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Behind Pritzker’s online push

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* Chicago Magazine’s Edward McClelland couldn’t get away from JB Pritzker’s constant ads on Spotify, so he wrote about it…

Pritzker isn’t just advertising on Spotify and YouTube, but on Pandora, Hulu, and Facebook, according to his communications director, Galia Slayen. She called the campaign’s digital program “honestly one of the best in the nation. We’re reaching voters in ways voters have never been reached before, and we’re doing it on a scale it’s never been done [before].”

Digital platforms, she explained, allow politicians to reach various demographic groups more precisely than TV or radio. For instance, the Pritzker campaign targeted Facebook and YouTube ads at voters who favored marijuana legalization by using data from an online survey by Civis Analytics. The survey asked voters’ opinions on a wide variety of issues; Civis then used that data to model voters likely to be pro-legalization.

“You have so much data about who you’re reaching,” Meininger said. “In digital, I know X, Y, and Z about people who listen to Coffee Table Jazz. Even if they’re not picking out you, they’ll do a profile about people who listen to this type of music.”

In 2016, Hillary Clinton won voters under 45, while Donald Trump won voters over 45. Younger people are more likely to use streaming services, which makes digital advertising more important for Democrats.

“Democrats, especially, need to invest more in digital,” said Pritzker’s digital director, Megan Clasen. “Digital reaches young people and TV reaches older people.”

posted by Rich Miller
Friday, Nov 2, 18 @ 9:52 am

Comments

I got an MRI this morning and the technician played classical music on Spotify in the earphones they gave me. Two JB ads between the Beethoven, Bach and Brahms.

Comment by BC Friday, Nov 2, 18 @ 10:00 am
Money well spent…

With $174 million spent, they can do a Spotify thingy, but can’t get Pritzker’s property taxes corrected to the political point until its called a “Scheme to Defraud” and can’t handle paid staff that sue for discrimination three weeks out.

But, thank goodness, they got Spotify…

That’s… $300,000+ a day, every day… and Spotify.

Comment by Oswego Willy Friday, Nov 2, 18 @ 10:04 am
It seems like every election cycle, some campaign staff and consultants want to come out and take a curtain call. For the love of mercy, wait until the last act is finished.

Oh, and you might not want to brag about how you are using data that voters never intended you to have in ways they never intended you to use it.

Your intentions might be noble, but my guess is that the voters who don’t like the idea of marijuana use being criminalized don’t like the idea of there being a database of voters who support the legalization of marijuana in the hands of some private company they have never heard of. Which some might see as a proxy for recreational marijuana users.

Comment by Act Like You've Been There Friday, Nov 2, 18 @ 10:13 am
==they can do a Spotify thingy==

LOL, you’ve never sounded older.

Comment by Arsenal Friday, Nov 2, 18 @ 10:14 am
==but my guess is that the voters who don’t like the idea of marijuana use being criminalized don’t like the idea of there being a database of voters who support the legalization of marijuana in the hands of some private company they have never heard of==

Given that they voluntarily took part in the survey, my guess is your guess is wrong.

Comment by Arsenal Friday, Nov 2, 18 @ 10:19 am
You can crow about it being “one of the best in the nation” Galia, and maybe it is. But it’s still invasive, time wasting, and annoying no matter what age one is when we are forced to watch it.

Comment by Responsa Friday, Nov 2, 18 @ 10:21 am
Great that you can know X,Y,Z about people who listen to coffee table jazz but how useful is that?

In the early days of Data Warehousing (Big Data the early years), one of the big examples that was used was the correlation that was found between beer sales and diaper sales on Fridays. But you don’t see beer next to diapers because it doesn’t work with how groceries are sold.

The second one was a correlation between the sale of an specific doll and a specific brand of gum, the merchandiser said that is nice but you are not going to put the two next to each other. There was a consultant back in the day (middle 90’s) who was offering $1,000 to someone who used these insights to change a marketing or merchandising decision. He had made the offer for a couple of years back then and no one had taken him up on it.

