Great takes Alli. As someome with a background in marketing who moved over to the political space, I am flabbergasted at how behind we are in this endeavor. This was the conversation we were having in ad agencies in 2010 when digital strategies and tactics stated taking up much more space in conversations, budgets, and media plans. At some point, we stopped referring to certain roles, campaigns or tactics as traditional vs digital—it’s just all digital. This is the world we live in. It’s time for the political establishment to catch up. Which isn’t done by overanalyzing into oblivion and pointing fingers. It’s rapid fire cycles of production, deployment, testing, and iteration. But as you acknowledged, this requires risk and trust. (And tbh, I think, guidance from people outside the industry, too.)
YES. "Digital directors need a seat at the table: on consultant calls, in polling conversations, in focus groups. Digital should not report to comms."
If I could NEVER be under comms again, it is too soon.
Going on 9 years ago when I went to a Wellstone digital weeklong training, they were talking about digital finally moving out of fundraising and that we would start seeing them as campaign manager. Oof. Not nearly enough yet.
I have had the opportunity to run campaigns and all of the digital that I bring with me, allows for more creative ways to think about getting out the campaign message. Also, it is one of my joys when targeting voters in a social ad, they say some rightwing crap and I go mark them as a 5 in VAN. Can't do that if you are siloed off.
This is so important. You have to go where people are looking. And you are right. This has to be about so much more than beat Donald Trump.
Great takes Alli. As someome with a background in marketing who moved over to the political space, I am flabbergasted at how behind we are in this endeavor. This was the conversation we were having in ad agencies in 2010 when digital strategies and tactics stated taking up much more space in conversations, budgets, and media plans. At some point, we stopped referring to certain roles, campaigns or tactics as traditional vs digital—it’s just all digital. This is the world we live in. It’s time for the political establishment to catch up. Which isn’t done by overanalyzing into oblivion and pointing fingers. It’s rapid fire cycles of production, deployment, testing, and iteration. But as you acknowledged, this requires risk and trust. (And tbh, I think, guidance from people outside the industry, too.)
YES. "Digital directors need a seat at the table: on consultant calls, in polling conversations, in focus groups. Digital should not report to comms."
If I could NEVER be under comms again, it is too soon.
Going on 9 years ago when I went to a Wellstone digital weeklong training, they were talking about digital finally moving out of fundraising and that we would start seeing them as campaign manager. Oof. Not nearly enough yet.
I have had the opportunity to run campaigns and all of the digital that I bring with me, allows for more creative ways to think about getting out the campaign message. Also, it is one of my joys when targeting voters in a social ad, they say some rightwing crap and I go mark them as a 5 in VAN. Can't do that if you are siloed off.