Because of the Brave
Doomscroll 5.26.2024
Happy Sunday and welcome to another edition of Doomscroll. Let’s start with a bit of housekeeping. In observance of Memorial Day weekend, tonight’s newsletter is going to be on the shorter side. I know you guys have things going on, it was a rather quiet week, and honestly, I just think we should focus on the point of this nice, long weekend: Honoring the brave men and women who gave their lives for this country. Think about it. They died so we could be free, and I don’t take that lightly. Everything else just seems…stupidly trivial.
One more thing: I’m giving birth bright and early tomorrow morning (yes, on Memorial Day) (surprise!). So I am taking myself out of commission for the next several weeks. But don’t worry! I have lined up a great list of guest writers to keep Doomscroll going for the month of June. I’m excited to read all of their hot takes and I know you will be in good hands! xoxo
This week’s newsletter is sponsored by RumbleUp!
One Question
Thanks to everyone who answered last week’s One Question about whether influencers should disclose when they’re being paid to post on Twitter. 88% of you said “absolutely” disclaimers should be required. No one said no, and only 12% said “sometimes…it’s complicated.” I got some good comments this topic, too. Some of them are below:
This doesn't seem like it's too difficult of a problem to solve. There's already pre-existing frameworks to pull from for how this should work. Videos seem pretty straightforward - required disclosure statement at the beginning. This is standard fare for most (legitimate) YouTube channels. If it involves a live stream, I'd probably say disclosure either at the beginning or prior to a segment. For Posts, it seems like the most logical thing would be a "PAID FOR BY <COMMITTEE/ORG>" statement proceeding any posts involving a campaign or organization who had paid/benefitted (either directly or indirectly) for coverage. "Payment" should probably encompass things like trips or otherwise where some sort of "gift" is being exchanged for coverage. The maximum version of this would be something at the FEC level wherein influencers would have to disclose each filing period how much they were paid by whom to cover what orgs/committee where it only is required for when money, "gifts", or otherwise are exchanged.
Just throwing this out there: Audiences are usually pretty quick to suss out inauthentic content. If Influencer A hasn't been pro-Candidate X and suddenly starts bringing them up all the time, it'll raise eyebrows - especially if that influencer's niche/ beat isn't politics or something similar. Presumably campaigns would be better served targeting micro/ nano influencers - who generate higher trust and can reach very tailored audiences - in ways that don't involve cash. Reach out to them, ask them to meet Candidate X on the road, come back stage for exclusive content like interviews or chats on topics like sports, hunting, fixing up an old car, etc. If you can't get an influencer to find you attractive enough to support or even meet without having to fork over $$$, then you're probably not thinking through or leveraging your influencer marketing strategy to meet your objectives. We have to be savvier about this stuff to break through!
The answer is probably closer to "sometimes" but as a marketer I love looking at who is doing what in their ad campaigns. I've gone down agency of record rabbit holes based on how much I like or dislike an ad though, so maybe I'm weird.
Disclaimers are needed. We have seen a particular influencer changing his tune and later found out that he is now getting paid by those he criticized before. Details are pretty ugly on this particular one... (I love a nice, ugly story. HMU and share! Do it! Peer pressure! itsthedoomscroll@gmail.com)
Good for both parties. Consumers want transparency. Advertisers who get caught trying to hide payments end up looking terrible.
Why should this be treated any differently than influencers marketing a product and having the paid partnership label on their post? This is a form of advertising. Political ads have to have disclaimers, so should this. Maybe I'm being boring but it seems pretty cut and dry to me.
This week’s One Question has me revisiting another topic we love to talk about: AI. Artificial Intelligence! It’s the buzz word of 2024, so let’s catch up: How are you all utilizing AI right here, right now in your day-to-day lives as digital operatives? Do you use ChatGPT for first drafts of emails? Social media copy? What? Would love to hear what you all are doing - and don’t be shy! Remember this is all anonymous.
Who’s Doing What
—The Daily Sh*t Show
I laughed out loud at this. Solid content from New York Rep. Mike Lawler. He’s right: In politics, laughs are few and far between AND too many candidates are afraid to get in front of the camera and have fun! Kudos.
—WinRed Doing Us a Solid
If you, like me, are an extremely visual learner, then sign up for the webinars just announced by WinRed. 9 times out of 10 I’d rather watch a video tutorial than read a blog post. But that’s just me!
—Stand with Rand
I’ve been seeing this ad everywhere lately and I like it. It’s a good execution of a face-to-camera fundraising appeal, but what I like most is the script. He’s not just asking people to donate to “stop the left’s radical agenda,” he’s laying out some real stakes - and treating donors like the intelligent (mostly) political observers that they are. The face that I’m seeing it so much tells me it must be doing well, too. Just sayin’.
