Google: 1, RNC: 0
Doomscroll 1.22.23
One Question
This week, I’m keeping the one question pretty open-ended: What did you think of the RNC’s lawsuit against Google? I know you have thoughts. Spill ‘em! Pls & Ty.
And as always, thanks to everyone who answered last week’s question about DOOH. A full ⅔ of those who responded said they have never bought DOOH ads. As to whether you would ever consider DOOH to be a key part of your media plan, ⅓ said yes, ⅓ said no, and ⅓ said not sure. I’m glad to see we’re all on the same page! Anywho, I also got an interesting comment from someone who said that as a digital operative, their suggestion to run DOOH was shut down “hard” by the media consultant. If this is you, I wanna know more! Why was it shot down? Email me, yo: itsthedoomscroll@gmail.com
Who’s Doing What
Hurd’s Herd (sorry couldn’t help myself)
Former Congressman Will Hurd: Is he running for president or not? This past week, Morning Score had a line in one of its emails about the possibility, so naturally, I checked out the Facebook ads library. Bingo. The ex-hunter-of-terrorists launched an ad on January 13 telling people to sign up for his newsletter, The Brief. The ad is paid for by Future Leaders Fund and is a nice way of promoting Hurd to an audience beyond Texas while building that ever-so-important list - if I do say so myself. Also, willbhurd.com is a very nice looking website. Just sayin’!
Email Shenanigans
Did Trump really send out a scam fundraising email pretending to be Ron DeSantis? It certainly LOOKED that way - at least to some people. On Monday, a few different reporters, including Matt Holt at National Journal, tweeted about the scammy shenanigan, but the tweets have since been deleted without explanation. According to Brad Parscale, the email is fake. But who was behind it and is anyone willing to spill the tea? Perhaps we’ll never know, but if you have an idea, shoot me an email at itsthedoomscroll@gmail.com and just know I’m not above publishing gossip, innuendo, and unsubstantiated rumors.
Give a Gov an Axe…
If it’s not TV or radio, it’s fair game for a digital newsletter. So: New Hampshire Governor and prospective 2024 presidential candidate Chris Sununu was interviewed by David Axlerod last week on the latter’s podcast, The Axe Files. The Live Free or Die gov is definitely carving out a lane for himself, that’s for sure. He said he is mulling a presidential bid, called Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis a big-government authoritarian (them’s fightin’ words!), and had this interesting thing to say around the one-hour mark:
“...I spend a lot of time with the younger generation Republicans, or potential Republicans…Democrats are great at influencing. We tend to advertise and it’s so wrong…We gotta get Republicans influencing that group, open ourselves up and make sure they know that they can be part of an awesome team.”
Is influencing the new advertising? Maybe it should be. Maybe the right also sucks at playing the influencing game and talking to young voters and we shouldn't just leave it all to Charlie Kirk and TPUSA. ::insert shrug emoji::
Props to Virginia’s AG
Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares has a solid email program. I don’t know who’s behind it (if you do, email me), but they do a good job. I get emails regularly, and they’re not all fundraising asks. One recent email, for example, linked to a clip of Miyares on Fox News talking about investigating “woke racism” in public schools. There was no donation ask. It just linked to a WinRed leadgen page that asked people to sign up to stay up to date on Miyares’ efforts. Cool. Something tells me Miyares may have ambitions beyond the AG’s office, and if that’s the case - he’s doing things right.
Who’s Spending Where
From January 12-18, the top Republican spender on Facebook ads was PragerU, with $66,285. Prager was followed by The Daily Wire+ ($45,974), Judicial Watch ($42,875), Our America ($35,000), The Daily Wire/Ben Shapiro ($32,000), and Newsmax ($30,000).
Our America is a new one for me. Their spend this week was pretty significant. So who are they? It’s hard to tell just based on the website, but according to their About page, their goal is to unite communities “around a sense of pride in America and what makes America flourish.” According to a Washington Free Beacon story from last August, the group was formed by two ex-Antifa, Democrat activists. Most of their ads either drive traffic to their website or are optimized for Facebook page likes. Its social media posts are heavily geared toward the feel-good, positive media stories we all think Americans like to read. Will definitely be keeping an eye on these guys.
On Google from January 12-18, the top Republican spenders were Kelly Craft for Governor and LeAnna Gutierrez Cumber, who’s running for Mayor of Jacksonville, FL. Rounding out the top five were Friends of Ron DeSantis, Judicial Watch, and Stand for America PAC. The Nikki Haley group is running search ads to their Winred page.
P2P
Most of my p2p texts this week came from Donald Trump and Kevin McCarthy. I will say though, it’s not always easy to tell who’s doing the sending just by looking at the message, and I think that’s a problem. It shouldn’t take clicking a link and reading the page disclaimer to know who’s hitting me up for money. Just my two cents.
Industry Watch
Wall Street Journal: Google Didn’t Show Bias in Filtering Campaign-Ad Pitches, FEC Says
The Federal Election Commission has dismissed a complaint from Republicans that Google’s Gmail app aided Democratic candidates by sending GOP fundraising emails to spam at a far higher rate than Democratic solicitations.
Context + Takeaways
As everyone reading this probably knows, the lawsuit came after a study from NC State last year claimed to show that email spam filters targeted GOP emails more frequently. The RNC argued this amounted to illegal campaign contributions toward Democrats. Look, on the whole, I don’t think Republican emails are more spammy or gimmicky than Democrat ones. IF I thought that were the case, I’d say so. But if it’s not Google’s filters, are there any other theories as to why we seem to have such a hard time landing in inboxes? I’m all ears, but also we can’t just rely on attacking Big Tech as a way to solve our problems.
Politico: Billions at Stake as Online Fundraising Practices Turn Off Voters
The rate of return on individual appeals is falling compared to a few years ago, as candidates and outside groups find themselves targeting the same pool of donors. And congressional campaigns spent more on fundraising as a share of their total spending in 2022 than in the previous election cycle, according to a POLITICO analysis of FEC records.
Context + Takeaways
Speaking of problems… I know there are some very smart people in our industry who are trying to tackle the right’s issues with online fundraising. I wish them godspeed.
The Grapevine
As mentioned in Playbook this week, former RNC staffer Ken Mika has opened his own online fundraising shop, Politicoin. Here are more details straight from Mika:
We will soon be a national leader in digital fundraising and all-inclusive financial consulting. Using a comprehensive, data-driven strategy, we will develop, market and spread a winning fundraising message for political campaigns across the country. Politicoin is a company that will adapt and evolve with the times and provide our clients with the most innovative digital fundraising consulting in the country.
And yes, Mika says he is hiring. Reach out at info@politicoin.gop.
Last But Not Least
From the other side of the aisle:
Democrat Josh Stein is running for governor in North Carolina, and this week he used John Fetterman’s email list to talk about his campaign and ask for money.
From the other side of the tracks:
It’s an art…and a science! There are some things that all viral videos have in common. $100 to whoever gets a candidate to spoof the Old Spice commercial.
That’s all for this week. Did you enjoy the Doomscroll experience? Then please forward this to a friend and tell them to subscribe.
Got a tip you’d like to share for The Grapevine? Send it to me at itsthedoomscroll@gmail.com. Feel free to send other thoughts as well.