Media Mezcla LLC

Company Review Rating

Service rating: 
4.045
Software rating: 
3.909
Price rating: 
3.909
Email: 
info@mediamezcla.com
Number of Respondents: 
22
phone: 
212-995-8712
Headquarters: 
New York, NY
Company home page: 
http://www.mediamezcla.com
Number of employees: 
3
Client examples: 

Friends of New Orleans, National Stonewall Democrats, Ted Strickland, Patriot Project, Paul Hackett for Senate

Pricing: 
Ranges from $150 to $2500/month for setup, depending on level of office sought, population of district, storage, bandwidth, etc.

Although Media Mezcla was founded in 2002, excitement about Howard Dean's run for president moved founder Ben Schaffer to make the company a politically-oriented software vendor in 2004. During that campaign, Schaffer met a lot of people who went on to consult with other campaigns and who complained about the software they were using. "People would ask me, what software would you recommend because we're not happy," says Schaffer, so he set out to build better software with which people could be happy.

Although Media Mezcla was founded in 2002, excitement about Howard Dean's run for president moved founder Ben Schaffer to make the company a politically-oriented software vendor in 2004. During that campaign, Schaffer met a lot of people who went on to consult with other campaigns and who complained about the software they were using. "People would ask me, what software would you recommend because we're not happy," says Schaffer, so he set out to build better software with which people could be happy.
This led to the development of Campaign Engine, Media Mezcla's proprietary system that his team built from scratch. Media Mezcla had their first clients online in May 2005.

About the Software: 

Campaign Engine's slogan is "talk to your supporters, not tech support," and to this end it includes a comprehensive tool set that is easy to use for diverse set of volunteers, including modules to handle contributions, email blasts, volunteer recruitment, tell-a-friend marketing, petition circulation, data collection. "We focus on integrating diverse uses in one application, and on making a very straightforward interface for those tools," says Schaffer. All of these tools are managed through a web-based content manager, so there is no software to install. Another key feature of Campaign Engine is its integrated database that allows users to conduct sophisticated searches based on multiple criteria. For example, rather than simply search for donors who've contributed a certain amount of money, Campaign Engine's search ability helps you search everyone who contributed $50 in a certain code.
Campaign Engine is also built to accommodate other formats and allow for easy import and export of data. That means that anything you can get into Microsoft Excel, you can get into Campaign Engine. Likewise, data like event lists, petition signatures, or donor names can easily be exported to an Excel spreadsheet.

Client Quick-take: 
  • The National Stonewall Democrats use Media Mezcla's software to organize membership events, rallies, and fundraising for candidates.
  • The Patriot Project featured a petition on their site asking people to support them against Swift Boat attacks, and the signatures from those petitions went right into the database for email other uses.
  • Ted Strickland sold tickets for his inaugural ball using Media Mezcla's software.
Client Close-up: 

Although its software is proprietary and self-built, Media Mezcla is focusing on open standards and a more open architecture to encourage interoperability among vendors. The implementation of open APIs (application programming interfaces) would allow clients to better integrate diverse sets of data. "We're very interested in adding automated APIs but there needs to be more discussion among vendors about that," Schaffer says.
NOTE: As a relatively new company, Media Mezcla received too few responses in our December 2006 user survey to generate meaningful ratings.

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