In AI (hey, current reference) there is a risk of overfitting, using too many indicators/factors/values about a specific data point (person, weather sensor reading, etc). Knowing too much about what you are trying to model may actually be worse when it comes to getting the model right vs knowing too little when it comes to getting the model right.

Thanks to the spend and the area that is being covered JB is going to have a unique dataset when it comes to Illinois voters, it is going to be interesting to see how it will be used and misused (not even in an ‘evil’ sense, but just wrong). Also how it will be used to help those he wants to help and harm those he wants to harm, it could end up as big (if not bigger) than the stick Madigan has.

Comment by OneMan Friday, Nov 2, 18 @ 10:24 am
I have a 15 yr old nephew and he said the constant JB ads on Spotify were really annoying - stated if he could vote he’d vote against JB for annoying him with the constant ads on Spotify.

Also, if that trend is bigger than just my nephew, Spotify may get a two-fer: (a) ad revenue from campaigns; and (b) increase in Premium service subscriptions so people don’t have to listen to the ads anymore.

Comment by unclesam Friday, Nov 2, 18 @ 10:25 am
My deceased spouse has gotten 4 direct mail pieces from a “nonpartisan” group funded by Dems that urge voting because they had not done so recently. They are beating the bushes for voters, which is probably a net gain for them but annoying for internet users and insensitive to others.

Comment by Anonymous Friday, Nov 2, 18 @ 10:37 am
Is the takeaway that for $174 million, you can put a bunch of ads on social media, jumble the who and where stuff it’s seen… and ignoring campaign fundamentals is “kool” cuz there’s ads on Spotify or Facebook?

That’s fun.

“We’ve been hit with a ‘Scheme to Defraud’ because we ignored all that, but did you check out our Spotify ad? It’s way cool.”

“Ten of our employees are suing for discrimination, but look at that Facebook reach.”

With $174 million, it’s not like “we carved out significant money elsewhere to do this”.

It’s more like… “we have an extra $15 million laying around, we need more Spotify”?

California is 2 1/2 times larger than Illinois, yet, Pritzker will have spent more of his personal wealth than anyone… ever.

Is this like… “look what $174 million gets you”?

If there was an actual… limited budget… and this was chosen over something else…

Comment by Oswego Willy Friday, Nov 2, 18 @ 10:41 am
==But it’s still invasive, time wasting, and annoying no matter what age one is when we are forced to watch it.==

It’s an ad. It’s no more annoying than any other ad that interrupts Spotify, YouTube, etc.- nor is it appreciably different than TV or radio ads. You gotta pay for the service somehow, so either buy Premium or deal with the ads.

Comment by Arsenal Friday, Nov 2, 18 @ 10:46 am
@Arsenal -

I don’t think anyone checked a box saying “Please share my survey results with JB Pritzker.”

People get creeped out by their personal data being in the hands of third parties.

Back to my larger point: I can see how this story might help some people, but I do not see how this story helps JB Pritzker.

Comment by Act Like You've Been There Friday, Nov 2, 18 @ 10:55 am
==I don’t think anyone checked a box saying “Please share my survey results with JB Pritzker.”==

Right, but when you have to go to such extreme specificity it shows how silly the argument is. I’m comfortable predicting that anyone who opted in to an online survey assumed it was going to get shared with other people. It’s not like these things are made just because Civis Analytics got curious. I’m also comfortable predicting that the vast majority of people who see ads on Youtube don’t worry about how they were targeted. They just wait for the “Skip Ad” button to appear, lol.

Comment by Arsenal Friday, Nov 2, 18 @ 11:02 am
I have three teenagers who are in the wish they could vote against JB camp because of all the youtube ads.

