2020 is an election year, which means it’s a big year for political campaigns. This election, targeting has never been more paramount. Your strategy should focus on undecided or first-time voters, specifically GenZennials. GenZennials are going to have a huge impact on this election, with over 70 million eligible voters. If you can find success in capturing these individuals in your campaign, you will have an advantage influencing their decisions.
About GenZennials
GenZennials are young millennials and older Gen Zers, aged 18-29, and they make up one of the largest voting blocks in the United States. Ninety-two percent of them plan to vote in the Presidential election, with 25% supporting the Democratic party and 25% supporting Republicans. However, a third of them are undecided when it comes to their candidate of choice, which means you can make an impact in influencing voter decision. This generation is digitally savvy, spending almost their entire lives with internet access, smartphones and social media. To connect with them, you’ll need to reach them where they consume media in a format they respond to—connected TV (CTV).
Why CTV?
GenZennials are made up of cord-cutters and cord-nevers. In fact, only 31% of undecided GenZennials watch traditional TV, so reaching them with traditional linear TV ads isn’t an ideal option. Besides cord-cutting, they spend a lot of their time on social media—Twitter and Instagram—and with new regulations put in place, it is a challenge to reach them with your political ads on those platforms. So, in order to engage with this generation where they are, you need to explore other digital channels and according to a study conducted by Telaria and Sling TV, that is CTV. As GenZennials spend more time on CTV than any other medium, it should be your key ad channel—and it’s a booming one as GroupM forecasts political ad spend on CTV to be $10 billion leading up to the election.
Generally, video ads increase brand recall, and since 70% of GenZennials also prefer ads with videos, CTV ads not only gives them an ad format they prefer, but it increases recall. Cygnal found that viewers were more likely to be influenced on a voting decision when they watched a political video ad and political ad recall was also twice as high on CTV compared to desktop display. In order to run competitive ads and ensure success with this generation, you will want to include CTV to build a strong political campaign.
How to Run a Successful CTV Campaign
To run a successful CTV campaign, you need to ensure you have leveraged the right targeting options. We’ve laid out a few to help you get started.
3rd-Party Audiences
Third-party data providers are a great way to capture the audiences you want to reach. Below are some specific audience segments that are relevant to a political campaign:
- L2 Voter Data > Individual Demographics > Age > Age 18 to 24 > Y
- ALC > Consumer > Age > Generation Z
- AnalyticsIQ > Demographics > Generation > Generation Z
- US > Eyeota > Demo > Generation > Gen Z / Post Millennials
- PeoplefindersDaaS > Demographic > Age > Lifestages > Genz
1st-Party Data
First-party data is invaluable for your digital campaigns, but especially for political advertising. If you’ve held a rally or started a petition, have monthly newsletters or launched a survey, you likely have a list of people who participated. When you use a DSP that has integrations with CRM providers–like LiveRamp, Adobe Audience Manager or Salesforce–you can seamlessly upload your data to target people you know have shown interest in your candidate’s platform.
Custom Segments
Reach high-intent audiences based on what users are reading online with custom audience segments. You’re able to target anyone in the GenZennial age bracket in your district that has been researching your party, or your opposition. Knowing that they have been searching online demonstrates that the audience has an interest in learning more about your candidate—giving you an advantage to reach them.
Congressional Targeting
Target your audience by district. Select the district your candidate is running in to ensure you are targeting the right geo. It’s as simple as that!
Eye Catching Ads
Now that you have your audiences, you’re going to need a solid ad. The beauty of CTV is that there is no need to reinvent the wheel when it comes to your creatives. You can use any videos you already have, or even take static images to create a video. There are some best practices we recommend when it comes to creating a video ad, so be sure to check them out here!
GenZennials are going to be an influential demographic to winning the 2020 election, and to reach these new, first-time voters, CTV is the channel you want to include in your campaign strategy. As you build your campaign strategy, remember to consider a cross-channel approach to be successful with GenZennials. Since they are more receptive to programmatic advertising and targeting, ensure you include retargeting to serve display and native ads to anyone who has seen your CTV ad, keeping you top of mind and encouraging them to learn more, and vote for your candidate!
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