Democratic firm SKDK continued to add to its digital and paid media team ahead of 2024 when it brought on Maxwell Nunes, as EVP and head of paid digital last week.
Nunes served as director of paid media on Pete Buttigieg’s 2020 presidential campaign, which garnered plenty of attention that cycle for its digital program.
He was welcomed by CEO Doug Thornell, who said in a statement: “His strategic thinking and creative approach have earned him recognition as one of the most well-regarded digital strategists in Democratic politics.”
In addition to working for Buttigieg’s campaign, Nunes held senior roles in digital media strategy for Terry McAuliffe for Virginia and Hillary for America. But it was on Buttigieg’s run that Nunes was able to see how a newcomer candidate to the national audience could harness their newfound fame.
“Nothing is better than organic virality from a media moment,” he recently told the newsletter FWIW. “Candidates should make the most of their major moments so they don’t have to resort to fundraising tactics that are difficult or borderline slimy… I know a bunch of [the GOP candidates] are doing primetime CNN town halls – that’s the same platform that Pete successfully used.”
With campaigns in need of ways to motivate small-dollar donors ahead of next cycle, one place to start is setting very clear benchmarks and then building in the creativity from there.
Fundraising tactics like dinner-with-the-candidate contests have been popular for a few cycles now — especially on presidential efforts, and Nunes noted that it was the “Pizza with Pete” contest that the campaign went back to again and again during that year’s Democratic primary.
“The ‘Pizza with Pete’ was the contest that always worked — even better than the ‘going to the debate’ contest,” he said during a May 2020 interview with ACRONYM. “Pizza with Pete was always on because it was always working. It was simple, it was straightforward. It was something that all of our supporters wanted to do.”
“I say this to everyone who’s launching a digital ads campaign. You have to have a goal first,” he said during the ACRONYM interview. “We are really focused on whatever goal that is and then executing a media plan, and creative, and optimization — all these sort of things are centered around that goal.”
He added: “Just having a digital program is not going to win you an election. But whatever your strategy is, making that a part of your digital program and employing tactics in support of that strategy is how you run a successful program — however you want to define that metric.”
