There were winners, and there were losers
Doomscroll 12.15.2024
Happy Sunday, and welcome to another edition of Doomscroll - your favorite newsletter covering all things digital on the right. Raise your hand if your outdoor Christmas lights are still unwrapped and unstrung. Just me? Cool. My light display will be seen about as many times as Matt Gaetz’s OAN show.
One Question
Thanks to everyone who answered last week’s One Question about whether campaigns should use internal digital teams or outside agencies. Guess what? 100% of respondents said combo of both. Aside from that, you mostly kept your thoughts to yourself (boo). But here’s one interesting comment I got:
There should be a collaboration of both. As someone that has worked on both sides, agencies keep their money regardless of outcome, but also, can be let go after a campaign, and they don't charge enough to deal with the day to day picture uploads and on the ground posts. On the flipside, internal digital teams can be extremely effective if they have one good person that's a jack of all trades, and they can fulfill a bunch of different roles most likely more efficiently than someone at an agency that has multiple clients.
Excellent points!
Let’s have some fun with this week’s One Question, shall we? It’s Christmas, after all, and none of us wants to be thinking about fundraising or ads, right? Heh. Never mind, I know we’re all digital junkies. Nonetheless…
It’s bonus time. That’s right. I want to ask about YEAR-END BONUSES. The third rail. What’d you guys get? And for the millionth time all your answers are 100% totally freaking anonymous. So don’t be afraid to cough up your number. No one will ever know you shared. For real though, aren’t you all curious what passes for a bonus in this industry of ours in the year 2024? 😀
🏆🏆 2024 Doomscroll Winners and Losers 🏆🏆
Ok, everyone. Who’s ready for the first annual Doomscroll Winners and Losers? Let’s have some fun, shall we? And yes, it’s exactly what it sounds like. I’ve put together some broad categories, and starting tonight, I’m taking submissions for who and what you all think were the winners and losers for digital in 2024!
Here are the categories:
Ad buying (social, programmatic, etc)
Fundraising (self explanatory)
Tech stack / vendors
Digital agency
Within those categories you can go wherever you want, for the most part. I’d rather you think tactically as opposed to submitting a specific ad, text message, etc. So, for example, under the ad buying category you could submit something like “doing lead generation on X” or “buying CTV inventory.” You get the idea. Tech stack can be anything from a great ESP or DSP, to an app, to a P2P vendor. For fundraising, again, think tactically. Don’t submit a fundraising email you wrote last March unless it’s just illustrating a tactic like “emails with gifs embedded were winners for us this year”.
Digital agency. This is the only time I’ll print names and let you call out the competition! But don’t be too hard on each other; we’re all on the same team! 😬😬
One last thing: Anyone can submit. Only paid subscribers will see the results. ::GASP:: For a mere $7, you can have access to the exclusive Doomscroll 2024 Winners and Losers edition that will hit inboxes next Sunday, December 22. Seven. Dollars. I’m pretty sure that’s less than what you spent at Compass Coffee yesterday.
Trust me, you want to become a paid subscriber. Not only will you get the Winners and Losers, but new things are coming in 2025 for Doomscroll and a lot more content will be behind a paywall! Just sayin’!
So click this button to make sure you have access to the Winners and Losers:
And click this one to submit your entries!
Now go forth and conquer! Good luck and Godspeed.
Who’s Doing What
—-Here we go again…
The New York Times is wringing its hands over Trump merch. This seems like some pretty insane faux outrage:
“We worry a lot about all the time he spends at Mar-a-Lago, around people trying to influence policy,” Mr. Libowitz said. “You show up and show him like, ‘Hey, I spent $100,000 on Trump watches.’ That’s going to get his attention.”
—Back to Basics
I know this isn’t necessarily a digital thing, but I do want to give Sen. Marsha Blackburn a shout-out for this:
Over the last two years, U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn worked to train up hundreds of aspiring conservative leaders through what she calls "campaign college."
Why it matters: Blackburn wants part of her legacy to be shepherding the next generation of activists and elected office seekers.
