About Us

Founded in 2004, BuzzMaker specializes in full service eCampaign management and online advertising. From building websites, to providing advocacy technology, to maximizing online fundraising, to growing your supporter base, we provide our clients with winning internet campaigns.

BuzzMaker is an award-winning political consulting firm. We’ve won twelve Pollie Awards from the American Association of Political Consultants (AAPC) for outstanding campaign websites and online advertisements, including a Pollie for the Best International Internet Campaign. Our President was named to Aristotle's Democratic Campaign Dream Team (2010) and was named a “Rising Star” in political consulting by Campaigns & Elections magazine (2006).

BuzzMaker is a member of the American Association of Political Consultants and the International Association of Political Consultants.

Pollie Awards

The Pollie Awards are the national showcase of Political and Public Affairs excellence hosted each year by the American Association of Political Consultants (AAPC).

  • Silver, Best Statewide Down Ballot Candidate Website
  • Silver, Best Local Government Website
  • Bronze, Best International Candidate Internet Campaign
  • Bronze, Best Candidate Logo
  • Bronze, Best Local/Municipal/Regional Candidate Online Advertising Campaign
  • Bronze, Best Blog – Ballot Campaigns
  • Bronze, Best U.S. House Candidate Website
  • Bronze, Best U.S. House Candidate Website
  • Honorable Mention, Best Candidate Landing Page
  • Honorable Mention, ‘Shoulda Woulda Coulda’ Website
  • Honorable Mention, Best U.S. Senate Candidate Online Ad
  • Honorable Mention, Best U.S. House Candidate Website - Democrat

Leadership

BuzzMaker is a consortium of a dozen top designers, developers, videographers and online political operatives led by Matt McMillan and Clinton Herget.

Matthew A. McMillan

Matthew Alvarez McMillan is the President of BuzzMaker, a firm he founded in 2004 to provide a unique brand of high touch, full service eCampaign management to Democratic candidates and progressive organizations. He has won twelve Pollie Awards from the American Association of Political Consultants, including a Pollie for the Best International Internet Campaign. He was named to Aristotle's Democratic Campaign Dream Team (2010) and was named a "Rising Star" in political consulting by Campaigns & Elections magazine (2006).

Mr. McMillan is an expert in political new media strategy, specializing in online advertising, messaging and communications. He's harnessed the power of online advertising to reach tens of millions of voters and used it to compel over 1 million people to take action. He's helped clients quadruple their email lists and raise several million dollars online.

A skilled writer, Mr. McMillan has ghost written on behalf of leaders including President Bill Clinton, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Governor Bill Richardson, Governor Howard Dean, Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson, James Carville and several foreign leaders.

Internationally, Mr. McMillan has brought his unique brand of full service eCampaign management to serve political leaders in the Caribbean, South America, Central Asia and Europe. Domestically, he has worked in campaigns at all levels - from city council to U.S. Senate – in a dozen states. In addition to his electoral work, he has provided web strategy for some of America's leading unions and advocacy organizations including Working America, the Center for American Progress Action Fund and MoveOn.org.

In early 2007, Mr. McMillan took a leave of absence from BuzzMaker to serve as the Deputy to the Chief Technology Officer on Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s presidential campaign. He has also served as the lead online writer for the Campaign for America's Future and as an account manager and writer at a leading Democratic direct mail firm.

Mr. McMillan holds a bachelor's degree in political science and history from Columbia University. In college, he was ranked among the top ten collegiate debaters in North America.

Clinton Herget

Clinton Herget is a web architect and technical consultant working primarily in the progressive political advocacy space. He currently serves as BuzzMaker's Chief Technologist.

A specialist in the rapid deployment of Web 2.0 technologies to support grassroots campaigns, Mr. Herget has a deep understanding of open-source software and its impact on advocacy. He is a contributor to the Drupal project, a modular platform for online community development. During the 2006 and 2008 election cycles, he engineered web solutions to support dozens of local, state, and national campaigns, serving millions of daily pageviews.

In addition to his work in the political advocacy, Mr. Herget has co-founded or played a lead technical role in a number of web startups, including Razume.com, an online resume review service which was named one of a dozen finalist companies in the 2008 LaunchBox Digital competition, and Changents.com, a social media site aimed at the agents of global change.

Mr. Herget holds a bachelor's degree in Government from the College of William & Mary.

Marcy Rye

Marcy Rye is the lead creative consultant to BuzzMaker. Over the past decade, work under her creative direction has won numerous Pollie Awards from the American Association of Political Consultants and in January 2010 she was selected from a group of over 70 applicants to be one of 12 design partners with DesigNYC — a group working to improve life in New York City by connecting non-profits with selected design resources.

Ms. Rye's expertise is in brand strategy and marketing; specializing in non-profit and corporate branding, creative concept development, and both print and online communications strategies. She grew a small anti-fur campaign for the Humane Society into an international success that received coverage in major design magazines and support from celebrities such as designer Todd Oldham and actress Amy Smart. Her unique blend of creative and political education resulted in creative direction for various direct mail campaigns that was instrumental in winning back the Colorado House in 2006.

A talented design technologist, Ms. Rye's expertise results in unique and truly effective online communications strategies for websites and ad campaigns that put the emphasis on ease-of-use and getting results, while her branding methods help clients achieve a memorable and unique brand presence. She has focused her efforts on working with organizations that work to improve people's lives, such as political and non-profit groups, arts and cultural organizations, and businesses that emphasize sustainability or concern for quality of life.

Ms. Rye holds a Master of Fine Arts in Design and Technology from Parsons The New School for Design and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She designed the course syllabus and taught website design & technology courses for over seven years at the New School University for the Parsons Digital Design program, and the New School Online University. An active member of the National Association of Women Business Owners - Los Angeles, she currently serves on the Public Policy Committee.

Mike Nellis

Mike Nellis is an experienced online political operative currently serving as a senior strategy consultant with BuzzMaker. Prior to joining the firm, he served as Online Director for the Kansas Democratic Party. In just six months at the KDP, he tripled the size of the party's email list and grew the party's social media contacts by over 200%.

Mr. Nellis has worked for several statewide political candidates, managed communications for an advocacy organization and co-managed a successful city council race in a tough year for Democrats. He also founded the online movement that successfully drafted Scott Kleeb into an open seat U.S. Senate in Nebraska in 2008 and served on Kleeb's campaign.

Mike is an avid Notre Dame football fan and dreams of coaching I-A football.

Alyssa Boxhill

Alyssa Boxhill joined the BuzzMaker team as designer and creative consultant shortly after the company launched in 2004. In that time she has created award-winning websites and online advertisements for international, national and local political candidates, entertainers, nonprofit organizations, and issue advocacy campaigns.

Ms. Boxhill's professional career spans the nonprofit, financial and educational sectors, where she has worked in both hands-on and managerial roles. Self-taught since her beginnings as webmaster of her college radio station, Ms. Boxhill is a champion of clean, user-friendly design and efficient, straightforward information architecture.

An avid cyclist and accomplished violinist outside the workplace, Ms. Boxhill performs solo and ensemble engagements throughout the Washington DC metropolitan area. She holds a bachelor's degree in English Literature from Barnard College.

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