We featured the subject on our digital marketing vlog, The Coffee Cup, and that episode led to a blog that is now the most-visited blog on our website. Company 119 is located in Chardon, Ohio, which is a suburb of Cleveland, and as anyone familiar with politics can attest to, Ohio is important to the political climate of the United States. Ohio is a pretty important swing state, and that might have had something to do with the popularity of that episode. What we know for sure is that we are gearing up for the primary elections that will play a huge role in the election of a new president.
It seems like a great time to revisit this popular topic! So, let’s take a look at how digital marketing is impacting the 2020 elections.
Digital media is estimated to account for about 21% of overall political ad campaign spending (forbes.com) in this year’s political races.
The video ad market is set to grow by 50% from 2018 to 2020, accounting for about $6 billion in spending. Expect to see these videos on social channels, including YouTube.
The Trump administration currently releases information and campaign updates to over 74 million people with each tweet coming from President Trump’s Twitter account. Joe Biden, the current Democrat frontrunner, has about 4.3 million followers. The discrepancy is huge and could play a role as the election heats up.
Distrust of social media crosses the aisle. 62% of Republicans and 59% of Democrats express distrust in Facebook as a source of political information (journalism.org). Interestingly, among adults who cite social media as their primary news source, only 37% of them are concerned about misleading or false narratives in their political coverage, while 50% of the general public sees that as a concern.
Automated text messaging campaigns aren’t going anywhere anytime soon. Many candidates use a “peer to peer” style messaging where an avatar reaches out on behalf of the candidate, giving a personalized touch to the text. In 2016, political marketing firm Hustle sent out about 5.5 million texts on election day across 100 campaigns (Slate). In 2018, they sent out about 20 million texts across 1,300 campaigns from coast to coast. That growth has now led to messages going out earlier in the campaign rather than relying on the impact of election day texting.
Digital marketing. Social media. Video production. These are the tenants of what Company 119 does for clients every day. Whether you are running for president, city council, or president of the PTA, digital marketing can help on any level. If it can do all of this for a candidate, imagine the potential of what it can do for your company. Think bigger. Don’t rely on traditional communication and advertising channels in a digital market. When you want to win your market, let Company 119 lead you to victory with digital marketing strategies that work.
