The Case of the Mysterious Body Snatcher...
Doomscroll 1.28.2024
Happy Sunday and welcome to another edition of Doomscroll! If you’re reading this because someone forwarded it to you and you haven’t yet subscribed, now is the time to embrace your inner benevolent spirit. Smash that subscribe button or go pound sand. Kidding! (or am I??)
One Question
THANK YOU to everyone who answered last week’s One Question about any takeaways you have from the GOP presidential campaigns’ digital operations. And boy do you ever. First off, 60% of you said you have been impressed with the 2024 digital strategies. Solid. I’m putting some of your other responses below, including a self-described “vendor rant”. I almost didn’t include it because I don’t usually like calling people - or teams - out, BUT in this case I think it’s helpful and informative and honestly, vendors take a lot of shit all day long. Sometimes it’s warranted, and sometimes it’s not, but at the end of the day count me in for kindness!
Content has been crummy, but ads across the board have been nice and less scammy than what we typically see.
Trump’s fundraising copy the last 2 weeks or so is absolutely nuts (in a good way - maybe a bad way depending on how you look at it). They’ve taken a hard turn away from the 10-sized font political novels pasted on a WinRed page, and it’s honestly the most punchy copy out there. Very good usage of all caps for emphasis. A lot of writers don’t know which words to all-caps, but the Trump team seems to choose the right word every single time. I’m not a big Trump girl. Like not a fan at all, but his copy of late definitely spikes my heart rate.
Fundraising pop-ups on websites! Biden & Trump have one, Nikki doesn't. I've done high profile races where those things have really added up. If you're doing a nationalized race, get a pop-up on the website!
A.) My "no" is more of a "thumbs in the middle." B.) Pence's retro logo was great. C.) Nikki's program gets a lot of praise, and deservedly so. But the reasons it's so well-regarded are an indictment of our industry. Telling donors how you'll use their donations to earn votes — as opposed to "ending this campaign if you don't pony up right now, f*cker! — isn't rocket science; it's what every program should be doing! D.) Despite the constant *1,500% match* gimmicks (which they haven't been doing lately, I don't think), Team Trump's emails are good. They sound like him and convey that the reader is part of a movement bigger than themselves. Yes, he's Trump, his voice is one of a kind, and he's got a buy-in on the latter point that others don't. But it still deserves praise. E.) One thing I'm going to try: Multiple pieces of footer content (sign up to volunteer, shop, bio + donate CTA, etc) as opposed to just a bio or quick note asking for donations.
Doug Burgum’s email fundraising operation was well organized and well executed. No chance he was getting onstage (and the consequential name recognition) without it. And no I didn’t get the gift card.
Nikki Haley has done a tremendous job in making a personal connection with the reader. Her copy doesn't read like a fundraising piece, but as a well thought argument on why she should be our next President.
Trump had his website redirect to this WinRed page after New Hampshire. This might be the best WinRed page I’ve ever seen. https://secure.winred.com/save-america-joint-fundraising-committee/lp-just-won-nh-website
List vendor here, forgive me if this is a rant. One thing a lot people don't see is the back and forth between list vendors and clients. A lot of Presidential campaigns have wasted a ton of time in their processes in getting vendors content, put weird stipulations on sending the content, or were outright rude if the content didn't perform. Every communication with the DeSantis team was a mile long email thread and usually included a follow up zoom call. It was exhausting. They would also put wild stipulations on sending evergreen content (like, you can only send this from 5-6pm on Tuesdays - for real) and hence, it never performed. They were always very nice about everything, but made us jump through a ton of unnecessary hoops. The Nikki team is rude. Like really rude. If something doesn't raise, the partners at the company are getting a phone call & a mean email. I honestly get anxiety sending out Nikki content because I know there's a good chance I'm going to see a mean message from their team. Ever since the Trump team switched vendors, they've been the gold standard. Very efficient with their comms, very polite (and funny!), and they're always asking us ways they can help us raise money. The moral of the story is BE NICE to your list vendors and don't waste their time.
