In one month alone, Donald Trump earned $400 million worth of free media, which is about the same amount John McCain spent on his entire 2008 presidential campaign.
However you may feel about Mr. Trump, it is clear he is fundamentally changing the way Presidential campaigns are run.
At Edelman, we’ll refrain from picking sides in this race, but we will dive deep into how an election season so divisive has also been so successful in capturing our attention.
What’s New(s)?
The 2008 election was the first Presidential cycle where candidates had to face a fundamental shift in the way people find, consume and share information. A lot has changed – and is continuing to change – since then.
We’re witnessing major disruptions to the media ecosystem, from mobile personalization to media fragmentation to the continued decline of advertising. Over 60 percent of all U.S. time spent with digital media is now via mobile devices, dominated by Facebook and Google. As a result, our news gathering becomes highly filtered through the lens of our friends (who often share our political point of view). Today content is infinite, attention is mostly finite, and our intake is largely in sound bites. At the same time, advertisers are facing major challenges from ad blocking technologies, which impacts how news content is monetized.
Combine these, and enter the rise of “infotainment.”
Three Lessons
There are at least three critical media lessons every communicator can learn from this year’s campaign trail:
- You have to earn it: This election has proven that the traditional model of relying heavily on advertising no longer works. Smart candidates have bypassed huge ad spends in favor of earned and social campaigns aimed at building emotional connections directly with voters much more effectively and cheaply. Consider the $130 million that Jeb Bush spent on advertising – which did little to move the needle – compared to Trump’s $2 billion worth of media coverage, earned with little more than tweets, phone interviews, and an attention-grabbing narrative.
- It’s not just about talking points: Candidates are communicating their messages with clever creative work, including memes, videos and visualizations to bring their political agendas to life. For example, Hillary Clinton’s campaign flipped a campaign trail criticism on its head by creating an actual "woman card" for donors and an organic social media moment was born. This is something every organization with a story to tell can learn from: harness the power of creative to break through today’s saturated media landscape.
- Don’t broadcast, narrowcast: Campaigns are using data analytics, micro-targeting, and behavioral targeting to inform campaign decisions, from defining audiences and shaping messages, to identifying the most effective content and channels, to measuring and optimizing campaign performance. The convergence of data, media and technology allows us to create and disseminate many versions of a single message that makes genuine 1:1 communication a reality.
With five more months until America goes to the polls, I have a feeling there’s going to be a lot more to try to make sense of, so keep your eyes on this space.
Caitlin Hayden is a senior vice president and the director of the Media Services and Strategies Group in Washington, D.C. She is also a former National Security Council Spokesperson in the Obama White House.