None can vote so it doesn’t matter this time, but will there be a frustrated teenager wave against him when he runs for re-election? /s

Comment by crockett Friday, Nov 2, 18 @ 11:03 am
A strategy made possible by having all the money in the world. Most campaigns are a lot tougher because you have to choose how to spend. This one is just a case of bombing every outlet with ads.

Comment by West Friday, Nov 2, 18 @ 11:15 am
=== I have a 15 yr old nephew and he said the constant JB ads on Spotify were really annoying ===

to OW’s point: if you arent going to filter for Likely Voters or even Registered Voters, atleast filter for age…

Comment by Act Like You've Been There Friday, Nov 2, 18 @ 11:19 am
Wow…a lot of folks here seem angry at innovation. Yes, parts of the campaign weren’t run well. That’s for sure. However, this appears to be a bright spot in the campaign & I find it interesting. Nothing wrong with wanting to engage your potential voters in an engaging way. (see what I did there?)

@OneMan that was a very interesting history lesson. No snark on that. Just an honest thanks. But I wonder if younger consumers such as myself are more used to over-fitting. For instance, my friends & I always joke that our phones must be listening in bc we’ll get ads about stuff we’ve not searched yet but talked about. But at the end of the day I’ll click on those ads sometimes bc the algorithm got it right. Maybe this works better for the younger voters they’re targeting here?

@Act Like You’ve Been There
I participate in the Civis Surveys all the time. Get sent straight to my email after I checked that I would do follow-ups. It’s a bit foolhardy to think that politicians wouldn’t use the results of a specifically political polling service. That would be like expecting that the phone survey you got asking you about who you’re voting for will be kept private.

Comment by Chicago_Downstater Friday, Nov 2, 18 @ 11:20 am
== It’s no more annoying than any other ad that interrupts ….nor is it appreciably different than TV or radio ads. ==

Sorry Arsenal. That is really not your judgement call to make on behalf of other people. And, any ad that comes in through a personal computer or other personal device is a *very* different thing than any interruption which arrives via a radio or TV ad.

Comment by Responsa Friday, Nov 2, 18 @ 11:20 am
**Great that you can know X,Y,Z about people who listen to coffee table jazz but how useful is that?**

They know a LOT more than just what you’re listening to. Most people likely use facebook to login to Spotify. Spotify knows a TON about their users, and in turn those making digital ad buys have a lot of info to make targeted buys.

Comment by SaulGoodman Friday, Nov 2, 18 @ 11:25 am
Crockett - Do you really think that an add backlash is going to hurt Pritzker in the scheme of things? How about looking at his stated policies and deciding on that basis. Lot’s of people that want cannabis legalization will be voting for Pritzker on that point alone.

Comment by Illinois Resident Friday, Nov 2, 18 @ 11:30 am
===…if you arent going to filter for Likely Voters or even Registered Voters, atleast filter for age…===

When you have “unlimited monies”, it doesn’t matter.

Talk to me when this is the scenario;

“We used 1/4 of our budget, taking away from phone banks, multiple offices, ads, to put this together.”

Having unlimited resources allows for a greater margin of error(s) in any new campaign idea.

With $174 million, you can easily do this.

Comment by Oswego Willy Friday, Nov 2, 18 @ 11:36 am
==And, any ad that comes in through a personal computer or other personal device is a *very* different thing than any interruption which arrives via a radio or TV ad.==

Sorry, Responsa, but that is not really your judgment call to make on behalf of other people.

And lol at the distinction-without-a-difference between “personal devices” and TVs/radios. Is your TV publicly owned or something?

Comment by Arsenal Friday, Nov 2, 18 @ 11:38 am
==Crockett - Do you really think that an add backlash is going to hurt Pritzker in the scheme of things?==

C’mon, he put the snark tag on that line.

Comment by Arsenal Friday, Nov 2, 18 @ 11:39 am
~if you arent going to filter for Likely Voters or even Registered Voters, atleast filter for age~

I thought the point was they aren’t supposed to know enough about the use to filter at all.

