Marketers love an election year. It gives them an opportunity to take advantage of it for branding purposes. The goal is to take advantage of the presidential campaign without taking a side and alienating part of their audience. With the political candidates allocating over 9% of their budgets to digital and social media, they too have seen the value it can bring.
There are many ways marketers can take advantage of the presidential campaign. This guide is going to show you how it happens.
Take Advantage of the Community Feel
The presidential election will touch the majority of American people. This is going to create a sense of community that there's no getting away from. You can take advantage of this community feel through bringing people together with your next campaign.
For example, you can look to Pizza Hut for inspiration. Their marketers have created a campaign that has promoted eating pizza alongside the debates with the whole family. These little events can serve as a focal point for brands that want to bring people together.
Real-Time Marketing Based on Events
Real-time marketing on social media has increased in popularity in recent years. This is the idea that brands react to specific events within minutes. It's about taking advantage of breaking news and leveraging what people are talking about right now.
Unless your marketing team has a 24-hour shift on social media, this is difficult to maintain control of. That's why marketers are using the outcome of the various political races to promote their brands. They're producing social media posts for all outcomes and only posting the ones that correspond to the event that came true.
With so many events happening throughout the presidential race this has never been easier.
Dating Sites
The presidential election exposes differences between people like never before. Dating sites have been able to take advantage of this. Marketers have launched campaigns for dating sites that incorporates political leanings into the selection process.
Marketers have even come up with political dating sites dedicated specifically to people from the same parties meeting each other. These dating sites have witnessed major uptakes over the last couple of years because of the races for the nominations and the eventual presidential race.
These promotions will fall back after the election is over and done with, but these campaigns run on a cycle that happens every four years.
Retail Politics to Increase Conversions
One thing marketers have learned from the presidential election is the need to put an emphasis on retail politics. The only reason Trump has managed to stay in touch with Clinton is because he has operated using the retail politics philosophy. This is the belief that every impression matters. Despite Clinton spending 15xs more than her opponent, Trump has managed to make more personal impressions.
Marketers have started to leverage this for their own marketing campaigns. They're focusing less on range and more on niches. This means they're speaking to fewer people but they're giving the people they do speak to a better experience.
Take Funny Threats Seriously
Every presidential election brings threats from ordinary Americans about moving to Canada if their favorite candidate doesn't get elected. JetBlue has been taking advantage of every election cycle by promising to fly a number of voters to Canada if their preferred candidate doesn't win.
The reason this works is because it's a fun campaign that catches the attentions of people. With more people than ever making this threat, now has never been a better time to advertise about this.
You need to expand on fun campaigns because these are the things that get people interested in what you have to offer. With the levels of craziness in the US reaching record levels, it's time to take advantage of it as part of your marketing campaigns. Make wild offers if X happens. It doesn't have to cost you a lot of money to implement.
There are many ways to create a fun social media campaign.
Last Word - Time is Running Out
What makes the presidential election madness stand out is the fact that this event only happens once every four years. By the time it comes around again it's fresh in people's minds and you can repeat the same campaigns over and over again. Think about how you can take advantage of the presidential campaign and start your campaign now because time is quickly running out.
What do you think is the best way to take advantage of the presidential campaign?