Ori BarA New Era for Ramat Gan
The 2018 municipal election campaign of Adv. Shlomi Harel and his A New Era list in Ramat Gan. I joined as the campaign's creative director and became its campaign manager toward the end of the race. I wrote the scripts, produced the films and ads, shaped the messages and ran production and media across video, press, outdoor and digital.
- 2.5M ₪Campaign Budget
- 360°one message across film, local press, outdoor, digital display and street activity
- 2 rolescreative director at launch, campaign manager in the final stretch
The challenge
Ramat Gan, a city of about 165,000 people next to Tel Aviv, went to the polls on 30 October 2018. Shlomi Harel, a local attorney, was a new name for most voters and was running against a sitting mayor and well-known, well-funded rivals.
The campaign had to make him known fast, give residents a reason to want change and do it on a local-campaign budget.
The idea: wake up the city
The whole campaign grew out of one film: Harel speaking straight to camera about his city's state. "Ramat Gan is in a real mess. In Hebrew it rhymes: RAMAT GAN BEBALAGAN" A real mess." A mess in cleanliness, transport and parking, planning and building, infrastructure, young people, housing, and education, with no transparency and no answers to residents' complaints.
"How did we get here? I'll tell you how." Anyone who watches the council meetings can see it: the problem is not the people who work for the city but the people who run it. A sleepy mayor and a tired, outdated council, with no initiative and no drive to deliver. "In short, there is no manager in this city."
Then the turn: "Ramat Gan needs a good manager, one who also knows how to do politics." Three verbs became the spine of the campaign. Manage, because management is a profession. Initiate, because someone has to see a problem, find the solution, and deliver it. Renew, with new ways of working in planning, transport, education and cleanliness.
The film ends with a call to join: "This is our time to change." From it came the line "Wake up the city", the promise of "A New Era" and the blue and orange system used in every ad, film and sign.
Films
I wrote the scripts and produced the campaign films. Each one took a single local issue that residents felt every day, named it plainly and showed Harel's answer: cleanliness, the neighborhood district plan, urban renewal and the call to wake up the city. Later films introduced the people on the list, such as Li Tsang.
The films ran on social media and YouTube and gave the press and street campaign a face and a voice.
Digital and display
Online, the campaign turned the problem into a short, sharp line: "Ramat Gan is a mess. Time to wake up." Display banners in every standard size carried the attack message and the candidate's promise side by side, and sent people to search for Shlomi Harel on Google.
Street signs and buses
Wide signs on the city's main streets carried the campaign line, "It's time to wake up the city", in the same blue and orange system. The campaign also ran on Dan buses across Ramat Gan, on the side and the rear of the bus.
The final stretch: a new voice in the council
In the last weeks of the race the campaign changed direction. Harel joined forces with Mayor Israel Zinger, and the campaign moved from the mayoral race to the city council, under the lines "A new voice in the council" and "Leading a winning coalition".
This is where I moved from creative director to campaign manager. We rebuilt the message, the press ads, the posters and the ballot-slip design in days.
A list with faces
The council campaign introduced the people on the A New Era list one by one, each next to Harel under the same line, "A new voice in the council". Longtime activists stood alongside new faces such as Li Tsang, a young educator from the city, who spoke to younger voters and renters.
On the ground and in the press
Alongside the media, the campaign met residents face to face: Friday coffee meetings, street stands with blue and orange balloons and house meetings across the city. Coverage in the local press, such as a front-page story in the local paper HaMekomon, carried the campaign further.
My role
I started as the campaign's creative director and became its campaign manager toward the end. I wrote the scripts, produced the ads, wrote the messages and managed the campaign's production and media.