Campaign Hack • Down-Ballot Digital • Identifying Actual Political Ads • Reeds Entries • 5 Must-Have Tools

A quick, but important, digital point to make about this week’s off-year election results: the key role Democratic orgs played down-ballot in driving digital spending and organizing.

Republican digital strategist Ian Hines tweeted this on Wednesday: "The story they aren’t telling in the news this morning is the tremendous effect that @anotheracronym, @dlcc, @runforsomething, @swingleft, et al. had on last night’s election results. Democrats had a fundamentally different organizing ecosystem, and it mattered."

In Virginia, where Democrats took full control of the legislature, a number of individual Republican campaigns did spend heavily on digital. But crucially, it was Democratic groups that played in the state early, and strategically, to boost legislative candidates.

ACRONYM’s LEDGE project worked in concert with the state party and the DLCC to zero in on six key legislative races where they boosted digital ad programs.

It’s clearly a concern for strategists on the right, and it should be. Just ahead of Election Day, a PAC helmed by ACRONYM’s Tara McGowan announced plans for a $75 million digital ad campaign that will take on President Trump in key 2020 swing states.

Evoking the memory of a former Supreme Court justice, when it comes to a digital ad, do platforms simply know it when they see it?

As it turns out, political ads aren't so easily identified.

Cheryl Hori dove into this issue in a piece for C&E this week, and the problem is one anyone in the digital ad space can relate to:

"...as companies feel the heat from Capitol Hill, their scramble to self-regulate has left a wake of political ads being mistagged as consumer-based, or vice versa. The result is the same: ads are being rejected left and right — for all the wrong reasons."

The net result is a worrying operating environment, as Hori lays out:

1. Accessibility

If you don’t have personal relationships with ad platform staff you’re likely going to find yourself "in re-review support purgatory for an indefinite amount of time."

2. Staying relevant

Good luck if you have rapid response content and you’re working on a "gray area issue." There’s no guarantee it’ll be up quickly enough even if you have a rep. And if you don’t have a rep, see point 1 above.

3. Higher stakes

The definition of "political speech" is evolving rapidly. So even if you’re not having problems right now, you may do soon. Uncertainty is now the order of the day.

Case in point: Campaigns & Elections articles are almost always flagged as "political" on Facebook despite the fact we’re only writing about the industry, not advocating on issues.

Five tools my business can’t live without:

Salesforce: Our highly customized BPM/CRM tool manages ad buys from start to finish. Automation enables us to be efficient and effective.

Hardware Security Keys: We take security seriously and have our employees use hardware security keys as their second-factor authentication wherever possible.

DSPolitical Custom File Uploader: No one should be sending voter data (or other PII) around in an insecure fashion. We built a custom app to make sure we treat our customer's data securely — everytime.

External Computer Security Monitor: We engage an outside vendor to make sure our infrastructure remains secure. They proactively monitor every device on our networks with an agent that uses AI to detect abnormal use patterns.

DSPolitical Data Visualization Platform: Our reporting platform provides automated and up-to-date information about all running ad campaigns to customers and our internal staff.

One app I can’t live without:

ESPN Fantasy Football: Because it is that time of year.

Don’t Abolish Political Ads on Social Media. Stop Microtargeting.
(Washington Post)

FEC Chair Ellen L. Weintraub argues that the practice of microtargeting online political ads should be brought to an end. "Political advertisers, who would have to appeal to a wider audience, would have incentive to avoid fueling the divisiveness that pulls us apart."

Democratic Strategists Set Up $75 Million Digital Campaign to Counter Trump

(New York Times)

ACRONYM has unveiled plans to spend $75 million on digital advertising to counter President Trump’s early spending advantage in key 2020 battleground states.

Fake Ads and the Weaponization of Political Fact-Checking
(Campaigns & Elections)

Adriel Hampton, the consultant turned California gubernatorial candidate who launched his candidacy to make a point about fact-checking in Facebook ads, has some thoughts on what digital strategists need to be ready for in 2020.