Steve Grand

Fall 2011
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Steve Grand is co-founder and President of Wilson Grand Communications, a political and corporate media, research and strategic consulting firm, with offices in Washington DC and the Bay Area in California. Founded in 1985, Wilson Grand Communications provides strategic advice, research and planning coupled with creative, persuasive, winning media for political and corporate clients.

Grand is one of only a few consultants in the industry who has both a strong background in research and a proven expertise in media production, strategy and planning. He has advised corporations as well as Governors, Senators, Congressmen, political parties, Prime Ministers and Presidents and other elected and appointed officials on policy decisions in new technologies, education, telecommunications, broadcasting, computers, intellectual property, health care, the environment, transportation, tourism, the economy, election law, and public perception of government as well as conducting message development and deployment. Nationally and internationally, Grand has produced media and managed the people and resources in over 800 federal, state and local campaigns including races for Prime Minister, President, U.S. Senate, U.S. Congress, Governor, Secretary of State, Atty. General, State House and Senate, Mayor and City Council as well as dozens of public affairs campaigns. He has done research, media production and strategic planning in 42 states and twenty countries. He has won 6 Telly awards and 5 Pollie awards for excellence in media production – including the 2008 Telly Award for the best corporate branding campaign of the year and the 2010 Gold Pollie Award for best political/public affairs television ad of the year.

A veteran of 4 US Presidential campaigns, he has also worked for Governors in California, Illinois, Kansas, Missouri, Wisconsin, Massachusetts, North Dakota, South Dakota and Utah including Governor Jon Huntsman, Governor Jane Swift and Governor Sam Brownback. US House and Senate clients include Nevada, Missouri, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Alaska, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Wisconsin, Utah, North Dakota, South Dakota, Ohio, California and Florida. He has served as a media vendor for the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the National Republican Congressional Committee, the RNC and Karl Rove’s group, American Crossroads. Over the past 10 years, Grand’s firm has one of the best records in the country for defeating incumbent Congressmen.

In 2010, Grand served as one of the main media vendors for American Crossroads, writing and producing all their media in both the Nevada and the Kentucky US Senate races. He did the media and strategy for the North Dakota winning US Senate race, and served as media consultant to the National Republican Senatorial Committee on both the Arkansas and Alaska US Senate races. Grand also did the media in four different state initiative campaigns to change four state constitutions: Utah, South Carolina, South Dakota, and Arizona. His recent 2012 Presidential IE ad was featured on the Colbert Report.

Examples of Grand’s corporate work include the branding campaign for a new, international nuclear energy company, EnergySolutions – including the focus group and survey research to develop the name, logo, tag line and branding messages. Grand produced all media for the television campaign, including a 2 year television / radio ad campaign. In 2007, Grand won the prestigious national Telly Award for the “best corporate branding / promotional campaign” in the country for this campaign. He also did the messaging and communications on the team that ran the company’s highly successful, oversubscribed IPO.

Grand’s international work includes research, strategy, media and messaging in national election campaigns in Slovakia: helping oust President Meciar and his ruling party; in Croatia: helping oust President Tudjman and his ruling party; and in the Netherlands, working on three successful national campaigns for two Prime Ministers. Grand has done media, messaging and communications training for USAID, the US State Department, corporations and political organizations and professionals for 3 dozen countries. He recently produced films that chronicled the civil society programs in Morocco and USAID water projects in Jordan.

A Rotary Scholar in England, Grand also holds a BA (magna cum laude) from Harvard University, a Masters in Communications Management, a Masters in Research Methodology and a Ph.D. in Communications from the Annenberg School for Communications at University of Southern California. He also has a certificate in survey research from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor and a certificate degree from the University of Bristol, England in film and television production. His doctoral dissertation examined the persuasive effects of visual metaphor in tele-visual communication. Grand has taught at the college level and lectured at numerous campaign schools and universities in the US and Europe. Grand has produced over a thousand ads and dozens of long format films. He has designed and moderated hundreds of focus groups and written and analyzed over a thousand surveys. His unique combination of abilities in corporate branding, political strategy and planning, media production, public opinion research, organizational communications, polling and statistical analysis, public policy and his own research in the cognitive processing of metaphor, imagery and symbols in persuasive communication makes him a valuable asset to any elected official, campaign, organization or company.

Disclaimer: This information is accurate for the time period that this person was affiliated with the Institute of Politics.

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