The Golden Goose
Doomscroll 5.12.2024
Helloooooo and welcome back to another edition of Doomscroll! If anything seems off about today’s newsletter, blame the brain worm. Oh, and Happy Mother’s Day!
One Question
Thanks to everyone who answered last week’s One Question about where you’re finding new leads! Half of you said Search ads and half of you said Facebook. Fair enough, and not all that surprising. Someone left this comment about their Search ads:
Search has been the best for us and we've been using it like P2P & email subject lines. Our search has been based on "very random" keywords.
Cool. Another person left this comment about Facebook, and yes I’m redacting the name of the vendor at the end (I’ll let you all just guess):
I selected Facebook. They have the richest data on users, are one of the most widely-adopted platforms out there, and has the most sophisticated targeting capabilities (even though they've nerf'd their political targeting a bit). I think a strong 2nd place runner up, however, would go to Google Display Ads and YouTube for Action. They have tremendous reach, but Google's customer support on political is shit. Anyone that selected "programmatic" is drinking the Koolaid from their greedy [insert vendor name here].
This weeks’ One Question is, yet again, about TikTok. Every once in awhile I like to take the temperature of the room. Has MAGA Inc’s decision (read below) to get on the app swayed anyone? Have our feelings evolved since I last asked about this? Inquiring minds want to know.
Who’s Doing What
—GROAN
MAGA Inc is on TikTok. Go on…ask me how I feel about TikTok…
Kidding! Anyone who’s read Doomscroll for five seconds knows how I feel about Republicans being on the platform. The fact that Trump’s Super PAC is now posting for the youths on this CCP-controlled social media platform means more and more GOP campaigns are going to be tempted to do the same. RESIST, I SAY. Anyway, I guess it makes sense now that Trump is a little squishy on a TikTok ban, but le sigh. MAGA Inc. CEO Taylor Budowich defended the decision to Fox News by saying “We aren’t trying to set policy, we are trying to win an election.” A) I respect the commitment to winning. B) I accept the explanation only because it’s a Super PAC and not the candidate himself. Until China gets its claws out of our nation’s youth, I’m still anti-GOP candidates getting on TikTok.
—Marty, Marty, Marty
Earlier this week, Eric Wilson highlighted this campaign website as one of the best of the cycle, and then a couple of you also flagged it for me as well. I agree: martyforcongress.vote is LEGIT. For those who don’t know, Marty O’Donnell is a composer who wrote jingles for The Flintstones, Mr. Clean, and video games like Halo. His entire website embraces this background from start to finish. In fact, it’s entirely built around O’Donnell’s work as a composer, starting with the audio file on the homepage to the art work and the space theme - which I’m guessing is a reference to the video games he’s composed for (major assumption on my part because ::shocker:: I’m not a gamer!). Anyway, the attention to detail here is stunning, and I want to give major props to Push Digital because I’m 99% sure they’re behind all of this (feel free to correct me if I’m wrong). A couple other things I’ll call out: I like the simplicity of the homepage and I think it’s interesting that the sign-up form doesn’t beat around the bush with its “Start Donating” CTA. And then there’s the golden goose. Where does it fit into the space theme? I have no effing idea. Is there a goose in Halo? Again, heck if I know. Or is it just something Marty likes to say?
The first time I noticed it was on his issues page when he says “the goose that lays the golden eggs for our country has been kicked around and squeezed to the point where laying more golden eggs is almost impossible.” LMAO I like it…But then…and this is where it gets really good…THERE’S MERCH. Feast your eyes, my friends. I can’t tell you how much I love his “be nice to the golden goose merch. All I can say is: Thank you, Marty. Thank you. Now go be nice to the golden geese out there (our online donors!) ;)
—King of Content Strikes Again
Eric Hovde is back with the quality content. This time, it’s a 4ish-minute long video of him reacting to a clipof Biden’s economic advisor talking absolute nonsense. It’s awesome. I love this. It shows his personality, it communicates his economic policies, it capitalizes on a video that was making the rounds on social this week, and it’s entertaining. Nicely done.
—Not your average Joe?
This is coming straight out of my “really random file,” but has anyone else been bombarded lately with ads from someone/something called “Joe from Texas”? I’ve been getting them everywhere, and I’m not sure if that says more about me or more about Joe. But regardless, I finally caved and investigated and folks: I still don’t know what this dude is really up to. He’s not running for any political office, but he’s heading up a grassroots organization working on a Contract from the American People (which is still a work in progress). I think the plan is to get regular folks to sign it, and then ask that they only support candidates who are willing to support it. I think? Either way, dude’s clearly got an advertising budget.
2024 Roundup
This is where I make note of a few other things that caught my eye this week.
The South Carolina 4th Congressional GOP primary race is getting a l-i-t-t-l-e ugly. Challenger (and chair of the Freedom Caucus in the state legislature) Adam Morgan released an ad calling Rep. William Timmons a “sellout Republican”. Watch it here. Meanwhile, Timmons is hitting Morgan for missing lots and lots of votes. See it here. And this doesn’t even count all the twitter sniping. For a little context: The Freedom Caucus members in South Carolina hate any Republican who’s not in the Freedom Caucus. And the feeling is mutual.
In other South Carolina news, Nikki Haley is reportedly meeting with donors in Charleston next week to thank them for supporting her presidential bid. Read about it here.
In MORE South Carolina news, Rep. Nancy Mace did, what I consider to be, a bizarre interview with The Daily Mail in which she basically called her former staff a bunch of worthless hooligans. Primary challenger Catherine Templeton seized the moment in a long Twitter thread. See it here.
