What Brands and Future Campaigns Should Take Away from this Political Cycle
From President Obama’s “Facebook Election” to President Biden’s emphasis on streaming platforms, Presidential campaigns often test new media strategies as they spend millions of dollars in a short period of time. The strategies that work stick around and get used by future campaigns – political and non-political.
While we wait for all the votes to be cast and counted for this year’s election, a few of our staff reflected on what teams tried this election cycle and what they think holds staying power for the industry.
You saw ads without realizing | The smartest paid media tricks campaigns pulled as they spent a record amount on digital platforms.
By Brian Krebs, Senior Vice President, Paid Media
2024 is the influencer election.
While leveraging celebrity endorsements is hardly a new persuasion tactic for political campaigns, this election cycle saw unprecedented growth in paid influencers across social media, mostly TikTok and Instagram, podcasts of all stripes, and video streaming platforms like YouTube and Twitch.
Sponsored creator content comes in a variety of mediums and messaging, but also money. Without an FEC requirement to disclose political sponsorships, it’s often the creator’s choice whether or not to say if a piece of content is paid or not. In other words, you’d be remiss for not noticing something you see in your feed or hear through your headphones is an ad.
Although some strategists and creators would tell you the lack of transparency is a feature, not a bug, allowing for a greater organic feel to the content, others in the space wish the FEC would step in to regulate this growing space in paid political communications.
Beyond influencers, we saw continued growth across digital advertising platforms to keep pace with the explosive consumption across social media and streaming devices. That’s changed the way paid media strategists approach ad buying. Up until recently, it was often simply TV and digital; today many ad strategists view media planning through the lens of linear — including broadcast TV, cable TV, satellite, and terrestrial radio — and digital — paid social, search, programmatic, connected TV / OTT, and more.
What’s more, the ability to track user — in this case, voter — engagement across many platforms has replaced the ‘set it and forget it’ approach to linear buying and ushered in a period where key metrics, such as video views or ad clicks, are planned, tracked, and optimized throughout the flight of the campaign. It’s made it even more critical for campaigns to work closely with their ad buying team(s) to ensure cohesion within the media mix and message, as well as maximum budget efficiency.
Political ads can be conceptual too | Good creative and copywriting remain king when it comes to the political ad cycle, and they should in your campaign too.
By Dhruv Nanda, Executive Creative Director
We’ve all seen the standard political ad that’s all message and no idea. They do a good job of presenting facts, and test well in captive-audience focus groups, but do they actually breakthrough in the wild?
Memorable political ads are like memorable brand ads: They’re on-message and conceptual. One of the political ads I saw this election cycle that nailed both is Detroit vs. Everybody. Before I break it down, I want to show you the strategy behind the work that the Harris campaign ad reminds me of.
When big muscle cars were all the rage, Volkswagen zagged while everyone else zigged.
When their competitor was No.1, Avis gave you a reason to go with the underdog.
What I find interesting about this work is that it turns a perceived weakness into a strength. Detroit vs. Everybody leverages this strategy quite successfully. I wasn’t in the room when the creatives came up with the idea, but I imagine this is how it came about:
The inspiration for the idea was Trump’s attack on Harris’ perceived weakness: “If she were to take office, the whole country would become ‘Detroit’”. At that point, I can imagine someone saying, “Well, what if that was a good thing?”.
That lightbulb moment became a powerful ad for the Harris campaign. I find the strategy behind the ad particularly effective, because I imagine the target audience for the ad are voters in Detroit (and Michigan). Why would anyone who’s from there think that it’s a bad thing for the whole country to be like them? What’s so bad about being tough, resilient and hard-working? The spot pays off this idea successfully by showing how tough Detroit and contrasting it with how not-Detroit Trump is.
Whether you’re making an ad for a PAC, a party, a candidate, or a non-political campaign – just messaging is not enough. In today’s noisy media landscape, your only chance of breaking through is an idea vs. anyone who just has a message.
Think outside the Earned Media Box | Skipping The New York Times and Evening News for a niche podcast to really find your audience.