In terms of things that have horrified you, there were less responses (a good thing, I think!). But they are:
Nikki Haley pimping her kids out on texts.
DeSantis' copy read like it was written by chat gpt.
This. Oof. https://x.com/dougblandry/status/1749166493625995514?s=10&t=wJyhcJFwscMr5VeeGOeepg
Trump's fundraising emails and texts lately have horrified me. I don't know how anyone can sit there and be screamed at with all caps text and be compelled to donate, let alone support the man. If this is his vision for America, it is certainly a dark one.
FWIW, I think Nikki’s kids are grown-ass adults and letting them sign fundraising copy is A-Ok in my book. But I like having the discussion!
Alright ya’ll. WE’RE NOT FINISHED YET. Remember when I snuck in that bonus poll after DeSantis dropped out?
So 60% of you said you were surprised that he suspended his campaign when he did. Aside from that, you all had a ton of opinions. And to any DeSantis friends reading this: Know we’re not picking on you! Doomscroll is, if nothing else, a place for us digital peeps to learn and commiserate together. If we’re not doing that, what’s the point? So here are SOME of your thoughts on the DeSantis campaign:
IEs should compliment campaigns NOT replace campaigns.
People always prefer the original.
In hindsight, a lot of people (myself included) bought into the hype that RDS was the guy who could easily sweep in and win big. A few thoughts: - there were clearly things outside his control (the indictments, a well-run Trump campaign) that caused him to really lose critical ground - But he still made a lot of unforced errors: - I think he waited too long to actually declare. By the time he announced, Trump’s position had improved significantly, and his had declined. His window was closed around, and the campaign didn’t get going until after that. - Staffing problems. Love them or hate them, it’s clear that multiple narratives were able to develop about problems with his staff, which made an otherwise professional operation look amateur. - Plenty of ink has been spilled on how “online” his campaign was, and I largely agree. Twitter is once again, not real life.
Good digital fundraising operation, great ads, great emailing. Looking forward to seeing them help the party win in 2024.
with all the illegal coordination between the campaign and the super pac, you think someone somewhere would have had a clue
Mini Trump - similarly egotistical, similarly conservative - non needed with Trump in the race.
It started out as a dumpster fire and ended the same.
To say nothing of running against Trump — running for president is a different beast than running for any statewide office, and I don't care how big the state is. This dumpster fire is a monument to that, but consultants, pundits, and (especially) would-be candidates should've figured it out years ago.
Awful, listless campaign. No core message. Too much complaining about Trump. Was supposed to be Trump but better, instead ran as a socially conservative Trump
His digital game was pretty good, can’t say much for the rest of the campaign…
Best candidate in my lifetime. Scared of the future. It should have been DeSantis.
He was up against a once in a lifetime force of nature in Donald Trump. Didn't have a chance because of the blind support Trump's sycophants, um, excuse me, followers have for Trump. DeSantis's campaign had issues (who doesn't) but it wasn't horrible. Timing is everything.
There you have it. This week’s One Question is about social media following. Candidates are announcing. Campaigns are launching. Operations are getting off the ground. The ramp-ups have begun, but the clock is ticking. For candidates who don’t yet have social media followings at go-time, what are the BEST ways to gain followers as quickly as possible? Organically and/or paid? I think most - if not all - campaigns have this problem, and we’ve probably all been there. So if you think you have a proven growth hack, please share it with the class!
Who’s Doing What
—Ron DeContent
An interesting thing happened this week. Ron DeSantis got all human on us and posted some videos on social that were…dare I say…authentic (Sorry for using a crappy buzz word, but I got nothing else!). You probably saw them. In one, he’s with his son Mason talking about the NFL playoffs. In two others, he’s speaking directly into the camera about the border crisis. We’re all thinking it, so I’m just going to ask straight up: Was Ron DeSantis body-snatched during the Twitter Spaces launch and replaced with an alien-controlled robot Ron DeSantis? And now that the campaign is over, are we now seeing that the real Ronny D has been returned to us? Like I said: just here, asking questions.
