Precision Influencer Campaign Reaches 66K+ Americans to Build Support for Civil Servants

In a critical political moment, the Partnership for Public Service sought to reach Americans who don’t typically engage with political content, especially younger men aged 18–40 living outside the D.C. area.

• The goal was to help these audiences understand:
• The value of a nonpartisan, merit-based federal workforce
• The consequences of efforts to politicize or reduce civil service roles
• The real-life stories of civil servants who serve the public every day

This meant building a campaign that didn’t rely on traditional advocacy messaging, but instead used curiosity, humor, and authenticity to break through apathy and mistrust.

To build trust with a largely apolitical audience, Media Cause and the Partnership for Public Service teamed up with Grow Progress, a firm that uses behavioral science, audience research, and strong, pre-flight messaging testing to help understand and persuade audiences. Through this partnership, we ran a series of rapid message tests geared toward understanding what type of content would move the needle with these audiences, and which issue areas could lead to potential backlash, helping ensure the right creators talking about the right things were invested in ahead of anything going live.

This test consisted of running a series of videos focused on four main topic areas: the FAA, FDA/CDC, VA benefits, and Social Security, to gauge whether the videos created persuasion or backlash within the target audience. The goal was to shape creator content in a way that could shift the perspectives of the target audience while avoiding backlash.

At a high level, most of the messages triggered some backlash, underscoring the audience’s skepticism toward the federal government. The FAA-focused messaging had little measurable effect in either direction, while the FDA/CDC video showed a persuasive impact, demonstrating that even the most skeptical audience members recognized how cuts to these agencies could harm their daily lives.

From this test, we identified and partnered with macro influencers on Instagram and YouTube Shorts, platforms with high trust and attention in this demographic, and worked to create content focused on these identified issue areas.

Instead of leading with politics, we leaned into real, human stories. The creative strategy focused on “street-style” interviews and user-generated content that spotlighted the work of federal employees in a format that felt unscripted, personal, and engaging.

We prioritized humor and informal tone, striking a balance between informing and entertaining without sounding preachy or overly corporate.

Media Cause managed the full lifecycle of the campaign—from creator outreach and contracting to content delivery, payments, and real-time optimization. We implemented a tailored message-testing approach, ensuring the content resonated with key audiences while aligning with the client’s mission.

Services included:

• Audience insights + creator identification
• Influencer contracting + payments
• Content strategy + message testing
• Campaign reporting + optimization

Over the span of six months, the campaign reached 66,000+ people with creator content that landed squarely in the target demographic: young, mostly male, apolitical Americans who typically avoid government or civic content.

The results confirmed the strategy’s success:

• 3,500+ engagements (likes, comments, shares)
• 65%+ positive sentiment on Instagram, signaling message resonance
• 50% male audience with an average age of 27, aligning with the Partnership’s target demo

Most importantly, the content opened a new path forward, helping the Partnership refine its future influencer strategies and reach audiences who previously felt disengaged from federal public service.