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In the wake of COVID-19, campaigns across the U.S. have been forced to adjust their voter outreach strategy. With in-person events no longer possible, candidates and their teams have had to take operations online.

Below, please find best practices for keeping your campaign active on digital during this pandemic.

TAKE EVENTS ONLINE

Now more than ever, it’s vital for campaigns to continue voter outreach. While in-person events are vital to grassroots efforts, they can’t proceed as planned. Instead, use technologies like Zoom or Facebook Live to take events online. These can be private or public, and they allow for audience interaction to replicate an in-person event as much as possible.

💡Bonus Tip: Do you have a connection to a medical professional, community leader, or another individual who is involved with COVID-19 response? Hosting a joint event with them as a guest speaker will provide value to audiences, encouraging more people to tune in and engage.

STAY ENGAGED WITH VOTERS

Supporters want to hear from you, but there is concern about generating backlash from continuing fundraising. If your campaign has paused fundraising, audiences can still be engaged with emails containing helpful information, wellness checks, and other personalized, non-political messages.

💡Bonus Tip: Keep major donors engaged and rewarded by offering donor-only virtual campaign briefings and/or one-on-one video chat sessions.

FUNDRAISE TASTEFULLY

For many campaigns, fundraising can’t stop. And now, the majority of fundraising efforts have to be done on digital. Of course, donation asks should remain tasteful in the context of a global pandemic. We recommend to not mention the virus directly, instead using messaging on why a donation is needed now more than ever.

💡Bonus Tip: Work an appropriate fundraising ask into your online events. Direct viewers to a unique donate page URL to better track donors that were acquired through the event.

CAPITALIZE ON THE MOMENT

Audiences are not as receptive to ultra-partisan messages right now, but that doesn’t mean we can’t still engage them on what is top of mind for all of us. Through COVID-specific landing pages, Facebook Q&A Campaigns, or content thanking the frontline responders and workers, we can use relevant news of the day to stay active on people’s social media feeds.

💡Bonus Tip: Despite record online engagement, many brands have stopped running advertising on digital to make room in their budgets. As a result, competition for ad space is much lower than it was just weeks ago, allowing us to get more bang for our advertising buck. Now is a perfect time to continue, increase, or even start your digital advertising efforts.

We’ve had many clients ask if it’s appropriate to be running advertising at this time. We’ve shared screenshots of ads the president’s campaign is running as of April 8. We hope it’s helpful context as you weigh decisions about ad spending at this time.

Have a question, or want our help implementing one of the strategies mentioned above? Please don’t hesitate to reach out to our team at [email protected]!

Our Managing Partner, Jon Minjoe, was invited to share his thoughts about getting the most out of a fundraising email. Read the full article here.

TIP 2: STOP WITH ALL THE LINKS

If the purpose of your email is to raise money, give recipients a single destination: your donation page. Certainly, include several links to the donation page in your email, but only to your donation page.

Avoid adding postscripts about clicking here to volunteer, signing up for a newsletter, RSVP’ing for a rally, or getting Mrs. Candidate’s great recipe for apple pie. Every opportunity you give someone not to donate is a contribution you’ve potentially lost.

-Jon Minjoe, Managing Partner at Beast Digital

“When the history of Facebook is written, mark down March 14th, 2019 as the end of the News Feed era.”

What do we do when the News Feed is no longer the keystone of the Facebook experience? Understand that advertising space on Facebook is about to become even more of a premium, evolve our strategy, and be prepared for more active and frequent optimizations as we measure the impact of new designs.

Mark Zuckerberg recently rolled out, in true Zuckerbergian style, plans for redesigning America’s largest social media platform.

Since 2016, Facebook has been dealing with privacy issues that have proven increasingly embarrassing (and costly — to the tune of $3 billion most recently) for their company. That fact has caused Zuckerberg to take the company into a more private direction.

“As I think about the future of the internet, I believe a privacy-focused communications platform will become even more important than today’s open platforms.” Zuckerberg wrote in one of his now infamous 3000+ word blog posts.

Based on the fact that 400 million users are apart of one group or more, Zuckerberg is looking to step away from the traditional News Feed and direct users to their redesigned Groups and Events tabs.

Along with a drastic change in direction, one of the News Feeds original designers, Chris Cox, has decided to leave the company.

Cox spent more than a decade working at Facebook and was the primary overseer of the News Feed during its halcyon days. Cox stepping down could be a sign of the beginning of the end for the News Feed.

So what happens to the world’s largest online town hall? And more importantly, the billions of dollars Facebook is paid for their primary data-harvesting tool?

Nothing…. nothing at all.

But that raises a concern for campaigns and associations. Where does the content go after you’ve taken away the site’s largest billboard?

