How to create midterm campaign videos with the winning FREEDOM narrative

Use the winning 'freedom narrative' to mobilize the base and persuade swing voters in the midterms. 

This election is a clear choice, between Americans who work for a living and care for our families, and Trump Republicans who incite violence and try to take away our freedoms. Most Americans want to provide for our families and create a better future for our kids, but Trump Republicans hand kickbacks to corporations and block every bill to lower costs, deliver clean energy and create good jobs.

How can you use this proven messaging to create your campaign video? Especially when you are tight on time, money and staff? Choose one of Way To Win's 17 videos that cover a range of issues, available in English and Spanish.You can freely use WTV videos, but contact ASO Communications on using the videos to create new ones.

This 30 second video uses a photo of Iro Omere (TX-04) demonstrates how the 'freedom frame' could be used. It was designed on a pro bono basis with the free iMovie app and Way To Win (WTV) video.

Create your own campaign video with iMovie

How to create a customized campaign video

• We fist did a screen capture of the WTV video with the free QuickTime app
• This 30 second video clip was uploaded into the free iMovie app
• We used a photo of Iro Omere who is running for TX-04 and also uploaded it to iMovie.
• You can also upload a candidate video instead of a photo
• Then we added Iro's photo to the end of the WTC Video
• Press PUBLISH to download the new video
• We uploaded the video that we created to YouTube that you can see here.
• The whole process took minutes with free Apple software

Freedom is on the ballot in the midterms

The 2022 midterms are a crossroads, not a referendum on economic conditions. On one side, MAGA Republicans would take us backward by overthrowing the will of the people, controlling our lives, and blocking what our families need. On the other, voters can move us forward. This contrast has come into stark relief in everything from the January 6th Hearings to the Roe decision; and it’s already yielded red state wins such as the Kansas “Constitutional Freedom” referendum on abortion. Meanwhile, Democrats are delivering for voters, including the Inflation Reduction Act, despite Republican obstruction. - Way To Win

Our freedoms are on the line and on the ballot. We must harness the power of collective action to drive meaningful progress. Democrats are delivering notable wins and real policy victories for families. To continue this momentum and achieve the future we all deserve, we must keep voters engaged. This is a crucial moment to mobilize our base, get them to the polls and equip them with shareable content for persuading swing voters. It’s imperative that we break through the clutter of the feed to reach audiences with our call to: #ProtectOurFreedoms

Use the 'Freedom' frame to create compelling campaign videos

To engage and persuade voters to vote for Democrats this November, we must tell one consistent story about the world we’re fighting to realize and the villains trying to block our way. For this reason, Way To Win has come together in an unprecedented, open-source campaign to develop, test and disseminate top performing ads and underlying messaging lessons.

Contrast what voters believe in and desire with what MAGA or Trump Republicans do and represent. 

SAMPLE AD:Which Side?

Examples:
This election is a clear choice, between Americans who work for a living and care for our families, and Trump Republicans who incite violence and try to take away our freedoms. Most Americans want to provide for our families and create a better future for our kids, but Trump Republicans hand kickbacks to corporations and block every bill to lower costs, deliver clean energy and create good jobs.

1. Keep open the persuasion window afforded by Roe by tying abortion to other issues and activating loss aversion—channeling anger into action. 

SAMPLE AD:Protect

Examples:
Trump Republicans are trying to take away our freedoms, from banning abortion with no exceptions nationwide, to ending Social Security and Medicare in five years, to allowing politicians to overturn the will of the people with no regard for your vote.

This November our rights, benefits, and freedoms are on the ballot. Democrats will protect our freedoms, to breathe clean air, to get the affordable health care we need, and to decide whether and when we grow our families.

2. Use the freedom frame to connect issues, both to affirm our demands and call out the opposition.

SAMPLE AD:Get Freedom

Examples:
From our freedom to decide if and when we grow our families, to our freedom to vote, to our freedom for our families to thrive, Trump Republicans want to control us, use violence to overthrow elections, and block the policies we favor. We’ve seen what happens when Trump Republicans have claimed to be for freedom, only to take it away and impose their will. This November, remember: You’re a part of the fight for freedom.

3. Say what we’re for and then call out how Trump Republicans divide and scapegoat. 

SAMPLE AD:Work	SAMPLE AD:Rebuilding (Spanish)

Example:
Americans work hard to provide for our families. But Trump Republicans rigged the rules and now try to blame Black, brown, and new Americans, hoping we won’t join together to demand what all of our families need.

4. Remind voters of past wins and the power of collective action to help abate cynicism and move them to engage.

SAMPLE AD:What’s Possible 2022

Examples:
In 2020, we defeated Trump. This November, we will defeat Trumpism. As voters, we decide what’s possible.