But all this brings me to something we should talk about a lot more, especially as 2024 ramps up: campaign content. Graphics are on their way out (mostly). Video is still king. The less produced, the better. We don’t have to spend a ton of money or resources creating good content, we just have to be consistent and have institutional buy-in. Unfortunately, I have found as a general rule these days that candidates are still (mostly) too spooked to do much in the way of authentic (sorry!) video content. I get it…candidates are busy, important people. They’ve got things to do, people to see and places to be. It’s not EASY, as a digital staffer, to approach someone running for office and ask them to ::cough cough:: film a little video on your iPhone. I get it.
But you know who does this really well? Vivek. Yeah, I said what I said. I’m going to freaking put Vivek Ramaswamy on a gold pedestal when it comes to social media content. The man was a machine when it came to posting content and like it or not, it framed the way he was covered. It framed the narrative surrounding his whole campaign.
I’m not saying that more Ron/Mason videos would have saved the DeSantis 2024 presidential campaign, but judging by the reactions I saw in the conservative Twittersphere this week, they would have gone a LONG way toward chipping away at that “DeSantis doesn’tconnect with voters” plot line we kept getting served. Just sayin’.
So: Keep it up, gov. And for those of you on campaign digital teams charged with producing and posting social media content: Good luck to you. And if you’ve figured out how to win over a candidate when it comes to filming stuff on their iPhones, HMU! I love hearing success stories.
—Email Land
A couple emails caught my eye this week. First, I have to admit, I chuckled at an email Alex Mooney’s Senate campaign sent on Tuesday. Subject line: “President Trump Statement on Independents in Primary.” Hhhmm…ok… The whole email was just a screenshot of a Trump post on Truth Social:
I mean, You and I probably both know what he’s trying to get at there. For those of us who understand the nuances of a dog-eat-dog, who-can-out-conservative-who Republican primaries, the inferences aren’t hard to draw. But for the average voter? Eh. I’m guessing this email resulted in more head-scratches than vote commitments. But that’s just me!
Email #2 was an email I got from Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares on Friday afternoon, attacking current Rep. and 2025 Democrat gubernatorial candidate Abigail Spanberger for “turning a blind eye” to crime. If that doesn’t scream “I’M RUNNING FOR GOVERNOR IN 2025,” I don't know what does. Get it, Jason. (Speaking of dog-eat-dog primaries, this one’ll be a doozy for sure).
Merch Shout-Out
Today I’m giving a much-deserved shoutout to Team Nikki Haley. It’s been a long-time coming, to be quite honest. But this week seems like the perfect time to give the Haley campaign a nice, firm handshake for their campaign merch. Yes, I’m talking about the “Barred Permanently’ t-shirt and the “Make America Sane Again” t-shirt. Perfectly on-brand. Extremely newsworthy. Kudos. Get yours here and here.
2024 Roundup
This is where I make note of a few other things that caught my eye this week. And this week, I’ll begin including things beyond the presidential campaigns. Woo!
In North Carolina, GOP gubernatorial candidate Dale Folwell has a new ad out, making his pitch to voters. Watch it here.
GOP Rep. Kelly Armstrong announced his bid for governor of North Dakota. See his announcement video here.
Ohio Senate candidate Frank LaRose has a new ad out establishing his conservative credentials. Watch it here.
Nikki Haley released a new ad highlighting how she got her start in South Carolina. Watch it here.
Donald Trump has a new ad on Facebook (new to me, at least) that is quite stunning. It just shows him, in black and white, walking toward the camera and features an audio overlay of him talking about this election being the “final battle.” Watch it here.
