Lessons Learned from the Campaign Trail
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I want to talk about politics
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...Without being partisan
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Specifically, how politics has evolved with
digital marketing
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Facebook went from this...
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To this...
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So why did politics become obsessed with
digital marketing?
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1) Campaigns are more easily able to raise
money
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Online fundraising in 2000
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Online fundraising in 2004
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Online fundraising in 2008
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What did Obama do with all that money?
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From January 1, 2007 - October 29, 2008
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2) Digital marketing also enables an efficient
use of resources
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Donations less than $200
Clinton ‘16: 22%
Obama ‘12: 28%
Sanders ‘16: 44%
Trump ‘16: 69%
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3) Digital marketing grants a microphone to
more people
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4) Digital marketing enables people to make
data-informed decisions faster
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Politics before the internet
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For decades we had traditional gatekeepers
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Things began to change in the 2000’s
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Of America’s 100 largest newspapers:
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First Democratic endorsement in 126 Years
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First Democratic endorsement in 148 Years
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Third endorsement since 1857
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Never before taken sides
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Source: mediaquant.net
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Value of Free Twitter Attention
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Too Many F@#$%ing Tweets
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Value of Free Media Attention
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Free Negative Media Attention
P.T. Barnum, Showman/Entertainer
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How much tech has grown recently?
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Growth of Twitter
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Source: statista.com
That’s a gain of 134 million users between the
last 2 elections!
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Growth of Facebook
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Source: statista.com
That’s a gain of 1.76 BILLION users between
2008 and 2016!
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Remember what the 2012 election looked like
on Facebook?
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23.8 million Twitter followers 1.7 million Twitter followers
33.4 million Facebook fans 11.9 million Facebook fans
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Source: fulcrumtech.net
First edition iPhones and Androids
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But the rise of the internet isn’t only killing
print...
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Consumption of traditional TV is also cratering
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Everyone has a voice
Everyone can spread content
Everyone is consuming content
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But, we tend to only want to consume that with
which we agree
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Source: cjr.org
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1980
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1992
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1996-2007
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2016
Ending the Fed Conservative State
Source: cjr.org
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In early 2016, Breitbart tried to delegitimize
Fox News as main source of conservative news
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Source: cjr.org
20%
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Source: pewresearch.org
17%
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Source: pewresearch.org
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Was it always like this?
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Fake news
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New York Times
Washington Post
NBC News
And more...
Source: buzzfeed.com
17/20!
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Anyone here heard of Veles, Macedonia?
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Veles, Macedonia
(a.k.a. Fake News Capital of the World)
Population: 43,716
Unemployment rate: 24.9%
(2016 est.)
Average Monthly Salary:
$586.69
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A Recipe for Viral Fake News
1. Buy a fake Facebook profile
2. Write/spin article
3. Share link in Facebook groups with
hyperpartisan followers
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Not to say fake news doesn’t happen on the left
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On the left:
You're 34 times more likely than the general
population to be a college graduate
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On the right:
You're 18 times more likely than the general
population to be in the top fifth of income
earners
Jeff Green, CEO, The Trade Desk
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So why didn’t fake news happen earlier?
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1) Distribution and cost
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2) Audiences and trust
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3) Law and regulation
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But everything changed with the social media
revolution
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How did campaigns harness this power?
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1. Raise $690 million online
2. More than 500 A/B and multivariate tests
3. Email was responsible for 90% of fundraising
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Are these metrics some sort of sorcery?
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NO!
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1. Imagery
2. Copy/subject lines
3. Personalization
4. Different user journeys
5. Site speed improvements
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Site Speed Improvements:
Reduced requests
Reduced pageweight
Improved TTFB
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Takeaway #1:
“If you ain’t testing,
you’re last.
- Ricky Bobby
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Raised $218 million out of $230 million online
Received an average donation of $27
Received more contributions than any
candidate in a primary ever
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How Sanders did it:
Personalized landings pages
Reddit
Email
Social media
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557 videos with over 42 million Facebook
views
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Takeaway #2:
Have social media
posts, emails &
landing pages ready
to go for planned
events
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Takeaway #3:
Have the agility to
capture breaking
news cycles
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Let’s analyze the other side of the aisle
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Team Trump began with a $2 million Facebook
ad buy
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Towards the end, they were spending $70
million per month
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Team Trump was testing 40,000-50,000 ad
variants at any given time.
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Gary Coby, Director of Advertising, Republican National Committee
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Youtube Get Out the Vote (GOTV)
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Takeaway #4: Market to an audience of one
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Trump Senior Campaign Official to Bloomberg
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1. Idealistic white liberals
2. Young women
3. African-americans in urban centers
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1. Test everything, don’t give up
2. Have material ready for expected events
3. Be ready to pivot at moment’s notice
4. Market to an audience of one
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What will 2018 and 2020 look like?
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1. Fake news will exist, but be less common
2. Dark social will offset AI and human filters
3. AI chatbots will enable 1:1 communication
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@distilled
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SearchLove Boston 2017 | Jeremy Gottlieb | Did Politics Break the Internet or the Internet Break Politics