LTO Links #310

Email Politics

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Issue #310 |

Advertising

Record ad spend for 2022 midterms

"Nearly half (44%) of the nearly $700 million spent so far on digital political and issue ads in 2022 have been spent on connected TVs, according to AdImpact. That's a huge jump from 2020, when connected TV advertising barely made a dent in political ad spending."

An Ad Tech Tool for the Times

"L2, Xandr and Semcasting recently teamed up to provide campaigns and groups with access to what they’re calling “Daily Voter Segments,” which includes new registrants as well as those who have voted or requested an absentee ballot, up until Election Day."

Campaigns

To Cameo or not to Cameo? That’s the question for political campaigns

"While Cameo stresses in its terms of service that videos are not sold but merely licensed to customers — who may use them “solely for their own personal, non-commercial, and non-promotional purposes” — campaign finance rules are another story."

Email

Google’s Solution To Its Political Campaign Email Problem Is A Phony Fix

"Let me be clear: Google’s pilot program is the wrong approach. We should have the expectation that if a voter signs up for a Republican campaign’s email, they should receive those emails in their inbox."

GOP Consultants: Stop Blaming Others For the Problems You Created

"They all tell me the same thing — the problem is not Google or Apple, but the GOP consultant class.

"I think they are right. Concurrently, I would not be surprised if woke Google employees are trying to disrupt, but the consultants are giving them room to do so by poor email list management."

Fed Up With Democratic Emails? You’re Not the Only One.

"Inside Democratic fund-raising circles, this tactic is known as “churn and burn”: a way of squeezing money out of individual donors that reliably produces brief spikes in donations but over the course of an election cycle overwhelms their willingness to keep giving. Even worse, these apocalyptic messages fuel despair. If “democracy is in the balance” and then Democrats fail to pass restorative measures, voters inevitably must wonder, why keep trying?"

Fundraising

The GOP went to war against Google over spam — and may win

"People familiar with the thinking inside Google said the company is being scapegoated by Republican consultants seeking to shift the blame for poor fundraising caused by lists that have grown stale and recipients who have tired of incessant appeals, especially those coming from entities that have rented or purchased email addresses."

Will Congress Close the Foreign-Donor Loophole?

"Most individual campaigns and political action committees have taken a basic step to prevent secret foreign donations: requiring the three- to four-digit customer verification value or CVV on the back of the credit card during donor transactions. Doing so helps verify that the donor is the individual they purport to be, and that the address attached to the account is within the U.S. and its territories. It’s also considered the industry standard that the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council recommends for all e-commerce.

"But there’s at least one big hold-out: ActBlue, the Democratic online fundraising behemoth that raised $3.8 billion for more than 21,000 Democratic candidates, committees, and organizations in the 2020 cycle."

International

Facebook Approved Pro-Genocide Ads in Kenya After Claiming to Foster 'Safe and Secure' Elections

"Facebook claimed last week to have cracked down on harmful content in the country, issuing a press release praising itself for the many ways it was tackling problematic content. But immediately after, the company approved ads run in both English and Swahili crafted specifically to instigate ethnic violence in Kenya, human rights groups said."

Social Media

Q&A: Is TikTok ready for the midterms?

"Then we zeroed in on conservative organizations like Turning Point USA. They’re a nonprofit, and they have a dedicated influencer program that’s specifically targeted at funding young conservative content creators on social media. We found a number of influencers who had been flown out to their events or had talked about their relationship with TPUSA. We dug a little bit more into TPUSA’s 2009 tax filings, looking at how much money they were spending on influencer programs."

Political candidates turn to TikTok to mobilize younger voters

"In Florida, some candidates running for office are using TikTok as a new campaigning tool in hopes to connect with a younger audience. NBC News’ Hallie Jackson reports on how political opponents claim the use of the social media app irresponsibly puts American data privacy at risk."

Technology

RNC’s voter contact app rolls out Spanish version

"With the update, the RNC’s door-to-door walk books and call scripts will now be available in Spanish, which it hopes will contribute to getting more accurate data about those communities. The RNC says it spearheaded the effort to add a Spanish language feature for the app."