is all about building and mobilizing constituencies.
Certainly, grassroots advocacy is nothing new to Bravo Group GR — it’s been a cornerstone of our work since 1999 — but what has changed over the decades is the existence of an absolute nexus between the communications team that’s building the pressure outside the Capitol and the GR team that’s putting its influence to work inside.
In an arena where relationships once trumped all other tactics, successful lobbying now requires a multifaceted approach
Dennis Walsh, President, Government Relations
Now, when a lobbyist talks with lawmakers about an issue, it shouldn’t be the first time they’re hearing about it — they should already be receiving emails, texts, tweets or calls from a mobilized public.
We saw early success with that nexus when former Gov. Ed Rendell was advocating for tax breaks for a large corporation looking to build a new headquarters in Center City Philadelphia. Working with us, neighboring business owners banded together in opposition, used campaign-style tactics to influence public policy, and beat back the plan. The tools were different then — direct mail, phone calls, letters, surveys — but the goals have not changed: educate and mobilize constituencies.
More recently, we executed a campaign with a focus on educating consumers about the value of competition in health care, which was nonexistent at that time in western Pennsylvania. An advocacy effort that integrated a public education campaign over the airwaves with traditional lobbying efforts transformed western Pennsylvania into one of the most competitive health care marketplaces in the country.
The digital era lit a fire under mobilization methods, and there’s no better example than the digital advocacy campaign against a proposed nuclear bailout in Pennsylvania. In 2017, what began as an effort to prop up the Three Mile Island nuclear facility morphed into nuclear power operators seeking long-term subsidies for Pennsylvania’s five operating nuclear power generating facilities. Those subsidies would be added to ratepayers’ electricity bills.
Realizing the harm headed for ratepayers, consumers and other energy interests supportive of a competitive energy marketplace needed to frame and fight the bailout proposal. We created Citizens Against Nuclear Bailouts (CANB) to educate ratepayers on the dangers, while lobbyists put the pressure on state lawmakers to oppose the idea.
A digital-centric approach ensured that CANB’s messages landed directly in front of ratepayers and mobilized them to contact their elected leaders.
Our technology and targeting capabilities included microtargeting across communications channels. CANB’s website included an advocacy center where ratepayers could contact their elected officials directly. Advocates stayed informed and engaged through a stream of educational content, email and social media updates. Lobbying efforts provided real-time feedback to inform consistent and constant communications from advocates to their elected officials.
Thanks to these efforts, Pennsylvania rejected a nuclear bailout. Ratepayers in other states — Illinois, New Jersey, New York and Ohio — were not so lucky.
In an arena where relationships once trumped all other tactics, successful lobbying now requires a multifaceted approach. Cultivating relationships needs to be coordinated strategically with traditional coalition building and targeted, efficient digital advocacy that empowers citizens with the confidence and knowledge to influence public policy directly.