Mike Braun won the GOP gubernatorial primary in Indiana this week. See his message here. And Jim Banks won the Senate primary. Read about it here.
The California GOP is hawking Gov. Kristi Noem’s book, which is just funny. Go get ‘em! Read about it here.
Keystone Renewal PAC has dropped big bucks on a new pro-Dave McCormick ad. Watch it here.
Who’s Spending Where
From May 1-7, the top conservative spender on Facebook was Americans for Prosperity at about $223,000. PragerU bumped up to number two this week with $204,000, while AFP Action spent (only) $90,000. The Foundation to Combat Anti-Semitism spent around $70,000 on ads, and “I love my Freedom” rounded out the top five with $66,000 in spend.
The top spender on Google during that same week was Trump National Committee JFC at $240,000, followed by Make America Great Again Inc at $128,000. American for Prosperity plopped down $88,000 on Google ads, while AFP Action spent $71,000. Rounding out the top five was Chamber for Indiana at $63,000. (Chambers received about 17% of the vote on Primary Day).
P2P
Industry Watch
CNN has a nice write-up about TikTok’s lawsuit against the United States’ gubmint’. See here:
TikTok sued Tuesday to block a US law that could force a nationwide ban of the popular app, following through on legal threats the company issued after President Joe Biden signed the legislation last month.
The court challenge sets up a historic legal battle, one that will determine whether US security concerns about TikTok’s links to China can trump the First Amendment rights of TikTok’s 170 million US users.
The stakes of the case are existential for TikTok. If it loses, TikTok could be banned from US app stores unless its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, sells the app to a non-Chinese entity by mid-January 2025.
Seems like the whole things comes down to this: What’s more important - national security? Or the First Amendment?
The Grapevine
John Hall released the results of a survey he sent to 50,000 people who have donated online in the last 90 days. I found the responses to be quite illuminating, and I really do want to thank John for not only conducting the survey, but also for not hoarding the learnings. I think there’s a lot to learn here, mainly that donors are smarter than we give them credit for and also that they’re pissed off. Pissed that their information gets swapped around like a cold at a daycare (sorry, mom brain). Pissed that they’re constantly hit up for $5 and never get so much as a thank you. Pissed that they can’t participate in taking action without being forced to donate. How did we get here? I’ll give you a clue and it starts like this: “Mirror, mirror on the wall, who’s the shittiest one of all?”
Answer: All of us! Too harsh? Maybe. Do the Dems have this problem? I’m sure they do. But ya’ll, let’s get real. Our literal jobs are on the line here. If the online fundraising machine breaks, then we can kiss our seats at the adult table goodbye. And how long did it take us to get there? A good, long while, so I don’t want to see us back on our deserted islands again anytime soon. IYKYK. Let’s be nice. And next time you sit down to write that fundraising email or text, remember your grandma is probably going to read it.
The Center for Campaign Innovation released an interesting study about campaign logos and their impact on voters’s opinions of the candidate. Good stuff. Read it here. Reminder: When Doomscroll polled everyone several months ago about the best presidential campaign logo, Doug Burgum won and it wasn’t even close.
Last but not least, sure would be cool for Doomscroll readers to RSVP to this event, hosted by Powers Interactive: How SPO Mitigates the Tech Tax.
Frontline Strategies is hiring a Digital Account Manager. See the posting here.
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:
The “beaded bracelets” part of this headline caught my eye this week (because, duh). So that’s what sucked me in, but what REALLY got my attention was this snippet:
Organizers for President Biden’s campaign in this swingiest of swing states deploy similar scripts at each event: Take out your phone, download an app called Reach and use it to message friends and family — marking their responses in voter records as you go. There is a library of pro-Biden graphics, memes and videos, created by the campaign, which they can share to their own social media feeds or text chains.
Ugh. When. Are. Republicans. Going. To Take. Relational. Organizing. Seriously. What app, pray tell, are WE telling volunteers to download to gather data and information about everyone in their contact list? As far as I can tell, Republican operatives just don’t care about this, and it confuses the heck out of me. If I’m wrong, PLEASE hit me up and let me know. I would love to be wrong.
Anyway, I wanted to know what this Reach app was all about so I did what any newsletter writer would do and downloaded the thing onto my phone. After spending 3 seconds creating an account (it was stupid easy), I was able to browse campaigns that are on the app. I couldn’t join any without a code, which of course I DIDN’T HAVE. But lucky for me, when it comes to The Democrats’ campaign, the app allows you to autogenerate an email to the DNC requesting an invitation to join. So that’s what I did! A few hours later, I got a response from “Cheryl” with my invite and code. Thank you, Cheryl!
After that, I was in. I felt like a spy. Ok I’m being dramatic, but still. It’s a nice app. It’s user-friendly, simple, and easy to navigate. There’s an action feed, chat feed, content galleries that allow you to share pro-Dem posts and videos, an events feed that allows you to sign up for zoom calls and trainings…and a function that lets you import your contacts and create a “network” to evangelize to. Not only that, but when you add a contact you tag them on their Biden support, overall Democratic Party support, and whether they’re willing to volunteer. And allllllll that information gets sent straight to the DNC. Oh, and there’s even the ability to help REGISTER YOUR CONTACTS TO VOTE THROUGH THE APP.
People: Can we get on this train please or am I being insane here.
From the other side of the tracks:
I don’t know how I missed this last month, but Marketing Brew did a quick write-up about how Targeted Victory, because of it’s relationship with Stagwell, is working with lefty shops like SKDK to advise companies on how to navigate hot-button issues that may come up during the election cycle.
Just find it interesting. Read it here if you do too!
That’s all for this week. Thanks for reading! Did you like it? Consider forwarding to your friends!