This month, our team is diving into AI challenges and opportunities, emerging ad placements, and the impact of voter engagement ahead of the 2023 and 2024 cycles.
Read something particularly interesting this month about voting trends, media, or political tech? Drop us a comment below and let us know what you’re reading!
Meta Is Rolling Out Its First Gen AI Tools For Ad Creative. Meta (the platform behind Facebook and Instagram) has rolled out generative AI tools for a small group of test advertisers. These AI-powered tools are set to gradually become available to a wider range of advertisers throughout the coming year. The tools — including text variation, background generation, and image cropping — are designed to make it easier and quicker to create multiple, personalized ad versions. In early reports, test advertisers report time savings with these tools, something we’re watching closely for political campaigns who are more often than not pressed for time and energy when creating new ad content.
Lawmakers Question Meta and X on How They’ll Police AI-generated Political Deepfakes. As the 2024 Presidential election approaches, lawmakers are pressuring social media platforms, including Meta and X (formerly Twitter), to impose labels on AI-generated political advertisements. Concerns have been raised about the potential of AI-generated content to manipulate public perception and spread misinformation. Google already announced that it will require clear disclaimers on AI-generated election ads on its platforms, including YouTube. The news around AI — in terms of both the potential challenges and opportunities —will be monitored closely by political campaigns in the lead up to ‘24 elections.
Spotify Dips into CTV Advertising with Roku Partnership. Spotify is venturing into the Connected TV (CTV) advertising landscape by introducing video ads for its CTV apps, with Roku being its initial partner. Music streaming on CTVs is a popular use case (think of putting on a Spotify playlist on your Roku TV while you cook dinner), effectively turning these screens into speakers. Spotify will begin alpha testing video ads next month, with further market expansions in the pipeline. This expansion into CTV advertising aligns with the broader trend of significant growth in CTV ad spending, expected to reach $25.01 billion in the US this year and $40.90 billion by 2027.
A Taylor Swift Instagram Post Helped Drive a Surge in Voter Registration. And for some pop culture related news — Taylor Swift’s influence was on full display as the singer urged her Instagram followers, totaling 272 million accounts, to register to vote in September. Directing her fans to Vote.org, more than 35,000 registrations were recorded on the platform. This surge of registrations occurred on National Voter Registration Day, marking the highest number since 2020 and a 23% increase from the previous year.
Even for those of us with a (slightly) smaller social media followings — these numbers demonstrate the importance of reminding our networks to register. Candidates and campaigns of all sizes can leverage this strategy by sharing regular voter registration reminders and linking to voter registration resources online and through campaign materials.
Our team is standing by to support the candidates and campaign teams who are stepping up to run. Should you have any questions — or if there is anything our team can do to support your media planning — we’ve included the option to book a time to chat here:
While programmatic advertising (a process of buying digital ad space through real-time bidding and automation) has become a cornerstone for reaching voters, relying solely on this method — or any method — falls short of the maximum reach available to many campaigns. Embracing a multi-channel approach is essential to maximize
This month, our team is exploring the latest social media trends, email security changes (and their impacts for campaigns), and how political ad spending is shaping the advertising industry as a whole in 2024. First look: Meta won’t recommend political content on Threads. Meta, the parent company of Facebook and
In January’’s “What We’re Reading,” the SpeakEasy team is all about content — how to produce it, where folks are consuming it, and which ad formats are successfully shifting audience behavior. Dive in here: Why vertical videos make a difference in your content. With 57% of global video views coming from mobile