Facebook has already begun to introduce new ways to purchase ad space. Self-service premium ads, sponsored stories, and automated “premium” ad buys will help make for a smooth transition away from the News Feed.

And possibly more expensive real estate?

With a more private social platform that focuses more on the likes and dislikes of the individual rather than a “the more the merrier” mindset, ad space will become more exclusive — and more valuable.

With advertising driving 89% of the companies revenue, rest assured very little has fundamentally changed at Facebook.

When a Beer Inspired by the Revolution takes on the Resistance

Think Americans are polarized? We can’t even agree on good, cold beer anymore.

Jim Koch, founder of Samuel Adams beer, stood up to provide a toast at a recent gathering of business leaders at President Trump’s New Jersey golf resort.

Standing across the room from the President himself, Koch raised his glass.

“Tax reform was a very big deal for all of us, because 85% of the beer made in the United States is owned by foreign companies. We were paying 38% taxes, and competing against people who were paying 20,” Koch gushed. “And now we have a level playing field, and we’re going to kick their ass.”

When the remarks hit the media, the Boston Beer company, and their signature Samuel Adams brand, faced an instantaneous backlash on social media, and an ongoing series of negative press.

“Shame!” decried a large publicly-placed sign across from the brewery. “I will never drink Sam Adams beer again,” announced a local mayor. And many others joined in his boycott.

To take a page from Nike’s playbook, playing to Sam Adams’ target audience, as well as knowing and understanding the politics of their market, would have allowed for a big payoff.

Sam Adams customers might not be hardcore, partisan Republicans, but they may well be the kinds of people who think America should start kicking ass again, and American beer should kick ass again.

Instead of doing absolutely nothing and hiding from the brand’s adversaries, why not release a new special edition seasonal ale, Dead Redcoats? Or an American Apple Pie Cider? Even better: brew up a back-to-back World War Championship edition freedom pilsner. Feature veterans on the label.

The bottom line? Be who you are, and own it. And don’t be afraid to meet challenges with an unexpected risk that reflects authenticity and the values of your brand and company.

In the era of Instant Perception, even something as open and inviting as beer is cause for politicking, argument, outrage, and division.

Nike tapped Colin Kaepernick to be the face of their new “Just Do It” campaign. A brand that has been the standard bearer at the top of the fitness game for decades turned to the single most controversial sports figure they could choose.

Why? Nike understands the incredible power of Instant Perception.

They used a heated situation to appeal to their brand advocates and enrage their adversaries, recognizing an opportunity to secure Nike’s brand relevance for an entire generation of customers.

The result didn’t look great at first: Nike lost $3.75 billion in market cap in the wake of their Kaepernick decision.

So was it a mistake? Not so fast…

Nike chose a path of risk and relevance. In the short term, investors fled. But it’s already become clear that Nike is reaping huge rewards through increased sales. Since the launch of their new ad featuring Kaepernick, Nike sales have jumped 31%.

• Democrats are 14% more likely than the average American to buy Nike shoes, while Republicans are 12% less likely.
• African Americans are 56% more likely to buy Nike shoes, whites 14% less likely.
• Americans aged 18-34 are 37% more likely to buy Nike shoes.

This campaign is a case study in how brands are evolving their thinking. There are battles for perception to be fought and won every day among demographics who support brands.It’s far too early to label this a success, particularly when they’ve simultaneously made adversaries of the NFL and the President of the United States. But it shows the evolving nature of reaching out to brand loyalists and adversaries across an increasingly fractured and diverse market.

A broad marketing strategy aimed at being inoffensive, and embraced by everyone, is a relic of the past. A more micro-targeted approach is required.

Whether they like it or not, John Deere now has a politics.

So does Chevron.

And Patagonia.

Certainly Starbucks.

By just mentioning those brands, most Americans know exactly which “side” each represents. In a world starved of attention, consumers use clues from cultural understanding drawn from politics.

It’s a recent development.

No southern Democrat would have said Lucky Strike had “a politics” 40 years ago. Good smokes were good smokes.

No northern liberal would say Nike had a politics 20 years ago. Michael Jordan famously said it himself: “Democrats and Republicans both buy shoes.”

Is that true today? Do Democrats buy Allen Edmonds? Do Republicans buy Birkenstocks?

If not, what’s a better definition of cultural power — beyond their ability to sell their products — of the brands themselves? It influences how their audiences think and behave at a level far deeper than footwear.

Show up to your first Chamber of Commerce meeting meeting in Birkenstocks… are you communicating belonging? The implied notion of partisanship, of being on one side or another of a cultural divide, itself communicates a language of trust or distrust more powerful than any ad campaign.

Cultural power to change behavior? The very stuff of politics. And even if that power doesn’t need much “how” explanation, because culture is intuitive, the “what?” and “what next?” of cultural politics are vital questions for brands to answer.