Two of the major challenges campaigns will face in next year’s midterm and beyond: accurate media measurement and creating spots that can find their targets in an increasingly diffuse landscape.
In a conversation with C&E, Raghu Devaguptapu, partner at the Democratic firm Left Hook, said the biggest challenge for campaigns at the moment is how much tougher it’s become to reach people — a problem that stretches across the industry from survey research to media strategy.
“You look at a lot of the different streaming devices that the majority of Americans use — we can’t advertise on them,” said Devaguptapu. “It’s just increasingly diffuse and that’s a real challenge.”
Case in point are digital channels with tons of eyeballs that political advertisers simply don’t have access to: Netflix, HBO Max, and Disney Plus, for example.
In one sense, it creates more pressure on the content that campaigns are creating, but Devaguptapu warned ad makers not to get caught up in trying to make every spot an outside-the-box creation. It’s still about building a solid narrative arc throughout the campaign, even when there’s added pressure on the creative to break through.
“In this environment, campaigns need more content overall,” he said. “And there’s really something to building content for the platform you’re trying to be on. So we need different types of creative that work more effectively on the platforms you’re on, and you just need more of it.”
And while that’s a big challenge, said Devaguptapu, it’s also an opportunity “to tell deeper and more meaningful stories about candidates and the electorate and causes.”
