The ride is set to take place September 21st to the 23rd, so it will be a nice wind down from all of the big summer events, and a great way to discover a part of Colorado that is often overlooked.  The best part?  Onsight has been hired to work on the branding, website and communications for the project.  We are very excited to get another great bicycling event as part of our growing place in the sports and bicycling world!  We have some really great plans for this race that will make it a truly unique event for Colorado.

Stay tuned for updates on the progress of the development of this exciting new event.

The placeholder website allows signups for updates on registration and events related to the ride.  Go there to sign up: http://www.pedaltheplains.com

While CLBA has done a great job on Facebook in the past, we also reworked their Social Media campaigning and developed new strategies to make sure they are getting the most out of their time in the social networking world.  It was a pleasure working with Jeanne, and she was gracious with her compliments of our work:

“It doesn’t get any better than this! OnSight’s creative, team-oriented approach consistently produces results for CLBA. They guided us through an overhaul of our brand, built us a new website, and make sure we are successful under the gold dome year after year.”

Click the screenshot below to visit the new site:

It’s never easy to explain nuance through earned media, so George and the campaign sought out significant community stakeholders to help relay their message.

In all, the measure was criticized by Gov. John Hickenlooper, small businesses and most of City Council. The Denver Post opposed the measure and chastised the proponents’ tactics. Mayor Michael Hancock not only opposed the measure, he was featured in this ad opposing 300 (the spot was produced by The Kenney Group).

The support of Mayor Hancock and others proved to be a big win for local shops and businesses in Denver. The measure failed with 64 percent of voters saying ‘No.’ The Post’s political blog “The Spot” called result a big win for the Mayor here:

Denver Mayor Michael Hancock took a risk when he became the public face behind the effort to defeat Initiative 300, the Denver ballot measure that sought to provide paid sick leave for workers throughout the city.

Hancock’s predecessor John Hickenlooper had a virtually unblemished record of success in supporting winning ballot measures — including light rail, Referendum C, the preschool tax and Denver’s Better Bond Program.

Hancock cut a humorous/Hickenlooper-type television advertisement against the ballot initiative, which ultimately got drubbed at the polls on Tuesday with 64 percent of voters saying “no.”

“There is no overstating the role that he played in this campaign,” said George Merritt, spokesman for the opposition campaign, Keep Denver Competitive. “Small businesses are reticent to get involved in politics. To have a representative who could articulate the trouble and flaws of this initiative was critical.”

Putting people back to work is Ed’s first priority and he is going to continue to visit with local businesses and workers to look for ways to cut red tape and get people back to work. Keep an eye out for Ed’s next “Take a Congressman to Work” visit!

We also want to say a special thank you to The Bailey Company and the Arby’s staff for their patience and showing us the ropes.

Coverage from the Denver Post:

Beltway Blog — Perlmutter works at Arby’s, gains perspective
By Allison Sherry

WASHINGTON — Democrat Rep. Ed Perlmutter has launched a “Take a Congressman to Work Day” contest where constituents vote on a regular business the congressman would goes and does a job for a day in his district to gain perspective on what it’s like out in the real world right now.

The real world outside Washington, that is.

Arby’s recently edged out the Denver West Hair Company for the first go-around. (Let’s hope the congressman would merely work the register and not cut, style or dye anything!) At the Arby’s on Colfax Avenue and Simms, Perlmutter worked the curly frying machine and made roast beef sandwiches.

“As you’ll see, it can get pretty hectic in the kitchen, especially during the lunch rush,” Perlmutter wrote in a newsletter to voters. “I don’t want to spoil anything for you, but it’s clear I was not meant to work a fryer.”

Could you use some help with video and social media campaigns? We’d love to work with you on your next project. Check out some of our case studies and then drop us a line..

Project New West Summit in Las Vegas

The Intermountain West was critical to the Democrats in 2008, but will it be even more important in 2012?

You can bet on it.

That’s why Project New West convened the top political strategists from around the country to discuss how we frame Western issues on the eve of the 2012 presidential race. The Western Summit featured speakers like Tom Brokaw, Ted Turner, Senator Harry Reid, and our own Senator Mark Udall, Senator Michael Bennett and, Governor John Hickenlooper.

We also released new polling data from Western states that will provide many with critical insight into the electorate and help them effectively message both traditional and emerging demographic groups.