Zoom in: Beginning in early 2023, her campaign says, 703 volunteers attended the campaign colleges hosted at local schools and hotel conference centers all over the state.
As someone who’s become a little bit obsessed with relational organizing, this grabbed my attention right away.
Just reading between the lines here…I know what her team SAYS is the reasoning behind the sessions (training the youths!), but what a way to build a base of support during an off year if you’re thinking about/eyeing something else in the not-too-distant future…These trainees are going to fall in love with Marsha, tell their friends about her and their friends will tell their friends, and then…pretty soon we’re all screaming “MARSHA, MARSHA, MARSHA!” Are there lessons here for us digital folk? Um, yeah.
Don’t take your base for granted, even if you won big in your last election.
Don’t take your foot off the gas.
Give something of value to people and they will give something back to you.
Generate ways to get people talking.
Being a national political figure is fine, but don’t forget to focus on your people back home.
The end.
—Back to Basics
I agree, Sen. Scott. The true meaning of Christmas is making sure everyone buys your t-shirt. 😄😄😄
Sorry, couldn’t help myself. I’m not necessarily knocking this email, but I genuinely thought when I saw that SL that I was going to get a nice inspirational message about the birth of baby Jesus or something. It’s Pastor Tim, after all!
Who’s Spending Where
P2P
Ok we’re killing two birds with one stone today (merch shout-out + P2P text). This is a solid holiday merch text. Doesn’t beat you over the head, although I’d like it better if there was a picture of the hat included - mainly because it’s so baller! Also: the WinRed page is pretty tame for a merch pitch, which I TOTALLY appreciate right now during the height of holiday shopping season.
Anyway, I actually really like this hat. I’d wear it.
Industry Watch
📺 Viewers of sports content on streaming platforms are struggling with receptive ads. Someone needs to solve the ad-capping problem. From Tubefilter:
The sports fans tortured by the LiMu Emu (and Doug) are victims of misaligned frequency caps, which have become an all-too-common issue on streaming platforms that include ads. As more live sports begin broadcasting on streaming hubs, high frequency caps are threatening to frustrate viewers while also limiting value for advertisers.
🤳 Meta has introduced trial reels. Read more:
Today, we’re introducing trial reels, a new way to try out content and see what performs best by sharing reels with people who don’t follow you.
If you’ve ever wanted to experiment with new ideas without worrying about how your followers might react, trial reels are the tool you’ve been looking for. Trial reels help take the guesswork out of how your content will perform.
2025-2026 Watch
Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo has a challenger in Democrat Attorney General Aaron Ford. Read about it here. Nice reminder: Lombardo flipped the gov mansion in Nevada in 2022, so he’s a baller.
Omg, Royce White. Take a break, will ya?
The Grapevine
A little bird flagged something interesting for me this week. Anyone know why Chris Wilson is no longer on WPA Intelligence’s website? Just wondering.
Why does it feel like there’s a nice little cat fight brewing between George Santos and Nancy Mace? This is why!
If you missed it, Wes Donehue made the case on X about why we can’t let our 2024 wins “mask the fundamental flaws in our campaign strategies.” Preach!
Shot and chaser? I know all the committees are in flux (with a capital F) right now, but if anyone has good intel HMU and I’ll pay you a dollar.
Last but now least, check out Eric Wilson’s 10 takeaways from 2024! Definitely worth a read.
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:
I’m sorry…which party has been sounding the mother-f***ing alarms about foreign interference in our elections for years now??? This definitely doesn’t look good.
From the other side of the tracks:
I know this is a couple weeks old, but I found this piece about brands and their Black Friday SMS marketing strategies to be really interesting. There’s a lot of parallels in here with the political world. For starters, it’s not really just Black Friday anymore - it’s Black November. With early voting, it’s no longer really just Election Day…it’s Election Month. And this, from a CEO of an SMS marketing company was compelling:
“The merchants that are going full out in December…up until the last shipping date, those are the merchants that are actually capturing the most value over time,” he said, adding that “whatever cadence you’re doing in November, do it in December as well, and don’t take your foot off the gas.”
That’s all for this week. Thanks for reading! Did you like it? Consider forwarding to your friends!