AWNY 2024: What brands can take from the U.S. presidential election

From left to right: Brooks Miller, Jeremy Thompson, Kahlil Greene and Gabe Gomez 

Brands should steal a page from the Kamala Harris and Donald Trump campaign playbooks as the candidates battle it out ahead of the U.S. presidential election on Nov. 5.

How? Leverage specific communities to amplify your messaging. Stay on message, regardless of the platform. Use social media content creators for more than the data-driven metrics they provide. Be fluid and daring.

These were the themes of the Wednesday panel, entitled “A presidential campaign is taking more risks than your brand,” on Day 3 of Advertising Week New York 2024. The panel was moderated by Brooks Miller, EVP of influencer marketing at Edelman, and featured Jeremy Thompson, SVP of public affairs of Edelman Global Advisors and former social media director for Harris; Gen Z historian Kahlil Greene; and Gabe Gomez, social strategy lead at Verizon.

The panel discussion was particularly relevant as Harris undergoes a highly scrutinized media blitz, taking flack for sidestepping legacy media outlets and opting to do the popular “Call Her Daddy” podcast. While Harris’s press tour included 60 Minutes, The View, Howard Stern and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Thompson noted the importance of concise messaging, particularly, in Harris’s case, around hot-button issues of reproductive rights after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022.

“Did you notice that every time she rolled up to a place, she had the same thing to say each time,” Thompson said. “That repetition and consistency of messaging is crazy important.”

For its part, the Trump campaign proves that it’s important to know, and play to, your audience, Thompson added. He cited Trump’s recent interview with radio personality Dave Ramsey, who is known for discussing budgets and the economy, as evidence that the Trump campaign knows who it is appealing to. “The reality is, politics isn’t as sexy as we’d like it to be,” he said. “And if you’re going to tackle those audiences, to turn out the vote, you have to go where your audience is.”

As important as message consistency is, the ability of both campaigns to “go with the flow” has been eye-opening, Greene said. It’s also an approach brands should take, he added. Take, for instance, Harris leaning into the coconut tree meme and the viral tweet from Charli XCX “Kamala IS brat,” as well as the Trump campaign capitalizing on the bandaged ear imagery and memorabilia after he narrowly survived the first of two assassination attempts.

These also act as examples of leveraging social media and influencers, with both the Harris and Trump campaigns adapting to younger, tech-savvy audiences. In 2020, for instance, the Biden administration enlisted the insights of TikTok creators. At the time, the White House communications team arranged for 30 creators to meet with the National Security Council for a briefing on the Russian invasion of Ukraine, a move that was parodied on Saturday Night Live. In fact, Greene himself was parodied in SNL’s cold open.

While the idea was lampooned, Thompson said it’s important for brands to take risks like the White House did.

“We’re seeing almost the opposite amount of risk taking on the brand side,” Thompson said. “A lot of brands are starting to become incredibly hesitant to work with creators, to work in this kind of risk-taking environment.”

And the reason for that hesitancy is understandable, “because when brands fail big, other brands notice,” Gomez said, citing the failure of Bud Light after its campaign using a transgender influencer, which led to a decline in sales by 10.5% after conservative backlash. “That’s all brands talked about for a while.”

Miller agreed: “No one wants to be in the town square with their pants down,” she said, adding presidential candidates and brands must be prepared before they have these potentially polarizing conversations publicly.

“Brands, realistically, can’t be everywhere all at once,” Gomez said. “If they did, they might not do it all well.” Instead, a brand should agree beforehand on what its focus is and identify three spaces to push that singular message. “Once you identify those spaces, let’s chat with our legal team, let’s say, ‘can we have a scale of low, medium, high in terms of where and what can we do? What risks can we take?’”

Greene said where both the Harris and Trump campaigns are unique is their investment in content creators. “That goes way beyond monetary investment or getting creators on board…they’re really wining and wining creators and going above and beyond a briefing.”

Gomez emphasized the importance of leveraging communities to amplify a brand’s message. “The content and the messaging are directly fed by what other people are saying and what other communities that care about these candidates are saying as well. I think brands really need to take that cue. This is a great case study for exactly that. Instead of a brand going into a meeting room and having ideas in a bit of a vacuum with executives, how can they bring the insights from the community and bring that into the room?”