What is the State of Political Advertising for the Midterm Election? An Interview with Grace Briscoe

The upcoming midterm election is proving to be highly impactful, not just in the results but also in the political advertising leading up to the actual count, according to Grace Briscoe is SVP of Client Development, Candidates + Causes at Centro. She sees that the political advertising arena is not only robust but remarkable.

Charlene Weisler: What do you think the state of political advertising is now in preparation for the midterms?

Grace Briscoe: We expect to see around 80% of the potential in digital spend to be transacted and served in the second half of 2022 in political ad spend. Based on the pace of spending so far, the industry may exceed forecasts. In Basis, our platform, spend is roughly 4x higher than in the same period in 2020. This is remarkable for a midterm election which typically wouldn’t exceed a presidential election year. 

Weisler: What, generally speaking, is the most effective platform for political advertising on the national level?

Briscoe: The adage that all politics is local may still hold true, though I think we’ve also increasingly seen the inverse, that much of local politics is now nationalized in some ways. Though I’m biased toward digital, from a media strategy and tactic perspective nationally, TV is still king- it’s an incredibly strong platform for both reach and persuasion. Looking at digital specifically, programmatic platforms are the most effective on national political ad campaigns. Programmatic provides a perfect blend of speed, scale, accuracy and flexibility that is vital for elections advertising. Social media channels are indisputably the most effective and efficient for fundraising, but less so for persuasion—short attention spans when scrolling through a feed make nuanced messaging almost impossible. I think the surge in investment we’re seeing in OTT/CTV ads speak to the effectiveness of that channel, CTV may be the perfect fusion of the compelling power of TV combined with greater targeting capabilities and flexibility in buying via programmatic platforms.     

Weisler: What about the local level?

Briscoe: Part of the appeal of programmatic platforms is that they work well on both national political ad campaigns and on local campaigns. The precision is a tremendous value for smaller campaigns that only need to reach local voters in a small area. And the adoption of programmatic advertising by buyers of all sizes has enabled even small down-ballot races to benefit from the sophisticated targeting and efficiencies that were only available at the federal level a few cycles ago.

Weisler: Can you talk about the most effective messaging nationally? and locally?

Briscoe: Political messaging is all about emotion—connecting with voters at a personal level, and motivating them to vote, especially in a mid-term year when you don’t have a presidential race at the top of the ticket. Taking the recent Kansas election as an example, abortion was confirmed as a key issue to potentially drive turnout this year. Inflation and economic concerns are top issues with voters, as well as rising concerns over gun violence and political extremism. Locally, some of these topics may resonate more than others. However, at the very local level, campaigns often don’t have the benefit of granular polling data that a national, statewide, or even congressional campaign relies on. It’s not easy to get the pulse of local voters, and messaging decisions may be guided by instinct or “gut” more than data.

Weisler: Does it vary by political party? Demographics?

Briscoe: The issues that are top of mind or may resonate most deeply with a voter varies greatly, and some inferences can be drawn based on demographics, party affiliation, and geography. But very few demographic groups are a monolith, and demographic characteristics are not at all determinant of ideology. Hispanic voters are an example – within those communities there can be broad differences, making simple assumptions that motivations are cohesive based solely on ethnicity could be a fatal mistake for a campaign.

Weisler: If you can talk about this - how does research impact decision-making?

Briscoe: Research for political campaigns is essential. Voter data, including polling, is what enables a campaign to know where they should focus their efforts to get people to vote. Even large campaigns have finite resources so there are always tough decisions on how to most effectively use funds to find and engage voters. Historical data shows that likely only 40% of potential voters will vote on Nov. 8. Therefore, a campaign will need data to understand how to reach that 40% who will actually vote, and perhaps the additional 10% who might be persuaded to turnout – and that’s on top of the challenge of finding the right issues to use when engaging with them.

Weisler: How strong a role does Social Media play in political advertising?

Briscoe: It is incredibly effective for fundraising and the broad audiences of social platforms can make them effective for reach. But the role of social media in digital campaigns has declined over the recent years.  There is a myriad of reasons for this, but a big one is the extra restrictions and rigidness of policies in some of the largest platforms. The limitations on targeting capabilities for political advertisers and cumbersome verification processes have created frustration. Those headaches, combined with the short attention span of social audiences have shifted political ad dollars to other channels. It’s very difficult to make an emotional connection with a potential voter in a 2-second view.

Weisler: What advice would you give political advertisers preparing for the 2024 election?

Briscoe: The easy answer is to ensure that they have a solid CTV strategy, combined with other supporting digital tactics. Consumer usage of CTV continues to increase, and political ads will be everywhere in this channel this Fall. The other advice is to prepare for longer vendor creative approval processes. We are seeing more and more publishers – especially in the CTV space- scrutinizing the creative from campaigns, and this could cause delays in launching ad campaigns. Even in the automated world of programmatic where transactions occur in milliseconds and speed is assumed, we’ve seen automated creative review processes implemented by some of the large ad exchanges create headaches. One example is falsely rejecting political ads as “online gambling” because of a phrase like “[candidate] wants to gamble with social security.” Machine review is very limited in understanding political messaging, and the appeals process to get a human to review an ad and remove the rejection can take multiple days. Until automated processes improve, campaigns need to plan ahead as much as possible to avoid missing out on conveying a timely message.

