Digital Is Only 10% of GOP Presidential Ad Spend

Advertising

Presidential Primary Spending Analysis: Comparing 2020 And 2024
AdImpact
“Through May 2023, both parties seem to be utilizing different advertising strategies than last cycle. Republicans and Democrats are more heavily investing in traditional media this year, particularly with ads on cable. While there is significantly more total spending thus far this cycle, digital ads make up only 10% of total Republican Presidential spend, and 42% for Democrats.”

Campaigns

Republican Party releases requirements for presidential candidates hoping to make first 2024 primary debate
Fox News
“To reach the debate state, candidates must also have 40,000 unique donors to their campaign committee (or exploratory committee), with ‘at least 200 unique donors per state or territory in 20+ states and/or territories.’”

GOP candidates’ $1 T-shirt tactic: Clever fundraising ploy or desperate debate-stage bid?
Politico
“But the contributions afford longshot candidates the chance to appear on the debate stage alongside frontrunners including former President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis later this summer — an opportunity they can’t put a price tag on.”

The race to dethrone small-dollar Don
Politico
“Fundraising professionals note that political giving, particularly in the primary stage, is driven by different motivations than voting, with donors sometimes feeling compelled to give to one or more candidates based on an inspiring debate performance or a desire to see them advance in the field — even if the donor might be undecided when it comes to casting their eventual ballot.”

Fundraising

WinRed Experiments with Tips
WinRed
“ActBlue spent $65M in the 2022 cycle on their own operations and $44M in the 2020 cycle. They are constantly innovating on behalf of progressive and Democrat causes. WinRed must have the resources necessary to beat ActBlue.”

Dark Defaults: How Choice Architecture Steers Campaign Donations
SSRN
“We estimate that defaults increased campaign donations by over $44 million while increasing requested refunds by $3.5 million. The longer defaults were displayed, the more money campaigns raised through weekly donations. Donors did not compensate for starting weekly chains by changing the amount they donated through other means. We found that the default had a larger impact on smaller donors and on donors who had no prior experience with defaults.”

Social Media

Scoop: YouTube reverses misinformation policy to allow U.S. election denialism
Axios
“YouTube established the policy in December 2020, after enough states had certified the 2020 election results. Now, the company said in a statement, leaving the policy in place may have the effect of ‘curtailing political speech without meaningfully reducing the risk of violence or other real-world harm.’”

Direct mail built the conservative movement. Can influencers beat it?
M+R
“Enter spaces you otherwise would not have access to. Collaborating with influencers — working with them on messaging in a two-way dialogue — helps your campaign reach these audiences authentically. You’re not buying a list: you’re doing values-aligned work with creators (and, we hope, paying them for their labor).”

Technology

How AI will revolutionize politics in 2024, and why voters must be vigilant
Fox News
“Copywriting for fundraising emails, captions for social media posts, and scripts for campaign videos can now all be produced with an unprecedented level of speed, personalization and diversity. But, before agencies put their production on AI-autopilot, they need to consider the downsides. I’m personally finding that AI’s output is almost always missing an important, imperceptible quality. (Our team calls it "soul.")”

• How Campaigns Are Using AI For Copywriting & Creative – Brian Athey (Push Digital)

How AI Could Take Over Elections—And Undermine Democracy
Scientific American
“It would be possible to avoid AI election manipulation if candidates, campaigns and consultants all forswore the use of such political AI. We believe that is unlikely. If politically effective black boxes were developed, competitive pressures would make their use almost irresistible. Indeed, political consultants might well see using these tools as required by their professional responsibility to help their candidates win. And once one candidate uses such an effective tool, the opponents could hardly be expected to resist by disarming unilaterally.”