Thursday June 27 brings the primary US Presidential debate of the 2024 election season. I like watching it play out earlier than, throughout, and after the 90 minutes the candidate spar reside on stage. The media might be hyping, the campaigns might be spinning, and memesters might be doing their viral factor. We may even see some intelligent newsjacking too.
What’s fascinating to me as a advertising strategist is the alternative ways folks will devour the content material of the talk. Similar to advertising for a corporation, there are totally different purchaser personas when the product is a candidate interesting for votes.
Sensible campaigns are pondering of every of those audiences as they prep their candidates:
There are those that will watch your complete debate reside. I might be watching on CNN. I wish to see it with my very own eyes, hear it with my very own ears, and make up my very own thoughts about what I witness earlier than I learn what the pundits should say. Whereas there are numerous folks like me, it’s nonetheless a small share of People. The primary Biden-Trump debate of the final cycle, held on September 29, 2020, was watched by about 70 million folks on conventional tv.
Then there are those that will skip the reside debate, turning to mainstream media after it’s over. These folks look ahead to the evaluation and watch the spotlight reels. The intelligent quip, the off-the cuff remark, and the ready zinger usually lead these information tales and spotlight reels and function hundreds of thousands of voters’ first publicity to what occurred.
The most important group are individuals who aren’t centered on the talk in any respect. These are folks whose first publicity to what occurred might be a meme popping up on their social feeds the following day. Some real-time messages might be generated by the campaigns and their surrogates, however most might be from individuals who love creating fast responses on TikTok, Fb, YouTube and different platforms. Many much less engaged People both don’t vote or have already made up their minds concerning the candidates based mostly on what they see through their social media AI-driven algorithms, easy concepts like “Biden is senile” and “Trump is a liar”. Their social feeds doubtless already mirror their views so the brief memes that seem of their feeds reinforce what they’re already pondering.
Newsjacking the debates
And naturally, there are the entrepreneurs who might be tuned into the reside debate, on the lookout for an angle to speak about their experience, services. Large firms and small would like to have a viral second on Thursday.
There’ll doubtless be totally staffed real-time “warfare rooms” at advertising and PR companies on Thursday night all on the lookout for newsjacking alternatives. Specialists in cranking out brief movies, gifs, pictures, and the written phrase might be on the prepared, only a hashtag away from viral fame.
Vital notice: It is a advertising weblog, not a political weblog. I’m not commenting on any candidate’s views on the problems nor am I publicly supporting any candidate. I write concerning the US Presidential election as a result of it’s a huge advertising case research, not as a result of I voice my help for any candidate over one other.
For extra of my posts about US Presidential election advertising going again 5 election cycles, go right here.