Election season is in full swing, and with that comes an entire slew of exciting new tools and offerings in the fun world of political ad tech. Here are five things on our radar:
- Spotify: Obama’s killing the Spotify game, for sure – but what’s getting ad folks excited is that the global music streaming service has finally opened its doors to political clients. That’s audio, video, and display assets paired with solid targeting capabilities…not to mention 70% of its user base is in the prime 18-34 segment.
- Google: (affinity segments): while Google has always been a vital component of digital media planning, the latest roundup of advertising updates from the tech behemoth include the introduction of political affinity segments to its AdWords, YouTube, and DoubleClick offerings. Also new: advertisers can now build custom affinities around political affiliation, candidates, and political issues. Win and win.
- Snapchat: while targeting capabilities have lagged in comparison to leading ad networks, Snapchat’s unique medium has offered some creative branding opportunities for political committees, advocacy groups, and candidates alike. Sponsored lenses and paid filters top our Snapchat must-haves for a quick branding play or press pop. More to come on effective video ad buys though…
- Instagram: all the allure of Snapchat, but with the data and targeting machine of Facebook. That’s nearly 70 million voting age users. Enough said.
- Facebook: (custom audiences): this latest update from Facebook is a big one, at least in a data sense. Now, custom audiences aren’t new…in fact, they have been a fundamental part of Facebook advertising for as long as we can remember. What we’re loving is new and improved custom audience matching, which is finally capable of processing multiple data types…of particular importance when you’re trying to bridge offline (i.e. mail, donor lists, voter files, etc.) to online audiences.