Lot’s of good ideas and insights came out of the panels and presentations at the Summit. Let’s all hope that, at least this time, what happens in Vegas doesn’t stay in Vegas.

News clippings from the summit:

Denver Post:

The West is an increasingly important political battleground, and Democrats hope to show they are better suited to appeal to their base as well as the ever-important independent-minded voter, said Jill Hanauer, president of the Colorado-based Project New West

“Folks do things differently out here,” she said. “Voters here vote for the person, not the party, and the policy, not the ideology. You don’t get elected by just folks from your own party, you need independents and others from the other party.”

Project New West’s 2011 summit is pulling in the region’s top business leaders, politicians and academics for three days of panels focusing on emerging issues in the New American West.

Read more: Powerful Western Democrats meeting in Vegas

AP:

LAS VEGAS—Western states are becoming more urban and diverse, with an influx of Hispanic, Asian and young voters who tend to vote against Republican candidates, according to political strategists who spoke Monday at a Democratic conference.

The Nation:

As the 2012 elections approach, both parties are furiously jockeying for position. If the Democrats can turn out their votes in sufficient numbers, Western strategists believe, the party could regain many of the House seats it lost in last year’s GOP landslide, while holding the Senate and retaining the White House. If the Democrats fail to do so, the GOP could enjoy an electoral sweep.

The stakes could hardly be higher: For many residents in the region, the battle for 2012 is about basic economic survival. Yet the contours of what the Western fight will look like are still being drawn.

“Now more than ever,” averred Project New West president Jill Hanauer, “the nation should look west for new ideas. We vote for the person, not the party; the policy position and leadership, not the ideology.” For generations, she continued, people in the West have cherished both their communities and their independence, creating a politics suspicious of centralized government but determined to innovate at a local level.

Read more: The Democratic Plan to Recapture the West

National Journal:

Yet during a public panel that I moderated here sponsored by Project New West, a Democratic research organization, leading party strategists expressed unruffled, almost blithe, optimism about Obama’s ability to hold the three Mountain states he carried in 2008. Partly that was because they expect more young people and minorities to vote in 2012 than did in 2010. But it was primarily because they think Obama will benefit from the contrast with the eventual Republican nominee. The Democratic hope is that those twin dynamics will allow Obama to reassemble the coalition of minorities and suburban whites that reelected Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet last year in Colorado.

As Tuesday’s raucous GOP debate underscored, the Republican nominee will provide Obama plenty of clear contrasts. All of the contenders are betting they can sell a larger retrenchment of government than any GOP nominee has proposed since Reagan (if not Barry Goldwater); they are doubling down on pledges to dismantle environmental regulation and unshackle domestic energy production. The stakes on that wager won’t be greater anywhere than in the increasingly pivotal Mountain West, where acute anxiety about jobs jostles against enduring affection for the land.

Read more: Rocky Territory

Read him in his own words in this op-ed from The Hill:

A day to celebrate

By Sen. Mark Udall - 09/20/11 11:26 AM ET

Today we will finally put an end to a discriminatory military policy that was crafted almost two decades ago during a time when we weren’t at war with another country, but rather we were bitterly divided – politically and socially – against ourselves.

Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell began as an inadequate and deeply flawed compromise that attempted to resolve a debate that raged at all levels of our society – in families, communities, and among military and political leaders.  It was a Catch-22.  It allowed gay troops to serve, but only by forcing them to compromise one of the core values they’re trained to uphold as members of the military: integrity.

By requiring service members to lie about who they are, DADT became a tool for bigots rather than making it possible for gay troops to serve quietly as intended.  And over the last decade of conflict, it has forced 14,000 service members to leave the military just when we need them most.

I opposed Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell from the beginning, and I’ve been proud to fight for its repeal.  But what really brought the policy to an end is the fact that America itself has changed.

The late Senator Barry Goldwater, a WWII veteran and staunch conservative, famously said, “You don’t have to be straight to shoot straight.”  I think Goldwater was ahead of his time because even as recently as two decades ago, it seems many of our troops didn’t see it that way.

But as a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, I’ve heard in recent years from countless young men and women in uniform – gay and straight – who have told me that the concerns about the impact of open service no longer seem important.  In combat, sexual orientation, race, religion, and gender simply don’t matter.  What counts is a fellow service member’s courage, loyalty, integrity, and commitment to the mission.

They’ve also told me about the toll Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell has taken on our military.

