Buckle Up: 2025 Is Likely to be a Wild Ride

Last week DDC had the honor of hosting our annual Horizon event. Each year we bring together the best and brightest political and media strategists across the DDC network for a set of conversations to look back on the year that has been (and it’s been quite a year!) and turn our focus to the next.

Horizon 2025 was absolutely our best year thus far. We changed up some of the programming to bring in several client leaders to have an open dialogue about the challenges and opportunities that next year will bring. The conversations were enlightening – I learned so much from these senior leaders – and I know that we are all energized going into the New Year.

Here is just a snippet of what I was able to take away from this event:

DC Is Back!

A few years ago, one of my clients told me she was more worried about Sacramento or Austin than Washington. Gridlock in DC meant that the real action for her industry was going to be at the state level.

Well, DC is back. We’ve got taxes, tariffs, changes to the IRA, a new point of view on the energy sector, AI regulation, legislative and regulatory changes up and down the healthcare industry, and more on the way.

For those of us who love to work on big issues on Capitol Hill – 2025 is going to be gangbusters.

But the States Still Matter

Governors and state legislators aren’t going to take a back seat to Washington. They ran on – and will legislate on – the issues that matter to their constituents. Issues like housing, environmental and energy policies, how to deliver Medicaid dollars, and how to step into the breach around AI and big tech privacy regulations are on the docket. Insurance reform is going to be huge on the coasts and water management and data center power consumption is going to be driving lots of conversations in the heartland.

Public affairs and government relations professionals are back to playing 3-D chess balancing the concerns of the business with state and federal policymaking.

One key point of agreement, whether your issue is in Washington, DC, or the state capitals, was how direct lobbying needs an effective public affairs campaign to make a difference.

Advocacy Campaigns: “All-of-the-Above Strategy” Wins the Day

When it comes to engaging stakeholders and voters, my biggest takeaway is there is no one silver bullet to a winning advocacy strategy. And the impact of AI, podcasts, and other tech innovations is requiring all of us to evolve our thinking and our approach to deliver advocacy that has real impact.

Call it a layered approach, an all-of-the-above strategy, or whatever term you’d like, the point was clear: Success in campaigns (be they political or issue advocacy) relies first on a deep understanding of your audiences. 2024 demonstrated what DDC has advised our clients for a few cycles; voter blocs are not monoliths and the more you think locally and bring values-based alignment to your efforts, the better your chance of success.

What then naturally comes from this truth is, we must be laser focused on bringing your message to these advocates in concert with third parties who are leaders in the communities you seek to engage. Working with third parties who share your purpose on a key issue or initiative will amplify your message in ways that a corporate communications effort simply cannot. Putting together these puzzle pieces isn’t easy, but devoting the right time and talent to doing so is really the difference between winning and losing.

Authenticity. Authenticity. Authenticity.

When you take the lessons from above – that we need to think about being more multichannel and working more with third parties to win the day – the Achilles heel of advocacy campaigns is authenticity (or the lack thereof).

A senior political strategist at the meeting shared the story of a client who wanted to jump into the podcast world. Right now, podcasts are all the rage – some might even call them the bright shiny object!

His counsel was spot on – we can build the framework, we can microtarget all the right people who should listen, and we can produce it in a professional way. Think of that as building the coolest car you want to drive.

But the message and how you deliver it is the fuel. If you put the wrong fuel in the wrong engine – it’ll just sputter and die. And his counsel was that unless you can deliver the message authentically and do the work to keep people engaged you shouldn’t do it.

Today advocacy campaigns should embrace messaging that looks like what I call “weekend words” – how you talk with your friends about issues that matter over dinner on Saturday. Speak plainly. Don’t use jargon. Be clear what you are for – and what you are against. You must be thoughtful and considerate (of course) but being overcomplicated – or vague – just turns people off. Bold messaging attracts bold advocates. And I want bold advocates on my side when running campaigns.

Relationships

The time we spent with our colleagues was valuable for the lessons we learned but the simple fact that we were together talking, sharing stories, getting the latest updates, and just being present was incredible. Our client panel spent a good amount of time speaking about the power of relationships – within their companies, with Members on the Hill, and with their consulting partners. Because at the end of the day –public affairs is a relationship business whether you’re operating in DC or Detroit or Dallas. Some things never change and sometimes, that’s a good thing.

Please keep a lookout for the DDC blog as we go into the New Year. The DDC team is working hard on analyzing the first 100 days of the next Congress and Administration and the kickoff of the state legislatures. Its going to be a wild ride!