• by Philip Rosenstein , Staff Writer, September 13, 2016

Rocket Fuel is a programmatic marketing platform that has DSP and DMP offerings and works with a range of political and advocacy groups.

The conversation below has been edited for clarity.

Red, White & Blog: How would you describe the role of digital marketing in the 2016 election, in comparison to the 2008 and 2012 cycles?

Randy Wootton, CEO, Rocket Fuel: In general terms, 2008 was dominated by the advent of social media as a means to reach and interact with voters across the country. The 2012 cycle saw campaigns begin to aggregate voter data in more sophisticated ways, enhancing the ability of political marketers to segment and target more precise sections of the electorate.

In the current 2016 cycle, political marketers are building on the data troves developed over the years to target voters in an increasingly precise fashion. Programmatic and real-time capabilities have been the major developments across the political-marketing landscape.

Campaigns have improved their fundraising efforts, effectively retargeting potential swing voters and die-hard supporters with appropriate messages down to the individual. Geofenced campaigns and message testing are ubiquitous among the most sophisticated campaigns.

RW&B: Between the primaries and the general election, how have the presidential contenders modified their digital marketing strategies?

Wootton: Clinton started early with a classically robust campaign strategy. She spent on TV and digital advertising using the DNC to build on Obama’s success. Trump relied heavily on social media and Twitter to build his base of supporters and drive the conversation in the primaries.

Recently, Donald Trump has moved into the traditional realm of political advertising, spending both online and on TV. The targeting tactics are still relatively basic.

RW&B: How sophisticated are local and statewide campaigns becoming in 2016?

Wootton: Some Senate races are developing enhanced targeting operations, as are a few Congressional candidates. It really depends on how much money down-ballot candidates raise.

RW&B: What metrics are political marketers using to determine the success of their advertising efforts?

Wootton: The first is how much money an ad campaign is able to raise for the candidate. More specifically, marketers will look at the average dollar return from an ad and will constantly tweak the messaging or creative. There is also the number of supporters that become increasingly engaged after seeing an ad: which ads get the most users clicking through to volunteer or become digital evangelists for the campaign.

RW&B: Where do you see the biggest potential for political advertising for 2020 and beyond?

Wootton: Digital is here to stay. Once this election is over and the results are in, political marketers will take a hard look at successes and develop a formidable best practice playbook for use going forward.

Programmatic TV is one medium that has yet to be effectively used by political candidates. I anticipate it will make significant waves in 2020 as the digitization of TV moves further along. Political marketers will eventually have the same abilities to target down to the household or even the individual on TV as they now have on mobile and desktop.

Eventually, political advertising, like general consumer advertising, will be run programmatically end-to-end. Machine learning and artificial intelligence capabilities may diminish the role of media planners as various assets can be loaded up, tested and modified for the greatest efficiency programmatically.