To help campaigns target ads, voter-profiling firms score millions of Americans on issues like guns, vaccines and QAnon. By: Tim Enthoven
Present for the upcoming election is a vast voter data-mining ecosystem that involves dozens of political consulting, analytics, media, marketing, and advertising software companies. Campaigns are tapping a host of scores and using them to create castes of their most desirable voters. Examples include "gun-owner," "pro-choice," and "Trump 2024" scores covering everyday politics. Campaign and media consultants say political issue scores make it easier for candidates to target messages and mobilize receptive voters.
Consumers are subject to predictive scoring systems that include hidden rankings based on demographic profile, socioeconomic status, online activities, and offline interests. Ad tech firms use these scores to help political campaigns target audiences on video services, podcasts, websites, and apps. Political party committees and advocacy groups use scores to create lists of specific voters to call or text. A mirrored example of this strategy can be seen in Darrin Camilleri's campaign for the upcoming 2022 primaries.
Digital consultants working for representative Darrin Camilleri, a Democrat in Michigan House running for State Senate, targeted 64,000 moderate female voters, likely pro-choice, with an ad promoting reproductive rights. Similarly, he also ran a general video ad directed at over 77,000 democrats and independent voters with messages for his campaign on streaming platforms like Lifetime, Vice, and other ad-supported services. The agency behind Camilleri's ad campaign pulled from the voter database to match them on various platforms to run streaming ads on behalf of Camilleri's campaign.
Camilleri's campaigning strategy is part of a trend growing faster than ever. Political ads on streaming services are expected to generate $1.44 billion, or 15% of the projected $9.7 billion ad spending on the 2022 election cycle. The boom in ad streaming ads underscores the shift in how candidates, party committees, and issue groups target voters. Campaigns now employ advanced consumer profiling and automated ad-buying services to deliver different streaming video messages tailored to specific voters.
The support of large corporations in providing insight into political campaigns fuels this trend. Meta, the owners of Facebook and Instagram, plan to give outside researchers detailed information on how political ads are targeted across its platform. They plan to provide insight into how political campaigns, operatives, and strategists buy and use ads ahead of the November midterms. The company wants to make advertiser targeting criteria available for analysis and reporting on ads about social issues, elections, and politics to help people better understand the practices used to reach potential voters on their platforms. The new data from Meta will cover the period from August 2020, three months before the last U.S. presidential election, to the present day.
4 comments:
Campaigns are getting so incredibly expensive. It seems like money will have a greater influence on politics than before. There is nothing wrong with paying money to spread one’s political agenda to targeted audiences. It might be a slight issue if someone is using money to spread misinformation about his/her competitors to specific audiences. Are there any regulations on what can be campaigned and what can’t be? Would voter data-mining systems from streaming services increase political polarization if it starts to only expose one party to their users who they think might lean conservative or liberal? Despite the fact that most user are adults, and they have formed their own political views, limited exposure leave room for impact.
What impact does this have on communities? The growing industry and business of targeted political Ads can help contribute to the polarization of politics. How can I expect to communicate with my neighbor on a topic when all we see are different sides of the same coin? Nevertheless, this targeted approach is only natural, as politicians often win elections by appealing to enough communities and groups, focusing in on supporting just enough to edge out the competition. And with data given to help accurately appeal to the right people and save money that would be wasted by people you do not care about, this seems like only the beginning of what is to come.
Targeted political ads can definitely be tied to polarization, and is similar to confirmation bias, but without the added step of seeking out sources that align with one’s beliefs. The rhetoric in these ads seeks to appeal to audiences with specific priorities such as the economy, making them very effective. As such, when only some groups of people are exposed to Republican slogans or reasoning and others get Democrat ads, people’s beliefs are only strengthened, contributing to the polarization of politics. People will continually be exposed to their own beliefs and will have fewer opportunities to hear out opposing beliefs, especially since advertising used to be a way to gain widespread publicity and support. While the strategy may be beneficial for the political parties, it may be harming the open-mindedness and critical thinking of citizens by only being exposed to one perspective. Granted, this is assuming people don’t seek out comprehensive news coverage, but this seems to actually be a large portion of the country.
Social media definitely has been a heavy hitter in promoting political campaigns as of late. It's never been easier for candidates to buy promos, not to mention much cheaper. This leads me to question whether these political ads will go too far when it comes to slander and public defamation of others. On the other hand, it seems money more than ever will be the biggest factor in getting candidates elected. Political ads don't have to follow the equal time rule, as legislation has been notoriously slow on catching up to social media and digital platforms. What impact will this have on underdog candidates and grassroots efforts to promote them.
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