Evan Vitale Consulting: State of political consulting: Rapid growth, long hours, new approaches

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Even as many of their clients have lost, it’s no secret that political consultants have become the biggest winners in recent election cycles dominated by record spending.

But with big money, big change also has come to the campaign consulting industry.

Whether it’s polling, media, fundraising, direct mail or digital, several consultants said that the permanent nature of campaigns, the growing number of outside groups jumping into races and the different ways voters are now consuming information have transformed the industry — making it not just more profitable than ever but also more challenging.

There’s a survival-of-the-fittest mind-set within the industry, where consultants are quickly adapting to the evolving political landscape — expanding their staff and capabilities at a rapid pace to stay competitive.

“We’re in a transition period here,” said Dale Emmons, a Democratic strategist and the outgoing president of the American Association of Political Consultants. “There is a pretty rapid revolution taking place, especially with media firms. There are substantially more people employed now. The industry is expanding rapidly because the marketplace is constantly changing.”

Emmons said his group does not keep numbers on how the industry has grown in terms of number of employees or profits, but two things are certain: The competition is undoubtedly fierce and, overall, the industry is financially healthier than ever.

Already, outside groups and party committees have spent more than $206 million in independent expenditures this cycle. In addition, campaigns have spent nearly $150 million. With the midterm election expected to see record spending — in part because of competitive GOP primaries — top political consultants in the Washington area are already seeing a windfall with two months left to go.

“It’s a great time to be a political consultant in Washington, D.C.,” said Meredith McGehee, a campaign finance lawyer who is policy director at Campaign Legal Center and principal of McGehee Strategies.

But consultants across the board argue that the increase in earnings reflects how the industry has evolved and how dramatically their workload has increased.

“Clearly, with the surge in independent expenditures in recent years, we’re all working a lot more,” said GOP pollster Robert Blizzard in an email.

“Not just pollsters, but media consultants, mail firms and digital,” added Blizzard, a partner at Public Opinion Strategies. “Polling, in particular, has always been a 24/7 job from Labor Day on — but now with more groups being involved much earlier in the process, it’s a 24/7 job really from Memorial Day to Election Day (and, that’s not even including competitive primary campaigns).”

Pollsters, in particular, are also experimenting with how best to handle significant challenges in getting accurate results.

“[There’s] much more difficulty reaching people,” listed Celinda Lake of Democratic firm Lake Research Partners as one of the main challenges facing the industry. Lake also said the “skyrocketing use of cellphones” and surveys that include a mix of interviews of respondents reached on landlines, cellphones and even online.

In the age of digital, DVRs and oversaturated airwaves, ad makers are also grappling with figuring out how to effectively reach voters and break through the clutter.

“Over the past couple of years, we’ve expanded our services to keep up with an ever changing media landscape,” said Doug Thornell, senior vice president at SKDKnickerbocker. “Campaigns are getting started earlier than ever and outside groups have emerged as major players with very aggressive media and advertising plans.”

Thornell said that the demands from campaigns have also increased, as consultants become more critical part of campaigns. SKDKnickerbocker offers public relations support in addition to media consulting for campaigns.

“Campaigns are looking for more than just a consultant who pops up, makes some ads, maybe joins on a conference call, then vanishes,” he said. “They want someone who will be there from start to finish, gets their hands dirty, and is intimately woven into the fabric of the campaign.”

Brad Todd, a GOP strategist for OnMessage — a firm that does media production and polling — said the job description no longer just entails creating TV spots. He compared media firms to a “group of cross-trained athletes.”

“The job is now strategic communications,” Todd said. “You have to have people with a broad variety of talent from data analytics to creative and placement.”

He also said voters are looking at political ads differently now, putting more pressure on media firms. “Voters are demanding better programming instead of advertising,” Todd said. “Instead of trying to sell, you have to approach an ad more like it’s programming.”

OnMessage, which started out with a staff of four in 2005, now has a staff of 18. It’s one of the few firms that also do polling, but Todd said that will soon change as campaigns seek more multidisciplinary firms.

The growing need to incorporate digital efforts has disrupted the entire industry to the point where consultants are essentially operating tech startups for campaigns, said Zac Moffat, co-founder of the leading GOP digital firm Targeted Victory, which now has more than 100 employees and 260 clients.

“Digital has forced campaigns to change their timeline and how they allocate their resources,” Moffat said.

Although consultants are capitalizing on the rise of digital, effective firms require millions of dollars in investment, he said. “Anybody can say they do digital, but most of the time, they are just outsourcing the work to a firm in New York,” Moffat said.

For all the talk about digital, direct mail is still holding its own after being forced to use advancements in data mining and targeting to survive.

“Mail is the only communications method that can be targeted directly to the voter,” said Duane Baughman, president of Democratic firm The Baughman Co., in an interview earlier this summer. “Once a target universe is identified in polling and modeling, mail can be sent to the individual who will be moved by specific messages.

Republican direct-mail firms, in particular, have benefited from the civil war within the GOP, as likely primary voters are typically older and read their mail more regularly.

As the campaigns’ budget allocations evolve, the amount and ways they raise money also is changing. For small-dollar donations, digital and direct mail play a key role, but persuading megadonors to keep writing the big checks is the challenging part.

“The big question is: Where does this stop?” a top Democratic fundraiser said. “How high can we take this? I mean, it’s just crazy trying to keep up.”

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