After a decade of fighting simultaneous wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the strain of repeated tours of duty has been devastating to thousands of troops and military families. The fact that we need every able man or woman who wants to serve has made the cost of kicking out otherwise qualified troops simply because of their sexual orientation seem that much more absurd and reckless.  Arabic linguists, fighter pilots, and infantrymen with critical skills and combat experience have been discharged only because their sexual orientation was discovered.

Earlier this month, we reflected on who we are as a nation and what it means to be an American 10 years after 9/11.  In the days and weeks after Sept. 11, 2001, families and entire communities – even politicians – forgot past divisions and came together.  And amid the decade of strain and grieving that has followed the attack on U.S. soil, we’ve sharpened our sense of what’s important, put aside some intolerant views and re-focused. What no longer makes sense to a majority of Americans – and what never made sense to my children’s generation – is to force brave and loyal service members out of the military for being gay.

So now – 18 years after don’t ask don’t tell went into effect – we’re ready to end it.  The Pentagon has said it’s ready.  Our troops say they’re ready.  And most importantly, the American people say they’re ready.

Today is the date circled on calendars as the long-awaited end to this outdated policy.  I hope we’ll remind our grandchildren that Sept. 20 is the day we gave up discrimination in favor of unity.  It’s the day we strengthened our military by allowing it to attract our nation’s best talent to defend its borders, regardless of whom they love.

Today is a day to celebrate.

Senator Mark Udall is a Democratic Senator serving Colorado.

On top of a mountain.

We’re proud to announce that George Merritt is joining OnSight as our Senior Strategist. In the world of Colorado politics and media, he’s second to none. And as The Post’s Lynn Bartels points out below, with that accent, even bad news sounds good.

Two firms with deep ties to the Colorado Capitol have announced new hires.

OnSight Public Affairs announced it has hired the always amiable George Merritt as a strategist and communications guru.

Merritt, a former Denver Post reporter, served as the communications director for John Hickenlooper’s gubernatorial campaign. At the Capitol he carries water for the Colorado Licensed Beverage Association during the annual breweries battle.

“We’re lucky to have him,” OnSight founding partner Ben Davis said. “He’s the most effective, hardest working public affairs guy in Colorado from North Carolina with a great accent and phenomenal attitude we could have hired. That’s a pretty specific position we were looking to fill.”

Not to mention, Merritt’s Tweets are great reading.

Read George’s full bio here

Join us for the Project New West Summit in Nevada

We’re in the final four weeks of prep and planning for the 2011 Western Summit and we couldn’t be more excited about how things are shaping up. Hosted by Project New West, the Western Summit will feature speakers like Tom Brokaw, Ted Turner, Senator Harry Reid, and our own Governor John Hickenlooper.

The Intermountain West was critical to the Democrats in 2008 and surely will be again. With that in mind, the New West Summit will define how we frame and discuss Western issues on the eve of the 2012 presidential race. Additionally, We will release new polling data from Western states as well as feature discussions of job creation, energy, tourism and education–as well as the West’s evolving political environment.

Others attexpected include:

Montana State Superintendent of Public Instruction Denise Juneau (the highest-ranking Native American elected official in the country), former Colorado Governor Bill Ritter, U.S. Sen. Tom Udall of New Mexico, U.S. Sen. Mark Udall of Colorado, U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet of Colorado, Rep. Diana DeGette of Colorado, Rep. Ben Ray Luján of New Mexico, and Lem Smith, Government and Regulatory Affairs director at EnCana Oil & Gas.

Join us!

Along with utilizing Ed’s email list to generate views and signups, OnSight put together a modest package of online ads on Facebook to promote the contest.

As with many trends, early on most people do not understand them.  The nice thing is that early on you can make mistakes and still succeed in your efforts, because everyone else is making those mistakes.  However things have changed, social media is still changing but a lot of aspects of it have matured.  With this maturity, it is no longer enough to simply call on your son or nephew or friend to build your social media presence.  You cannot simply build a Facebook page and expect that it will do anything to further your efforts.

The time has come that for results you must hire an expert to help with your social media marketing and the time is quickly approaching that social media marketing will be your principal method of getting your message across. The video below throws out some eye opening statistics about trends in social media.  So the question we ask you is, “What is your social media strategy?” If you cannot answer that question with a well organized plan and vision, it is probably about time to evaluate your communications strategy as a whole.  We are experts at this and here to help, Contact Us to set up a meeting to talk about your options.