I recently had a conversation with a couple friends about the US presidential election. They were obviously keen to talk about the actual campaigns and politicking. To their surprise, I pointed out straight away that all I can see in the presidential election is one giant marketing platform where everyone tries to take a bite of the publicity.
Mind you, this conversation took place right after the first presidential debate. I pressed the topic a little and said, “Who benefits from the debate?” Their answer: The American people. My answer: Everyone who has a business interest that can be in any way intertwined with the presidential election.
Let’s be honest, the US has a long process for electing the president. Most candidates announced the intention to run at some point in 2015 and began methodical campaign strategies that took them through the primaries and caucuses. Now we are in the home stretch with debates. In November, we will elect a president. All told, we have a solid year and a half – practically two years – where all different types of individuals and business entities are trying to get the public’s attention using the platform of the election.
Aside from the obvious fact that candidates who run for office become a topic of dinner table discussion – building an audience around their names and platforms – I would suggest that there are many others who stand to gain from marketing themselves within the public attention that this process attracts. Here are some examples that came up in the conversation:
- The first one shocked me. I asked who benefited from the first presidential debate, and my friends saw no answer other than “the American people” initially. Then they said, “After all, Hofstra hosted it for free.” Oh, did they? And now you know the name Hofstra University. And so does EVERYONE who watched the debate, read an article about the debate, listened to the debate, or consumed news coverage of the debate. Imagine how much money companies pay for a spot during the Super Bowl. Imagine how much more a venue should pay for the privilege of being able to host a presidential debate and reap the rewards of all the publicity that comes from that.
- “Also,” my friends said, “the debate was aired on multiple networks. No one network had the rights.” Here’s what that means: Normally, if one network buys the rights to coverage, that network is the only one that can use and profit from the material unless the rights holder chooses to release footage. In the case where all major networks and cable sites are covering the event, they can all use it. So, if you have a favorite newscaster, late night talk show host, daytime talk show host, or other personality on any network, chances are you can see them freely use and comment on footage from the debate. Even if they can’t profit from commercials during the debate, they can certainly profit by having every personality of interest do a segment during their show…and marketing in advance that the personality will talk about it to bump the ratings!
- Then I asked about websites being plugged during speeches. “Yes,” one friend said, “but in the debate it was just to mention a fact-checking tool.” Hmmm…let me introduce you to “pixels.” Tracking pixels are a very popular tool these days for advertisers. Basically, you create a web page with juicy material that will compel a lot of people to visit it. Then you add a tracking pixel to the code. The pixel allows the page owner to track data from the users that visit the site. This could include just visiting the site at all, clicking on some offer or option, or converting on an offer. After that, when you run sponsored ads on a variety of platforms, you can use the data you solicited through the pixel to target those same users or others like them. Remember that one time you went to that site to buy cookies for your Aunt Irma, and then you suddenly kept seeing ads for that company whenever you browsed the internet? Yes. It’s awfully nice of people to plug helpful sites to millions of viewers at a time, but I myself assume that they are wisely using that site to track you and anyone else who wanders onto it.
- Then my friends told me how they are doing their due diligence and reading books on the presidential election. Biographies of the candidates, unbiased looks at the landscape, etc. It got me thinking a little. I wonder what books those authors want to publish in two years. If I were an author, and I were anywhere near the political sphere, I would write a book right now during the election. You know it will be consumed. People are reading anything they can get their hands on to understand the candidates, the issues, the situation. So, why not present them with an option authored by you? You can grab a portion of this election audience and hook the ones who like your voice and style. You can build an audience right now and market your next work to them later.
- My favorite example was not one referenced in this conversation but happened during the first debate. I was monitoring my Facebook feed to see what kind of traffic the debate would generate. In the sea of posts, I saw hashtag after hashtag. Tag after tag. Companies that had clearly crafted a post to run during the debate, marketing a product in a way that connected to this trending topic. Companies that opted for short bursts of posts as a way to keep followers hovering around their pages (some marketers refer to this as “chum posts” since it keeps visitors near their page before they run a sales post). And then one woman – a business coach – advised small business owners to find a way to use the election in their advertisements. So meta! The reality is that companies can and do tailor strategies around trending topics, which is normally hard to do because trends usually last a short time. The presidential election is a topic that trends for over a year, giving anyone who wants to take advantage of it plenty of time to formulate a strategy!
The bottom line is that businesses or personalities that find a way to connect with the presidential election stand to gain from that connection. Those that want to ride the wave with less backlash – and probably less reward – will take a responsibly PR-oriented approach. Those that want the most exposure and potentially more gain will take the riskier approach of controversy, which is incentivized by public consumption, sharing, and comments. Even if the response is backlash.
The US election process is not just a forum for the benefit of the American people. It is a giant marketing platform. Every article, every “coming up on ____” TV clip, every podcast, every book, every social media post, every comic, every comedy sketch, every blog that uses the election as its backdrop stands to gain from it. Including this one.
So, business owners, what have you done to leverage the publicity of the presidential election in your marketing?