I’ve been browsing for a new tv stand online and hey, guess what–all the ads I’m seeing online have something to do with selling me furniture.

Comment by Cheryl44 Friday, Nov 2, 18 @ 11:56 am
I miss the days when Pat Quinn used to mow my lawn for my vote.

Comment by Jose Abreu's next homer Friday, Nov 2, 18 @ 11:59 am
Having spent about 8 years in digital after running campaigns can tell them a few things

1) learn about frequency caps they are your friend in innumerable ways

2) This is not sophisticated targeting because there is no way to burn converters - also running on waste

3) This is a media consultant’s dream impressions/conversions if you’re still trying to run an awareness campaign at this point which is what Radio and Video will ultimately get you this is the equivalence of a direct mail strategy applied to digital. Big mistake big waste.

4) This strategy reminds me of a conversation I had with a campaign about 6 years ago they told me “the media is the message” things did not go well.

Obviously, this probably won’t hurt JB in this cycle, as Rauner has

Comment by DizzyCow Friday, Nov 2, 18 @ 11:59 am
@DizzyCow

That’s some cool info & some really great ideas. It seems to me that campaigns have only started to wade into this stuff since 2008 & the uptake has been slow in a lot of ways. But I’m def no expert.

I’d be really interested to know if there are any campaigns out there that are–to your knowledge–leveraging digital campaigning effectively? Also, what campaigns in your opinion have used digital campaigning least effectively?

I’m just curious; not trying to nitpick. Thanks in advance if you reply. Also, if anyone else “in the know” as they say has opinions that would be cool.

Btw I did google & the closest thing I’ve found are these articles if anyone else is interested, but they didn’t really get at what I was hoping they would:

https://www.adweek.com/digital/facebook-political-election-strategy/

https://www.newmediacampaigns.com/blog/10-common-mistakes-political-campaigns-make-with-facebook-pages

https://www.forbes.com/sites/carriekerpen/2016/07/20/how-to-run-a-successful-presidential-campaign-on-social-media/#aa348622da97

Comment by Chicago_Downstater Friday, Nov 2, 18 @ 12:42 pm
===you’ve never sounded older.===

lol, I was just mocking this idea of self congratulations when you have unlimited resources, less the missteps that riddle this campaign.

I did reference recently a moment in state government to someone and dated it and they indicated their grade school status. This person is an adult… so…

:)

Comment by Oswego Willy Friday, Nov 2, 18 @ 1:25 pm
I just wish they weren’t so darn glib about all the new ways they’re using to annoy us.

I’ll be impressed when they figure out how to use all this to actually get something done AFTER the elections.

Text me/spotify me/YouTube me/FaceBook me/Tweet me/call me when that shuttle lands.

Comment by Leigh John-Ella Friday, Nov 2, 18 @ 1:43 pm
@ChicagoDownstater

Realistically Beto is the model, they get the idea of compounding impressions i.e. building a path where a video view > Issue Advocacy> ID > Advocate > Donor that’s what digital is for.

Beyond that their use of Search outside of the market to drive donations has to be a HUGE contributor to their record fundraising.

Comment by DizzyCow Friday, Nov 2, 18 @ 2:40 pm
==lol, I was just mocking this idea of self congratulations when you have unlimited resources, less the missteps that riddle this campaign.==

s’algood, it’s just that “Spotify thingy” sounds like my pops.

Comment by Arsenal Friday, Nov 2, 18 @ 2:51 pm
No comment on the Spotify thing or digital in general. But the Dems have been all over my part of DuPage- mailers, door knocking, canvassing. That’s pretty traditional stuff.

Comment by DuPage Dave Friday, Nov 2, 18 @ 2:56 pm
===s’algood, it’s just that “Spotify thingy” sounds like my pops.===

I’m just an observer. Campaigns are different these days.

I’m too old for all this, lol

Yikes, I’d like to think I’m still fairly young.

Comment by Oswego Willy Friday, Nov 2, 18 @ 3:00 pm