WEBSTER LEWIN FINALIST FOR REED AWARD

Recognized For Jay Webber Parody Campaign

Chatham Township — Humorist and digital strategy consultant Webster Lewin announced that he is a finalist in the 2019 Reed Awards. The recognition comes for his Trad Jay Webber social media campaign that was deployed during the 2018 midterms in New Jersey’s 11^th Congressional District. Lewin is a first-time Reed Award finalist for Best Online Advertising Campaign on a Shoestring Budget. His parody of Republican Congressional candidate Jay Webber was launched in July of 2018 on Twitter and was extended to Facebook and Instagram during the final month of the 2018 midterm elections.

Lewin, a digital communications consultant with a background as a humorist, has lead digital strategies for various political races in New Jersey, including for the 2014 Democratic nominee for the NJ-11 race. He has over 10 years’ experience leading brands and digital marketing agencies to success in social media. Lewin believes that online humor could be a powerful weapon for politicians running for office, and he launched the Trad Jay Webber campaign in support of Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D NJ-11). The digital campaign was indeed executed on a shoestring, as it focused 100% on organic impressions. No paid media was used.

The goal of the Trad Jay Webber digital campaign was to use humor to break through to voters who are heavy social media users that may tune out traditional negative campaign tactics delivered via television and mailers. Completely separate from the official Mikie Sherrill for Congress campaign, Trad Jay Webber leveraged the appeal of social media parody accounts to poke fun at Sherrill’s NJ-11 opponent, Assemblyman Jay Webber – who became widely derided for the dubious social media strategy of blocking hundreds of potential constituents on social media. By responding to every one of Jay Webber’s campaign tweets, co-opting the #NJ11 hashtag and many of the other hashtags used by the Webber campaign, and engaging directly with people on Twitter, Lewin was able to ensure that whenever someone viewed a Jay Webber tweet, they would likely also be exposed to Trad Jay Webber content with mocked the New Jersey Assemblyman.

The Trad Jay Webber campaign was able to deliver nearly half a million organic impressions on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram during the 2018 midterms, with a very high Twitter engagement rate of 2.5 percent. While the account didn’t garner a significant number of followers, due to Assemblyman Webber’s low national profile, it still received more than 21,000 profile views, and videos posted online were viewed some 1,100 times.

About Webster Lewin

Webster Lewin, @wloglobal, is an independent digital strategist with 20-plus years of experience. He has led digital content strategy for many global brands, and for various Democratic campaigns in his home state of New Jersey. To learn more about him please visit: http://bit.ly/WebsterL