Digital Direction for Sec. Pete Buttigieg

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 and we were able to prioritize and execute storytelling and digital communications in an unprecedented way. He allowed us to be creative, take risks, and engage the American people in a new and thoughtful way. To date, we published 10,000+ pieces of original content, collected 56 million video views, engaged creators, and made government content fresh and modern. 

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:

Make it “less government-y”

I wanted to take a different approach to our branding and reimagine 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 No more outdated designs and branding.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 Second Ave. Subway.

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.

• Dylané Hurd, Birmingham, AL

• Jacob Simon Says, climate creator

• Tori Dunlap, women’s focused financial expert

• Matt Scott, US Paralympian

• Erika Kullburg, financial expert

• Coach Sam Balto, founder of the Bike-Bus movement

• Wolters World, a family-focused travel creator

• Haley Sacks aka Mrs. Dow Jones, financial expert

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 72,000 infrastructure projects. 

Watch Secretary Pete talk about the series on MSNBC’s The Weekend.

View the entire series.

Notable highlight:

Thank you, America was his final video as Secretary.

The concept was inspired by the thank you notes sent by Secretary Pete Buttigieg himself and our team after every trip and engagement.