I suspect you won't get too much valuable feedback from many on this platform regarding your witness campaign. But, because I believe that you guys mean well, I would like to share some of my personal thoughts on this matter.

Granted, these conclusions are mine and because I'm not the owner of the absolute truth, they should be taken with a grain of salt.

• As much as there are a lot of technical knowledge involved in running a witness server, the political aspect of it is probably undeniable.
• Most Stake Holders that Hold an Amount to move the ranks are voting for dead Witnesses intentionally. Possibly waiting for the right Witness to show up, possibly because they believe the current Ranking is the most beneficial to Steem's Ecosystem. To believe however that they are not voting on witnesses because they don't know that they have votes tied up into dead accounts is highly, highly improbable.
• All Aspiring Witnesses seem to need a big project to back them up, something to show for to gain the support of the Stake holders that matter. Running Steemit.Chat in my opinion did wonders for FollowBTC and CrimsonClad, but they had worked like Santa's elves for months without making any profits.
• As much as its not a requirement to be community oriented as a witness, its probably the most sustainable way of garnishing support. Meaning, to belong, participate of an established community or to possibly start your own.
• A possible route for a successful Witness campaign could be straight up development for the blockchain. This however has to be extremely impressive, the creation of a dapp that solves actual shortcomings of this platform. (nothing against games and fun, but meme apps probably wont do).

Best of luck!