Thoughts From a Brand Marketer: How a Few of Us Helped Change Political Advertising

By Anders Pers

Almost all political advertising follows the same format: my opponent is a villain, I’m a saint. Hyena vs. Golden Retriever. Opponent news footage is doctored to look grainy, sinister, and severe. Candidate footage brings to mind friendly neighbors and family reunions. The formula is essentially a summary of the research report over see-and-say visuals. Not an idea or concept in sight. It can get a bit tedious.

2020 was different

2020 showed us a new way: political advertising that relied on a strong idea and a newfound creativity had disproportionate impact.

In support of The Lincoln Project we formed a small group of seasoned advertising people who knew the power of an idea and we applied that knowledge and experience to the world of political advertising. We adopted speed, breakthrough ideas, and creativity as the foundations of our offering. We delivered advertising that was extremely timely, incredibly rapidly produced, quickly disseminated, and almost immediately evaluated. Sure, we were political advertising novices but we had cut our teeth on the greatest brands in the world. We knew what we were doing.

The advertising was shared everywhere

We showed again and again that creatively-driven and distinct political advertising is a must to fully take advantage of the power of social media and virality. Conversely, it was clear that social media is powerless if the advertising is mediocre, predictable, or formulaic. Our work* with The Lincoln Project racked up tens of millions of views and hundreds of thousands of retweets, re-postings and engagements, despite zero paid media behind it.

Why? The work was fresh, different, and spoke to people. People enjoyed the ads; they were excited to see a new type of political advertising and as a result they took the trouble to share it with the world. In short, it was “share-worthy.” #coveyspreader, for example, became part of the national conversation in a matter of hours and the political world had never seen anything like Fairy Tale. Creativity and the strength of ideas won the day and the same-old-same-old was left behind.

The advertising itself became a fund-raising juggernaut

But that wasn’t all, the strength of the creative served another purpose: it raised an enormous amount of money. People wanted more of this advertising, and for more people to see it, so they donated. A lot. The Lincoln Project raised more than $67M, almost exclusively on the strength of their advertising. Liberals and Never-Trumpers alike ate it up.

And we will do it again

Sure, Trump was a once-in-a-lifetime creative brief but the rules of advertising were still critical: stay on message and find the most creative ways to say it, over and over again. Don’t stray from the message, just be distinct and extraordinarily creative in how you deliver it.

We will bring this expertise to future elections, from the local school board and ballot initiatives to the 2022 Congressional elections and 2024 Presidential race.