Political Campaign Marketing Agency Driving Community Trust & Engagement – Digital Strategy for Surrey Connect Mayoral Campaign

Key Deliverables & Outcomes: Building Community Trust Through Political Campaign Marketing

Context & Challenge

When Surrey Connect approached us, their team faced a problem that’s familiar to many local campaigns: how do you cut through the noise, build genuine community trust, and motivate real voter turnout in a climate of skepticism and digital overload? They weren’t looking for a flashy agency or surface-level PR—they needed a strategic partner who understood both the stakes and the nuances of municipal elections.

At Setsail Marketing, we thrive on this kind of challenge. We knew from the start that our role was bigger than “running ads”—it was about uniting digital marketing, campaign automation, and branding to make a real difference in the community.

Approach & Strategy

Our first step was a deep-dive discovery process with the Surrey Connect team. We ran a series of collaborative workshops—bringing together campaign leads, communications staff, and volunteers—to map out the city’s key issues, voter concerns, and community influencers.

From there, we built an integrated political campaign marketing strategy, anchored by three pillars:

1. Campaign Marketing Automation: Streamlining communications, personalizing outreach, and enabling the team to respond instantly as events unfolded.
2. Authentic Community Storytelling: Using real photos, local voices, and video to highlight everyday moments—not just policy talking points.
3. Performance Tracking: Every campaign asset was tracked, from open rates on volunteer emails to conversion rates on sign-up forms, so we could pivot fast and double down on what worked.

Creative Process

With the foundation set, our creative team rolled up their sleeves. We developed a consistent branding and visual identity for Surrey Connect—colours, logos, templates, and messaging that could work across every platform, from yard signs to Instagram Stories.

Next, we scripted, shot, and edited more than 25 short-form policy explainer videos, each designed to make complex issues simple and accessible. Our video production crew captured dozens of live events, community rallies, and behind-the-scenes campaign moments to build an authentic narrative—humanizing the candidate and celebrating the city.

On the digital front, we launched a mobile-first web design built for action: easy event sign-ups, real-time updates, bilingual content, and seamless donation processing, all tied together with robust marketing automation and analytics.

Execution & Deliverables

Over the course of the campaign, our team delivered:

• A scalable, bilingual campaign website optimized for conversions and accessibility
• 50+ community event photoshoots and live coverage, supporting real-time content releases on social media
• 25+ policy and impact explainer videos, each tailored to a key campaign issue
• 200+ pieces of branded content for organic and paid channels—infographics, posts, shareable stories
• Automated email and SMS sequences for voter mobilization, volunteer onboarding, and donation reminders
• Performance dashboards with real-time analytics, campaign heatmaps, and engagement scoring

Tangible Outcomes (KPIs, Quotes, Business Impact)

The results exceeded expectations—not just in votes, but in real community engagement:

• 15% increase in voter turnout city-wide, directly attributed to campaign outreach and mobilization efforts
• 180% higher digital engagement than prior local campaigns, with 250,000+ Surrey residents reached and 125,000+ video views
• 200% increase in event attendance at campaign rallies and community forums
• 165% lift in volunteer sign-ups, making the ground campaign the city’s most visible in a decade
• Social media following grew by 300% over the course of the campaign

Lessons Learned

What set this campaign apart wasn’t just the tools or tactics—it was the ability to listen, iterate, and stay nimble. Our integrated dashboard let us double down on what worked and quickly pivot away from what didn’t. We learned the importance of hyper-local storytelling and building trust through transparency.

Since the mayoral campaign, Setsail Marketing has continued to support Surrey Connect with ongoing community engagement campaigns and digital strategy. Our experience with municipal campaigns informs our approach for other organizations looking to build real trust and drive results at the local level.