—MAGA World on TikTok?
This Puck piece has been making the rounds on lefty journo Twitter about how TikTok is ACTUALLY not a cesspool for progressive, pro-Hamas, pro-bin Laden youths. It’s really a “bastion of MAGA short-form video discourse.” Look, I’m sure this reporter is good at her job and all, but I just don’t buy it. When your only evidence is data from anonymous TikTok employees…I think it warrants another look. Changing the narrative around TikTok now - when the app is fighting for its very existence - seems a little too coincidental if you ask me. And the “it’s really super pro-Trump” argument just runs counter to everything else we’ve seen come from this platform. So…yeah. I’m not buying it until I see more.
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2024 Watch
This is where I make note of a few other things that caught my eye this week.
One Nation, a McConnell-aligned group, is out with a spot hitting Sherrod Brown in Ohio for prioritizing illegal immigrants over Ohioans. Watch it here.
The Trump campaign is now accepting donations in crypto. Read about it here.
Nikki Haley said she’ll vote for Trump in November. Read more about it here.
The Grapevine
Everyone should read this op-ed by Jordan Lieberman in AdExchanger. Here’s a nugget that really stood out to me:
The biggest advertising story of our generation is the transition from broadcast to audience targeting. These days, it’s easy to push niche audiences in the direction of batshit crazy. We’ve all experienced misinformation-driven polarization take hold among peers. It is a wake-up call to acknowledge that audience targeting and online information campaigns have had some gnarly byproducts.
Political professionals should remind themselves that any sort of intense, repetitive microtargeting that plays to our reptilian brain is going to have some consequences.
Per the Twitter newsletter this week, the Dems have already bought out the masthead for the June 27 presidential debate. Interesting. Just worth noting.
Got a tip for The Grapevine? Job announcement? Job opening? Email ‘em to me at itsthedoomscroll@gmail.com
Last But Not Least
From the other side of the aisle:
A few things jumped out this week. First, Politico gave Biden’s small-dollar fundraising machine the once-over and found that ::checks notes:: Democrat donors aren’t jumping to give Biden $20. We all know why (hello, enthusiasm), but I chuckled a bit at one Democrat strategists’s theory:
“This is a race that has not started yet,” said Mike Nellis, the founder of Authentic, a Democratic firm that specializes in fundraising, advertising and online organizing.
Democrats, he said, have struggled to raise money online ever since Biden was inaugurated — largely because the MSNBC Moms who’d spent the last four years smashing the ‘donate’ button to Act Blue, were able to take a breath.
“Winning is one of the worst possible things for grassroots fundraising. It removes the urgency to donate,” Nellis continued. Once the Biden-Trump general election matchup crystallizes for people, Biden’s online fundraising should tick up. But for the moment, the broader electorate is fatigued with yet another Biden-Trump presidential contest.
I mean, he’s probably right to an extent. When I worked at a small gun-rights group called the National Rifle Association, our donations dipped big time after Trump won in 2016. But still: I think this reasoning pails in comparison to the fact that voters A) don’t love Biden and B) are still waiting to see if the guy ACTUALLY makes it on the ballot. So yeah, the race hasn’t really crystalized for people which may be what they’re hung up on. But also: no one wanted Biden to run again in the first place!
Ok, another Politico piece this week worth mentioning: Biden wants a memelord? Can you guys see my eyes rolling right now? Apparently the person in this role will be responsible for coordinate meme-creation amongst online influencers. Lord help us.
From the other side of the tracks:
If you’re not subscribed to The Social Juice Substack, I highly recommend. This week, he published a long, very wordy newsletter about brands that struggle to implement actual social media strategies that think beyond brand awareness and convert followers into loyal customers. Like I said, it’s a long, wordy post but I waded through it to pull out some insights I think are worth considering for anyone posting on social media these days:
LinkedIn or Instagram prompting you to post 3x a week isn’t part of your strategy. You may think, we know these aren’t strategies. But count how many of these random tactics/tools make up your strategy? If too many, you need a clear strategy built on solving a problem. Not growing followers. Stacking tactics on tactics without clear strategy is worthless.
The Regular Question to ask: Do you work for social media apps or your brand? Doing new trends or having no links isn’t wrong. But why not post a link and old meme to build consideration? Yes, It is a hassle to win on social media apps without giving into their best practices. But that’s platform strategy, what about brand social strategy?
On Social, Brand Consideration is built through 4 main elements: Community, Product, Content & Storytelling. Having all four is the best, but content is the weakest element and storytelling is the strongest.
That’s all for this week. Thanks for reading! Did you like it? Consider forwarding to your friends!