Use professionally made WTV videos to create your own campaign videos

These videos use a “mobisuasion” approach to break a signal through the noise by mobilizing voters in our base to repeat our persuasive message. - Way To Win

• A strong, engrossing caption is your best chance at stopping scrolling on the feed. Captions should be concise enough to be digestible, using as few words as possible while grabbing attention in a way that relates to the content.
• For most platforms, audio-agnostic content that doesn’t require sound drives more engagement and is more inclusive, as it enables users to consume seamlessly as they scroll, no matter where they are. Whenever possible, turn on auto-captioning that lets viewers read voice-overs. Post at a time when your audience is often online and in a state of mind to consume. Across the board, weekday mornings are generally the strongest time for posting.
• Use a CTA (call to action) in your captions that encourages viewers. CTAs can also be useful to funnel viewers towards your own brand mission, like asking them to sign up for an email list or voter registration.

EXPRESS YOUR ISSUE THROUGH A FREEDOM FRAME

Every progressive issue can be expressed through the frame of protecting our freedoms. Below is a guide to talking about a number of different issues in a way that echoes our overarching narrative:

• Abortion/Reproductive Justice: our freedom to decide if and when we grow our families / our freedom to decide whether we have kids
• Climate: our freedom to have clean water to drink, clean air to breathe / our freedom to breathe easier / our freedom to leave a better life for our children, grandchildren, and future generations
• Democracy/Elections: our freedom to vote / our freedom to have an equal say in the decisions that impact our lives
• Economic Well-being, Taxes and Social Supports, Wages and Jobs: our freedom to make a good living/ freedom to thrive / freedom to prosper/ freedom to care for our families/ freedom to retire in dignity [with programs we rely on, like Social Security]
• Education: our children's freedom to learn
• Guns: our freedom from gun violence / our freedom to trust our kids will come home safe at the end of the day / freedom to go to the grocery store, send our kids to school, worship, live our lives, walk through our communities without fear of gun violence
• Healthcare: our freedom to get the care we need (without fearing we’ll go bankrupt to get it)
• Immigration: our freedom to move / our freedom to give our families a better life / freedom to be who you want to be, say what you want to say, and go where you want to go
• Labor and Unions: our freedom to join together in union / our freedom to negotiate a fair return on our work so we can provide for our families
• Medicare and Social Security: our freedom to rely on programs we trust, like Medicare and Social Security
• Paid Family and Medical Leave: our freedom to care for our loved ones/our freedom to be there for our loved ones/our freedom to recover from illness or injury
• Police Brutality and Accountability: our freedom to breathe/our freedom to get home safe/our freedom from police brutality/our freedom to be treated with dignity by those sworn to protect and serve
• Trans and Queer Youth: our children's freedom to be themselves and pursue their dreams / our freedom to be ourselves

Here is the WTV social media toolkit, which includes links enabling you to post video natively, at this link.

Share content the easy way

Use the free Wakelet app to make it easy for others to find the information you'd like to share such as links, documents, GIFs and memes. Simply add your content and Wakelet automatically formats it so that it shows up well on a phone tablet or laptop. You can add or change content at any time, and also restrict who can see your content. We created a Wakelet collection with the 17 Way To Win videos.

Way To Win

Way To Win (WTW) provides a strategic approach to win elections, advance transformative policy, and build lasting power in the states. WTW offers resources for progressive campaigns including professionally made videos include compelling graphics and tested messaging. Campaigns can reuse these videos for their own needs saving time, effort and money.

We believes the future of America requires a reflective democracy that delivers on racial, gender, and economic justice. Started in 2017, Way to Win co-founders Tory Gavito, Jenifer Fernandez Ancona, and Leah Hunt-Hendrix, PhD, came together in 2017 to upend politics as usual. They had a vision that centered on long-term organizing in states traditionally ignored by party leaders in order to build a multiracial coalition powerful enough to win elections.

Way To Win works in partnership with those most impacted by injustice, nurturing deep relationships with organizations who engage women, Black, Latinx, Asian, Pacific Islander, Native, young, queer, and low-income people—the backbone of the Democratic Party. Since then, Way to Win has moved over $150 million to movement organizations, candidates, and campaigns pushing the boundaries to pass bold policies that protect democracy. It's over $165 million now!

ASO Communications

ASO Communications applies tools from cognition and linguistics,. It uncovers where people are capable of going and how to use our words, images and stories to move them. Anat Shenker-Osorio, host of the Words to Win By podcast and Principal of ASO Communications examines why certain messages falter where others deliver. She leads research for new messaging on issues ranging from freedom to join together in union to clean energy and from immigrant rights to reforming criminal justice. Anat's original approach through priming experiments, task-based testing and online dial surveys has led to progressive electoral and policy victories across the globe.

TakeAway: Use the 'freedom' frame to mobilize the base and persuade swing voters in the midterms.

Deepak
DemLabs

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