Hello and welcome to another edition of Doomscroll - your FAVORITE newsletter covering all things digital on the right. :D As this is a long, holiday weekend, this will be a shorter, holiday edition. Enjoy your day off on Monday because it’s BALLS TO THE WALL FROM TUESDAY TO NOVEMBER 5. Buckle up! As of September 3, it’s Go Time.
Also: no rant from me this week (sad), because honestly I got enough comments from you all that I’m gonna let you do the ranting for me (yay!) Keep reading.
One Question
Thanks to everyone who answered last week’s One Question about whether the right has a culture problem when it comes to digital. Drumroll…100% of you said YES, there is a culture problem. Woof. Here are some of the comments (some are edited slightly for length, just fyi).
You 👏🏼 bet 👏🏼 we 👏🏼 do! And every single fundraising email that’s destroyed by the candidate, comms staffer, or (my personal favorite) the candidate's spouse is proof. I do think we’ll see it die out though. The candidates who will win are the ones who will invest. The ones who are sent packing will be the ones who still think digital is just daily social media posts.
Look at the culture within digital we have created. Of course GCs are going to hate it because we ourselves are doing a terrible no good very bad job. (Amanda’s comment: ouch! Harsh, but fair?)
I think it's a two pronged issue: Republicans not wanting to spend money without hard results and the DSPs that are trying to service them don't actually care about or understand the overarching goals campaigns have when it comes to voter reach and contact. Not to mention there's still a huge language and knowledge barrier between the two groups. It's not fair to pitch a campaign, fund, or candidate a corporate focused DSP that doesn't have or barely scrapes the surface of political specific offerings, all while magically expecting them to drop their full budget with you. Republicans for sure need to be open to new ways of approaching voters digitally, but they also need strategists and sales folks who can (for lack of a better way to say it) speak war room with them.
… In the US, it feels like there's still too much of a prim and proper attitude, like most Senate and House R digital staffers want to still get invited to parties and are just playing the Left's game on the Left's terms. I'd argue that being conservative online outside of the MAGA base is still 'icky' for a lot of people and there's concerns about being outted or canceled. At least on X, the accounts that perform best are all faceless anons on stuff like migrant crossings and crime - which eventually get boosted/ reposted by Musk. If we really want to win in the digital and social media arena, we need to fully embrace what we stand for, stop worrying about being labeled 'weird,' and speak authentically (real talk, unfiltered) about issues that resonate with large parts of the electorate. Let’s face it, the Left is going to paint us as racist, transphobic, and misogynistic whether we win or lose, so why not go all in?
Keep buying 'over-the-air TV' to get local news and Wheel of Fortune viewers and see what another four years of Democrats looks like.
I think the right struggles with this because we have an older generation of people GCing these big races who don't understand digital and its overall value (let alone meme culture, etc.) If they didn't need digital to win a race in the early 2000s, it's harder to convince them that they need to spend a big digital budget to win a race in 2024. And many times, these are the people approving overall campaign budgets. We need to break our "tried and true" methods of consulting and focus on where the Dems are, frankly, kicking our butts -- digital. We also tend to have older candidates running so sometimes it doesn't feel authentic to Tweet out a meme from a 70+ year old person's account. There's a fine line between what feels genuine and what doesn't, and voters and online trolls alike can easily sniff that out. As the right ushers in a younger generation of candidates and consultants, we need to use that as a pathway to execute thoughtfully curated digital campaigns.
Well first I think SOME Comms guys have a problem dealing with digital ... but some of us are bright enough to know what we don't know. As for the digital culture side, it has been lacking on the right. While there are some stars, I see a heck of a lot more generated from the left that I'm guessing is making more of an impact on younger voters ... if they decide to vote. (Amanda’s comment: FAIR.)
Counter rant to your rant… I'm a comms staffer who's worked on Presidential campaigns, and I'd like to respectfully push back on something you wrote in last week's newsletter. To the point of, "Can you name who the Trump campaign’s digital director is?" question: I don't think these staffers need to be upfront and center, and believe this approach is detrimental. Campaigns are about the candidates and their policies. When comms staffers start to push "process stories" about how they're winning or what they're doing, it's usually only for consultants like us to read. The general voting public doesn't care about the specificities of a digital strategy, and getting too into the details is distracting. I for one love that I haven't read a single thing about who's running Trump's digital. It means they're 100% committed to doing their job, and they aren't using their position of power to self-promote themselves. Although reading Trump digital's strategy would be very interesting to us as consultants, it's something that's best left in the shadows.
(Amanda’s note: This is a good point and well-taken. We don’t need digital directors or digital teams to be front and center in the media, so long as they’re doing their jobs well. My basic point - which perhaps got lost - was that we’re way behind in the spending game, adrift culturally, AND no one seems to REALLY know who’s running the digital show over there. It’s hard not to wonder if those things are not connected, is all. Thank you for reading!!).Still mostly viewed as a cash register. TV guys still dominate and are prioritized first.
Ok, friends. Instead of doing a typical One Question this week, I’m asking you to take a quick Reader Survey. I know, I know. But I would super appreciate it getting some feedback on this little ol’ newsletter. So help me help you! I want Doomscroll to be as helpful and as insightful as possible.
Who’s Spending Where
P2P
Industry Watch
Commerce on social media apps is on the rise, with Facebook leading the pack. A little surprised by that, not gonna lie. A snippet from Stacked Marketer:
Most of the social platforms have seen a rise in customers over the years.
Facebook has seen a 31% increase in the past four years, while Instagram social shoppers increased 56.2% during the same period.
This rise didn’t pass unnoticed, with finance experts acknowledging that “Mark Zuckerberg is sitting on a shopping empire four times bigger than Amazon.”
2024 Watch
This is where I make note of a few other things that caught my eye this week.
Don Bacon has an interesting new ad touting his bipartisan credentials. Watch it here.
Really like this John James ad about how a Harris Administration would kill jobs and ban gas cars. Watch it here.
Heads-up: Dems are more enthusiastic about voting this November. See the poll here.
Maryland Senate race is tied, which is cray-cray. Read about it here.
$10 million is being spent to chip away at Harris’ support with black voters….Read about it here.
The Grapevine
Ummm….The Trade Desk is building it’s own Smart TV?!? Read about it here.
America PAC got the Fast Company treatment. Definitely worth a read for those following their ad saga.
CTV is capturing more ad spend, according to a report in CNBC.
Do we have a new king of content? Idk, maybe?
Stand Together is hiring a Digital Communications Manager to work with Concerned Veterans for America. Apply!
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:
Speaking of culture… the National Youth Engagement Director for the entire Harris presidential campaign is 24 years old. That is all.
From the other side of the tracks:
In honor of fall football…Watch this funny new VRBO ad with Nick Saban. Is there a takeaway for us here? Eh.
Enjoy nonetheless and get ready for all the Clemson Tiger references this fall. #Sorrynotsorry
That’s all for this week. Thanks for reading! Did you like it? Consider forwarding to your friends!