Political insiders are surprised that Biden is spending over $25 million on YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram videos and broadcast and cable TV months before the election, something candidates don’t do.
As a 108 Award-winning marketing expert, I’m not surprised, just worried.
The Biden campaign is ignoring traditional campaign consultants, who would never run such ads so early or use his strategy.
Biden and his team are taking a page from Obama’s playbook, ignoring the consultants and using advanced marketing strategies to win an election, while the opposition doesn’t understand what and why they are doing it.
In fact, Republicans are mocking the ad campaign because it’s so early in the campaign cycle.
Conservatives are mocking it because of the messaging.
They don’t understand the strategy, which is brilliant from the new politics of today of microtargeting, messaging, and mobilizing.
Many radical groups and nonprofits have been advertising and organizing for Biden this year—But this is different.
The Biden Campaign and the Democrat National Committee has been spending over $1 million per week in August and September. But now Biden’s Super PAC has begun to really ramp things up early in the election.
Behind the curtain, here is what is happening… It’s calculated and smart.
Here are 4 things you should know…
- Biden’s new video ad strategy exposedBiden’s current ad strategy is divided into 3 key buckets:1) Identified Democrat micro-communities—or audiences
Biden’s campaign is microtargeting to mobilize the base of identified volunteers, donors, and voters. This is not the traditional campaign of a viable, visible, articulate candidate. It’s a digital/video campaign based on targeting, messaging, advanced data profiling, and Get Out The Vote (GOTV).2) Smart swing state targeting–
Biden’s campaign is targeting key swing states. Only that will determine who will be the next president. And they exposed a surprise additional state on their key state target list.3) The persuadables—The must have vote to win 2024
Biden’s campaign is to convince the “persuadables” to:
- The “persuadables” are largely independent voters who can vote for either the Republican or Democrat.
- Fear the MAGA/Republican “extremists” — It’s a campaign of fear and a touch of hope.
- Love what Biden has done to stop the evil enemy, i.e., the Christian nationalist, MAGA Republicans, corporate greed, and systemic racism… and we will soon see great results from Biden’s policies.
2. Biden’s under-the-radar PAC plan Future Forward USA Action is just one of several NGOs involved in Biden’s top Super PAC. They are spending roughly $25 million on an ad campaign in 6 key battleground states. The spots are thought to be designed to boost Biden’s approval ratings in those key states, which hover at around 38-40%– and 73% of the public think he’s too old to run for office again. A recent CNN poll found that 67% of Democratic (and Democratic-leaning) voters wished the party would nominate someone other than Biden.
But better approval would be a nice byproduct.
Remember, the ads are for a very specific targeted group of voters such as students, laborers, climate change activists, pro-abortion, Hispanic, Black, Asian, Gen Y, Millennials, and other categories, not the general public.
And these states are key…
3. The 6 key States and a Surprise: The video/TV commercials are running in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin… and North Carolina
All 6 of these states were also swing states in 2020, where both Biden and Trump were just a few thousand votes apart and could easily have flipped one way or the other.However, the Biden strategists revealed in their ad buy that North Carolina is also in play, considering it to be a swing state, and has included it in their campaign blitz.They believe that since Trump won North Carolina by a small margin, around 1.3 points in 2020, concentrating ads in the state will boost their chances for a win in 2024.Also, because the population in the state is growing, NC now has more electoral votes than Michigan and the same as Georgia.
4. The strategy: What the video ads are saying
I’ve created over 400 videos, 100 TV commercials, and 13 infomercials in my advertising career. My first work in the advertising business was helping to create commercials for political campaigns.
I’ve learned a lot over the past 40+ years, and I can tell you that the Biden ads, from a quality standpoint, are very good.
The music, the copy, the choice of words used in the context of the video, and the messaging of the narrator are awesome to get across the point that Biden is active and capable. The use of the photos is well done.
They aren’t perfect, and the copy could be better. They make some big tactical errors… But overall, they are very good.
Someone watching the video would objectively be impressed.
The ads are being tailored for each specific swing state, not for a blanket national ad campaign. And they’re also being used to micro-target key audiences like the Spanish community.
One of the commercials talks about doubling jobs and lowering costs, showing a flattering picture of Joe interacting with workers. The commercial has high energy, excitement, and positive messaging regarding Biden’s actions.
The tagline used is “Creating good jobs.”
One of the spots Future Forward is running highlights Biden’s economic record.
In the first commercial (see below), a young factory owner says, “Thanks to Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, we’ll be doubling the number of good jobs, bringing jobs back to America, and creating a domestic supply chain.”
In the second commercial (see below), a Latina woman talks about how Biden “unemployment in ‘our’ community has been cut in half” and how “‘Our’ businesses are the fastest growing in the country… Biden isn’t fighting for the rich and powerful—It’s us.”
The pictures of Hispanic business owners, workers, and families create an exciting image to secure the Hispanic vote.
The message: Jobs, wages, and business opportunities for Hispanics have been supercharged by Biden’s economic policies.
The third ad (see below) talks about how Joe Biden’s economic plans succeeded despite some of the expert’s warnings about a bad economy. A narrator explains how Biden “Fixed Supply Chains,” fought “corporate greed,” and “lowered the cost of medicine and utility bills, made America energy independent, and cut inflation.”
Read this: How to Succeed in Political Campaigns: 29 Surprising Marketing Trends
These ads have been running mostly in Nevada and Arizona—Two of the top ten most expensive states for gas.
Each video identifies a different targeted voter for digital, data-driven ads.
Click the links below to see Biden’s 2 Super PAC ads and one campaign ad running in the seven key battleground states.
AD #1: https://youtu.be/VOiHWXK_vd8?si=wKHPGMPT86aMe7nd
Comments 1
Where are the “fact checkers” on HIS claims and verbiage? False information, misinformation, etc!?