This article first appeared in www.Mediapost.com

Artwork by Charlene Weisler

Making a Difference in Our Industry. Q&A with Kelly Wenzel

Kelly Wenzel is the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) for Centro, which is a firm that is on a mission to reinvent the media industry through programmatic solutions. Wenzel is also on a mission. In addition to helping advance Centro’s programmatic offerings, she is also deeply committed to mentoring and promoting women in the media technology field and in advancing work / life balance for working mothers. In short, she is making a difference both in how our industry works and in how we work in our industry.   Her efforts have contributed to Centro’s reputation as the top place to work in advertising and media (according to both Fortune and Advertising Age).

In this inspiring interview, Wenzel talks about her career, the advance of programmatic, how she achieves life and work balance and how, as an industry, we can help the advancement and achievement of young talented women. She also offers some ideas as to how the media landscape will trend over the next few years.

There are four videos in this interview:

Video                                                  Length in minutes
Background                                        5:45
Centro and Ad Tech                           5:34
Mentoring and Life Balance              7:39
Predictions                                         4:03

Charlene Weisler interviews Centro CMO Kelly Wenzel who talks about her background  in the 5:45 minute video:

CW: How has digital media changed since you first entered it in 2009?

KW: Just a few years ago it was an RFP (request for proposal) game. RFPs rolled in and as a marketer you didn’t need to focus on lead generation – everybody knew who you were. It was more about branding and exposure in the ad tech sector. Now it is much more about a holistic brand strategy, being very on-purpose with your brand and producing relevant, meaningful content that your customers want to consume. You still need to think about lead generation – how I am going to distribute and promote that content - but ad tech is now such a confusing and cluttered space that, as a marketer, we spend a lot more time on thought leadership, on education and on demystifying this space.

CW: I know that Programmatic is part of your business. How do you define Programmatic?

KW: There are people who think that Programmatic is synonymous with real time bidding (RTB) – buying inventory through an exchange based on an auction. That’s an older, slightly outdated definition. More folks are ascribing to the broader view which is Programmatic is about automation – anything that can be automated in the life cycle of a media campaign will be automated. By that definition, everything that Centro does is Programmatic because every campaign runs through the Centro Platform; nothing is done manually. Unfortunately, too many people still believe that Programmatic means that bidding on lower quality or remnant impressions from lower quality publishers or an exchange. That is also an outdated view but it takes time to change perceptions. 

Kelly Wenzel talks to Charlene Weisler about her work at Centro and about the Ad Tech industry in this 5:34 minute video:

CW: I know that you are deeply involved in mentorship. Can you talk about that?

KW: Yes. I was blessed to have a mentor very early in my career. My first job out of college I was a copywriter at an agency and one of the creative directors took me under her wing. It made a world of difference for a green 22 year old, fresh out of school, trying to navigate her first corporate environment. It made such a tremendous impact on me that I resolved to do the same for others down the line when I was in a position to do so. I have made that my mission. It is something that I make a priority.  I mentor women within Centro and I also mentor women via industry organizations like Women Advancing and Advertising Women of New York (AWNY).  

Mentorship can be pivotal to a young person's career. In this 7:39 minute video, Kelly Wenzel talks to Charlene Weisler about her efforts mentoring the next generation and her abilities in life balance.

CW: How can more women get involved? How can one get started?

KW: First, look around. There are probably women surrounding you in the workplace today that would benefit from a piece of wisdom, a boost, an affirmation. Start there. What Sheryl Sandberg wrote in “Lean In” was very true in that mentors find you. When I think of the women I mentor inside Centro, many of those relationships have been initiated by me. You see something as a leader, some spark or skill that you want to cultivate and nurture. Another fantastic benefit of “Lean In” is how proactive women now are about asking for mentorship or guidance.

CW: You are the mother of young children and also have a high powered job. How do you maintain work / life balance?

KW: Look, I struggle with this. I have two young children – twins who are five. I travel a lot right now, which takes a toll. Here is some of the best pieces advice I have gotten and implemented: Don’t think that it is ever a balance. It is more about work / life integration. Like a scale, it is going to go up and down and you have to be ready to be on that seesaw. There will be times when work is getting a little bit more of your attention and there will be times when your family is getting a little bit more of your attention. Just be conscious of riding that wave and managing it as best as you can. Don’t expect many times of perfect balance – I might get that for half an hour at a time!

The other thing that is helpful to me is purely mental. It is a mindset shift where I have a new relationship with my guilt. I was feeling guilt a lot about being away and the time I wasn’t spending with my children. Now, I try to just own my choices. If I am choosing to have a career, choosing to be a CMO at a thriving growing software company, well that is my choice. And with it comes compromise that I have to make on the home front. As soon as you own your choice, work is not a “have to” or a “must” or an “obligation” and that reframes everything. It’s a much more empowered way to move through the world.

In this final video, Kelly Wenzel shares some of her predictions about the media landscape with Charlene Weisler. This video is 4:03 minutes:

This article first appeared on Women Advancing on www.MediaBizBloggers.com