Palmer Group Media (PGM) is a digital strategy firm based in New York City that has provided services to a number of left-of-center organizations.

The company, founded by twin brothers Scott and James Palmer, helped MoveOn.org with digital strategy, promoted an LGBT advocacy group, and helped the Center for American Progress promote its message on judicial nominees, among other left-of-center advocacy efforts.

Background

Scott Palmer and his twin brother James founded PGM, which stands for Palmer Group Media, in 2011. The firm is a digital agency that works for liberal organizations. Its slogan is, “Make Progress Happen.” ¹

The company performs several services for left-wing clients, including digital strategy, rapid response development, e-commerce development, e-mail marketing, graphic design, search engine optimization, website design, Internet marketing, software development, reputation management, branding, content management and social media marketing. ²

Clients and Projects

Palmer Group Media lists as clients the Center for American Progress’s online publication ThinkProgress; Everytown for Gun Safety, a gun control advocacy group founded by billionaire former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg; the Tides Foundation, a large donor to various left-wing projects; Amnesty International, a left-of-center human rights group; and other left-wing groups including Cel, SumOfUs, and Purpose. ³

MoveOn.org hired PGM to overhaul its “call tool,” a technology to facilitate constituent phone calls to legislators. PGM’s new system allowed first-time users to find a tutorial that walks them through the process of entering their zip code, placing the call, and getting the name, phone number, and address of the local organizers for MoveOn. The new system also allows users to track statistics, such as the total number of calls placed on a particular issue in real time. ⁴

The company also worked to increase website traffic for the Washington Center for Equitable Growth. ⁵ PGM worked on audience engagement for SumOfUs, a liberal advocacy group. The group’s campaign criticizing Google generated more than 1.1 million actions, with 852,720 user votes, 279,300 signatures for an online petition. ⁶ The company also created for Map the Impact, an interactive campaign that shows on a map the positive effect of immigrants in the United States. ⁷

PGM worked for the Center for American Progress’s judicial policy division Why Courts Matter in providing design, development, and strategy services to create an website that advocated for Obama administration judicial appointments and opposing the blocking of nominees by Senate Republicans. ⁸

The company created a #GayIsOK for the LGBT advocacy group All Out. More than 2.2 million people from around the world joined the movement. The company says in two weeks it developed and launched the organization’s new website in July 2015. The campaign’s messaging reached more than 10 million people worldwide, according to PGM. ⁹

Leadership

James C. Palmer and Scott W. Palmer are twin brothers who founded Palmer Group Media in 2010. James Palmer had experience in political nonprofit advocacy campaigns, while Scott Palmer was experienced in e-commerce. They combined their experience to apply to the for-profit company’s goal of working for nonprofit political advocacy groups. ¹⁰

James Palmer worked for the Alliance for Climate Protection, an organization founded by former Vice President Al Gore. Palmer led the digital media strategy campaign for Gore’s organization that issued dire warnings about the impact of global warming. ¹¹

Scott Palmer is the founder of Yasso Frozen Greek Yogurt. ¹² The two brothers are also partners with Aaron Kinarri in the firm Mobilize, which has done digital strategy for a broad array of nonprofit and government clients. ¹³

1. Our Work. PGM. Accessed May 26, 2019. https://pgmny.com/work/
2. About. PGM. Accessed May 26, 2019. https://pgmny.com/about/
3. PGM. Accessed May 26, 2019. https://pgmny.com/
4. “How We Built MoveOn an Award-Nominated Call Tool and Redefined Taking Action Online.” PGM. Accessed May 26, 2019. https://pgmny.com/work/case-study-moveon-org/
5. “How we helped Equitable Growth Attract and Retain Visitors by Keeping Them Focused on Content.” PGM Accessed May 26, 2019. https://pgmny.com/work/case-study-equitable-growth/
6. “How We Helped SumOfUs Generate Over 1 Million Actions for Their Google Campaign.” PGM. Accessed May 26, 2019. https://pgmny.com/work/case-study-sumofus/
7. “How We Built a Site to Shed Light on the Impact Immigrants Have on Growing the US Economy.” PGM. Accessed May 26, 2019. https://pgmny.com/work/project-brief-map-the-impact/
8. “How We Built a Site to Educate and Mobilize the Public Around Upcoming Judicial Nominations.” PGM. Accessed May 26, 2019. https://pgmny.com/work/project-brief-why-courts-matter/
9. “How We Went All Out to Build a Movement for Love and Equality.” PGM. Accessed May 26, 2019. https://pgmny.com/work/project-brief-allout/
10. About. PGM. Accessed May 26, 2019. https://pgmny.com/about/
11. James C. Palmer. Mobilize. Accessed May 26, 2019. https://wearemobilize.com/james-c-palmer/
12. Scott W. Palmer. Mobilize. Accessed May 26, 2019. https://wearemobilize.com/scott-w-palmer/
13. About. Mobilize. Accessed May 26, 2019. https://wearemobilize.com/about/