Ray McGuire

Launching Ray for Mayor

We collaborated with Spike Lee to create an epic launch video that propelled an unknown candidate into top contender territory.

Goal

Stage an attention-grabbing launch that propelled our candidate from unknown to top tier mayoral contender.

Challenge

Despite Ray McGuire’s extensive business and philanthropic experience, he entered the New York City mayoral primary relatively unknown by most New Yorkers. We knew we had one shot to stage a launch that made press and insiders take his campaign seriously.

Approach

Ray’s high-profile friends were eager to help, but needed direction. We wrote a launch video script that Spike Lee approved (with minimal edits!) and agreed to narrate. We partnered with award-winning director Muta’Ali Muhammad and engaged Pulitzer Prize winner Wynton Marsalis to provide the score.

Collage of behind-the-scenes photos of Ray McGuire's launch video shoot

We managed the process in a way that lived up to each of our star contributors’ talent, while never losing sight of our specific messaging and goals. We also surrounded the release with a robust influencer rollout and digital advertising campaign to make sure that our video found its audience.

Collage of digital ads with text: "Ray McGuire for Mayor" and buttons that say "Join the campaign." Some images say "We need a better, fairer New York. One says "New York City needs jobs."

Results

The video generated more than 200K views and drove more than 20K searches of “Ray McGuire” in just 24 hours, dominated New York City press outlets, and was shared by a diverse range of celebrities, including Patrick Ewing and Misty Copeland.

Collage of tweets sharing the Ray McGuire campaign's tweet about the launch video. Tweets include the following. Adrian Carrasquillo: "I don't know how he'll do. But I will say I did watch this from beginning to end." Patrick Ewing: Check out my guy @RayforMayor NYC Mayor launch video. Ray may not be a lifelong politiian, but he is a leader with vision and integrity but most importantly he will fight for ALL New Yorkers!" Misty Copeland: "He's the one!"

A collage of headlines about Ray McGuire's campaign launch video from Bloomberg, Gothamist, Gotham Gazette, New York Daily News, and the New York Post.