Who’s Spending Where
From January 18 - 24, AFP Action was, once again, the top conservative spender on Facebook ads, shelling out $385,000 - mostly on ads promoting Nikki Haley and attacking Donald Trump. AIPAC came in second with $130,000 in ad spend, while Liberty Defender Group spent $112,000 on ads featuring Tucker Carlson and asking users to take a quick poll to qualify for a “FREE limited edition gift.” Mmmk. AFP spent about $95,000 on a bunch of lead-gen ads, and Proud Patriots rounds out the top five with about $88,000 in spend hawking Trump merchandise.
AFP Action was also the top conservative spender on Google during that same time period, with about $531,000 in ad spend. Second place goes to SFA Inc. with about $167,000, while third place goes to Nikki Haley for President at $54,000. Trump Save America Joint Fundraising Committee spend $52,000 on fundraising ads, while Make America Great Again spent $44,000 going after Nikki Haley.
P2P
Industry Watch
Lots of hand-wringing about AI! Per NBC News:
State bills attempting to tackle the issue tend to fall into two categories: disclosure requirements and bans.
Disclosure requirements typically require a disclaimer to be placed on any media created with the use of AI that is being issued to influence an election within a certain time frame.
Bans often have nuanced exceptions. For example, a Michigan law enacted last year doesn’t enforce a ban if a disclosure has been shared and if the person responsible for the media doesn’t know that it “falsely represents” the people it depicts.
Since the beginning of the year, disclosure requirement bills have been introduced by Republican lawmakers in Alaska and Florida and by Democrats in Colorado.
Meanwhile, Democrats in Hawaii, South Dakota, Massachusetts, Oklahoma and Nebraska, as well as Republicans in Indiana and Wyoming, have introduced legislation that would ban media created with help of AI within specific time frames before elections if the media doesn’t feature a disclosure.
The Grapevine
Apparently Axiom’s Jeff Roe almost worked for Kanye West???
Got a tip for The Grapevine? Job announcement? Job opening? Fav rainy day activity? Email ‘em to me at itsthedoomscroll@gmail.com
Last But Not Least
From the other side of the aisle:
Two things caught my attention this week. First off, is this glorious video from Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. I honestly cant decide if I love it or hate it. But here’s what I will say: For someone who just ranted about politicians being willing to film and post creative content (see above), who am I to judge a talking potato????
Second, is this piece from Politico about Dems investing heavily into influencer marketing this year. Here’s a key nugget:
The investment highlights just how much social media has changed from previous campaign cycles when the platforms were newer and candidates like Barack Obama and Bernie Sanders could enjoy free support from young voters. Democratic PACs’ move to pay directly for backing also underscores just how much Biden is struggling to go viral with the young voters and influencers whose support is crucial to the party in 2024.
Priorities plans to transition all its spending to digital communications in 2024, and sees the influencer campaign as key to reaching people who don’t see typical campaign ads on TV. As it does, however, it is running into platforms’ at-times confusing guidelines on political ads — and appears to have violated some policies banning paid political content on TikTok.
Also: When reached for comment, the RNC has not yet paid influencers this cycle. 🙃🙃🙃
From the other side of the tracks:
I use this portion of Doomscroll mainly to point out what us political peeps can learn from our friends in the corporate world. This week, however, I’m doing a little bit of a switcharoo. Sort of. I found this piece in WSJ to be really interesting. In politics, negative attack ads work great, most of the time. In the corporate world? Not so much!
Plenty of research shows that negative advertising pays off in politics, partly because it helps voters recognize weaknesses in an opposing candidate that otherwise might remain hidden.
For consumer brands, however, we found a different story.
Since less is known about negative advertising of consumer products, we conducted a study to explore what happens when regulators allow companies to run ads highlighting a competitor’s weaknesses. Our results suggest that while negative advertising can benefit the attacking firm at times, it tends to do more harm than good overall, not only for all of the companies involved but sometimes for the people buying the products, too.
That’s all for this week. Thanks for reading! Did you like it? Consider forwarding to your friends!