Behind-the-scenes / Secretary Pete Buttigieg in a DTC taping in Sept. ‘24. (Photo by Sam Aleman)
Digital Direction for Sec. Pete Buttigieg
Working for Secretary Buttigieg has been the greatest professional experience of my career. I am deeply proud of the work my team and I have done in sharing his leadership, priorities, and crisis communications with the public.
No other cabinet member in the Biden-Harris administration prioritized or invested more in digital communications and storytelling than Secretary Pete Buttigieg. His entire digital team had a seat at the table, with access to adequate resources and equipment, and operated with an approvals process that was both efficient and effective in communicating with the public in real time.
Secretary Pete’s ability to communicate with the public was an asset to the entire administration. He is clear, concise, and able to break down complicated topic matters in a way that is easy to digest to the public. He wanted us to think differently about how we approach government communications and how we produce and deliver content to the public. As a result, not only did his content stand out from his peers, but he outperformed every other Cabinet member and often the White House.
Here’s a look at how we built the best digital program and content in the federal government:
The moodboard
Make it “less government-y”
I wanted to take a different approach to our branding and reimagined how government social could look and feel differently to the public. Enough of the red, white, and blue. No more outdated designs and branding.
So we asked a simple question: What’s going to make the parent scrolling in the carpool line stop and watch @SecretaryPete’s content? What will make them watch our content in their feed?
Go everywhere—prioritizing “social-first” activations and reimagining creator partnerships
By now, most elected officials and politicians understand the power of working with content creators and influencers to get their message across. Sec. Pete wanted us to be creative, thoughtful, and open to taking risks to reach new people. People did not expect to see the Secretary of Transportation on a hip-hop podcast, but that’s exactly why I pitched it when we were trying to raise awareness about our investments in the Second Ave. Subway.
Commissioned Jackson, MS photographer Justin Hardiman to document Sec. Pete’s trip to Jackson.
Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Reena Evers, daughter of Medgar Evers, following the groundbreaking of construction on the Rebuilding Medgar Evers Boulevard project, funded by the Biden-Harris Administration.
As part of our “Investing In America” story, we wanted to work directly with content creators in the communities we were serving so that they could be a part of the impact. Creators didn’t have to have a certain following, they just needed to be good storytellers and care about the work impacting their hometowns.
“Pete Buttigieg and his team are generous with their time AND I know for a fact that his presence on creators’ shows has helped launch their careers. And by the way, those creators love him for it and will becomes tribunes for him and his message everyday moving forward. A huge ROI for a tiny investment of time. Why wouldn’t every Democratic official want that!? It’s a win-win.”
Investing In America series
A large part of our work was our Investing In America, short-from doc-style series. It documented the history and the impact of President Biden’s infrastructure package. Directed and produced by filmmaker, David Ross, the series highlights the workers and the communities who are directly benefiting from the 66,000 infrastructure projects.
Watch Secretary Pete talk about the series on MSNBC’s The Weekend.