By Liz Brown, Principal, Communications
If it wasn’t already clear before this election cycle, it is now: Americans aren’t watching cable news like they once did, especially young Americans. Instead, an increasing number are now tuning into podcasts, newsletters, and short-form video to catch up on politics, news, sports and celebrity gossip. Both presidential campaigns used this change in media consumption to their fullest advantage.
Vice President Harris’ team made the smart decision to get her in front of some of the most listened to podcasts this fall, podcasts that aren’t inherently political. While you could hardly call the ‘Call Her Daddy’ audience niche (it’s currently the second most listened to podcast on Spotify and the first one among women), many listeners are a-political and tune in to hear Alex Cooper’s thoughts on relationships and dating, not politics. The VP’s decision to speak directly to this audience about women’s rights and abortion was a very smart one. Similarly, Gov. Walz just appeared on The Ringer’s fantasy football podcast – an incredibly popular show listened to by voters of all ideological backgrounds across the country.
The added benefit of using podcasts like “Call Her Daddy” is getting a built-in surrogate for your campaign’s key issue areas. Due to the ethics of traditional earned media, journalists often have to hold back from sharing their own perspectives on a particular campaign issue and usually hold back from endorsements in order to uphold objectivity. With most of today’s popular podcasts, especially those in the entertainment and pop culture space, hosts and guests often interact in more conversational dialogue, which gives voters the feeling that they’re listening to two people having a friendly chat versus a politician giving a stump speech. It’s exactly this kind of setting and dressed down approach to political interviews that captures the attention of key voting blocs and traditional media alike. The VP’s episode of “Call Her Daddy” went viral, quickly becoming one of the more popular interviews of the entire presidential cycle.
It’s not just the opportunity to go viral that’s driving candidates towards the new(er) medium. As more and more audiences turn to social media and streaming platforms for news and information, podcasts offer an opportunity to meet voters where they are – especially voters who have felt disaffected and turned off by the perceived bias of traditional media.
Trump’s team knows that trust in the media is at an all-time low among their base, so they also turned to non-traditional opportunities. Podcasts and shows like “All the Smoke”, “The Joe Rogan Experience”, “The Howard Stern Show”, Shannon Sharpe’s “Club Shay Shay” and the “Theo Von Show”, all appeal directly to the male electorate – a demographic that is especially distrustful of traditional media. As both Trump and VP Harris try to win over younger, male voters in the days leading up to the election, appearing on shows like this offers them the chance to have their breakthrough moment by giving these voters the face time that is needed to win their trust — and their votes.
If this election has reinforced anything it’s that gone are the days of long cable and print interviews and instead, politicians are turning to new mediums like podcasts in an effort to reach Americans exactly where they’re at – and when they’re least expecting it.
Don’t Forget the Digital Content End Goal | Be innovative, but remember the basics can often get the job done.
by Mia Logan, Senior Vice President, Digital
When it comes to digital, everyone wants to pull the newest and shiniest tool out of the toolbox to drive awareness, go viral, and mobilize voters. But if anything, this past election cycle has shown us that it’s better to re-imagine your most trustworthy tactics in order to truly engage voters.
Through email, SMS, digital ads, and organic social media, the Harris campaign proved that they could meet voters where they are and engage with them by putting the most important information directly into their hands. From using memes and trending topics to combat disinformation to spinning up a volunteer base through old-school QR codes and short-codes, the Harris-Walz digital team understood the value of doubling down on digital tactics that have historically helped get out the vote. And they’re not the only ones.
2020 marked a huge shift in digital organizing for campaigns and advocacy groups. As door knockers were forced to go online due to the pandemic, progressive coalitions sought new ways to inform, persuade and mobilize BIPOC voters, young voters and other communities of focus. By using social media platforms like Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat and more for relational organizing, coalitions were able to have their members and supporters share why they were willing to back a candidate, discuss policy issues that matter, and get key voting information out to the masses in a way that a traditional doors program wouldn’t do.
This year’s election cycle has proven that this kind of digital organizing is here to stay. From holding record-breaking fundraisers via Zoom town-halls to taking the campaign trail to online streaming platforms like Twitch, candidates and their supporters understand that digital campaigning doesn’t have to reinvent the wheel, it just needs to energize their base.