The race to the White House and programmatic politics

When it comes to speaking to voters, presidential politics has come a long way. The news cycle for this election has been dominated by Tweets, a sign that newer channels for speaking directly to voters now govern the content of older media.

In a recent AdExchanger article, Will Margiloff, CEO at IgnitionOne, discussed the different campaign strategies between Secretary Clinton and Mr Trump. He pointed out that Clinton’s campaign has relied heavily on big data and targeted campaigns, while Trump has relied on his media and social savvy. Both strategies have obviously contributed to their front-runner status going into the Republican and Democratic Conventions, but how will these strategies fare over the crucial months leading up to the November General Election? Both camps have begun expanding their digital strategies, something that will be important to watch as the race for the White House enters its final lap. Perhaps more interesting is to think about how these developments are pre-figuring the next phase of the digital democratic revolution.

From social to programmatic

Tools of communication have become tools of participation and community in the political realm. Thus, programmatic buying is to 2016 as big data was to 2012 and social media was to 2008.

Eight years ago, Barack Obama’s campaign received widespread recognition for its use of social media, and four years ago, with the use of big data and predictive analytics, the Obama campaign pioneered new ways to drive fundraising and turn out for the vote. This year, social media continues to play a pivotal role in organising and mobilising supporters, via services like Facebook, Twitter, Reddit and others . . . but social isn’t the final frontier.

This election cycle, a programmatic approach to political advertising has been taking centre stage and is another step forward in the evolution of how technology is used to reach constituents. It’s a signal that even politicians who take very different and, in some ways, unconventional approaches to earning media recognise that the move to a digital democracy forces a different way of engaging voters.

Social media is particularly good at mobilising already existing supporters as they follow a candidate’s Twitter feed, have friended the campaign on Facebook and are already highly motivated to stay up to date with a candidate’s activity. But that doesn’t necessarily mean they are ready to contribute to the campaign financially. For that, a candidate needs what every marketer needs – available attention and openness to being influenced. A candidate needs to reach a voter in the moment when those two qualities align in order to deliver on a political campaign’s objectives, including:

1. Getting out the vote
2. Raising critical funds
3. Encouraging supporters to become evangelists
4. Converting the undecided to supporters

Programmatic politics: reaching the undecided and unaffiliated

To date, Trump has struggled to convert undecided voters with his message, as evidenced by his percentage of unfavourables, which have been rising over the course of the campaign. Converting undecided voters is going to take more than social and earned media – it’s going to take a programmatic approach where earned and paid media becomes more about fundraising and eventual get out the vote mobilisation. This is, of course, the end game of every presidential election. Unaffiliated or undecided individuals exist and in each and every election, their votes matter to the outcome, especially in those swing states where the undecided play a pivotal role in deciding the next president.

It is with these smaller groups that programmatic buying will make the most impact. With the right creative, at the right moment, a candidate can break through the filter bubble, or garner attention from someone who might otherwise not think about the impact of the presidential election. The savvy digital candidate can reach beyond the partisan divide, beyond the camps that separate candidates and their campaigns, and directly engage those voters who might otherwise remain uninformed or uninterested until the election is almost upon us. Those voters can be understood and mobilised and can then be engaged in get out the vote campaigns. In addition, by more deeply understanding who these voters are and what they respond to in real time, candidates can hone their campaign marketing strategies quickly, which becomes even more important in the frenzy of the final months.

What excites me most about the rise of programmatic politics is that more of us can be reached, more of us can connect, and more of us can engage. My hope is that this new tech capability continues to promote a healthy, robust and civil discourse versus being used to target and communicate only with those who share similar opinions.