Each day, I come home to an earless black cat (yes, earless) and a mailbox full of bills and junk mail. But yesterday, amongst the clutter, I noticed a direct mail piece from candidate Naheed Nenshi. First reaction: “that must have been expensive.” Since I don’t get cell phone reception in the elevator (thanks Telus), I gave the Nenshi marketing piece a read. Fast Forward to this morning and I can’t tell you what was actually on the full-colour, double-sided postcard. What I do remember is skimming an article the other day about campaign disclosures.
Fast Forward Weekly reported Nenshi promised on May 27 to “immediately unveil his donors on a weekly basis” (see full article). Here we are three months later and Nenshi is now saying September 20, 2010 is the big day based on advice from his “volunteer lawyers.” Yup… those are the exact qualities I’m looking for in a mayor. Promise one thing, deliver on another.
Anyway, you can bet come September 20, I will be looking for the generous donor or donors who contributed to a direct mail strategy that cost at least a healthy five figures. After chatting to some friends, at least Wards 1, 8, and 11 got the Nenshi piece.
Stats Canada 2006 census shows 415,595 households in Calgary. Two sources quoted direct mailing costs, including postage to be $0.62 to $1.18 PER POSTCARD. So, for the sake of entertainment and very simple math, let’s take the best rates and conservative distribution numbers to figure out the cost of this direct mailout. Grand total: $55,214.76
And that’s if he got a killer deal from sources “A” or “B” (see what Kent Hehr has to say about that). More importantly, this is only one tactic in Nenshi’s [...]Read More
