a harris media case study: portman for senate
TRANSCRIPT
PORTMANA CASE STUDY
FOR SENATE
HARRIS MEDIA IS PROUD TO HAVE
WORKED WITH SENATOR ROB
PORTMAN’S RE-ELECTION CAMPAIGN
-- THE CONSENSUS BEST CAMPAIGN
OF THE 2016 CYCLE.
2016 A A P C P O L L I E AWA R D - G O L D -
INTERNET ADVERTISING - BEST USE OF TARGETING
C A M PA I G N S & E L E C T I O N S 2016 R E E D
AWA R D S - BEST USE OF ONLINE TARGETING
“Google says Republican Senator Portman of Ohio has been one of
the savviest users of its digital resources this campaign season. The
company said the incumbent U.S. senator’s well-funded campaign is
more effectively using data mining, YouTube ads and search promotion
this year in his race against Democratic ex-Gov. Ted Strickland than most
candidates.” – ASSOCIATED PRESS
“The senator’s campaign, led by manager Corry Bliss, was unusually
sophisticated, relying on cutting-edge technology to identify and appeal
to specific groups of voters with messages that best appealed to them.”
– CLEVEL AND.COM
PRESS“This is how you do search ads on your opponent. #ohsen Kudos
@robportman and @HarrisMedia”
-@LEECDINDC
“@robportman is running one of the savviest digital efforts this cycle #OHSen” -@ALI_JAE
4
5
DON’T WAIT - START EARLY AND REMAIN ACTIVEWe began growing Senator Portman’s online audience and branding Ted Strickland among the campaign’s identified voter segments shortly after the 2014 cycle.
INTEGRATEEvery piece of your campaign should be working with the same data. Silos create disconnects that lead to losses.
BE CREATIVEWe placed the first-ever Senate campaign Snapchat filter on behalf of Senator Portman, and we didn’t stop there. From 360 degree videos to memes trolling Retread Ted, we created content that stood out from the noise.
WIN SEARCHNo amount of new tools or flashy headlines can help a campaign that forgets the foundation of a digital presence. When voters have questions, they turn to search. When they do, you want them to see your message front and center - not your opponent.
GIVE VOTERS A REASONTO WATCHWe created more effective YouTube advertising campaigns for Senator Portman through our understanding of the platform - you have to catch a voter’s attention before they choose to skip.
KEY LESSONS
1
2
3
F R O M H A R R I S M E D I A’S W O R K W I T H S E N AT O R P O R T M A N
STARTED EARLY.
Harris Media started working with Senator Portman in 2014, more than 18 months before Election Day.
DEDICATED TEAM
Harris Media placed a staffer on the ground full-time in Ohio for the last 100 days.
A BIGGER PIECE OF THE PIE
The Portman for Senate campaign committed more resources to digital than any other
senate campaign.
HOW HE WON
The 2016 Ohio Senate race was considered to be one of the toughest in the country. Incumbent Senator Portman was given a strong challenger in former Ohio Governor Ted Strickland.
By committing significant resources to digital early in the campaign, Senator Portman turned one of the most competitive races of the cycle into the marquee victory of the election season, beating Strickland by 21.4%.
WHAT HE WON BY
Some political firsts by the Portman campaign included the first Senate Snapchat geofilter on February 5, 2016.
The Portman campaign also created the first 360 degree political attack ad on Facebook. The ad was a 360 degree view of the top 10 counties to have lost jobs under Governor Ted Strickland.
FIRST 360 POLITICAL ATTACK AD AND FIRST SENATE GEOFILTER
From the onset of the campaign, we executed a statewide search campaign on Senator Portman and Ted Strickland’s names. Through the course of the election, Senator Portman was searched more times than Strickland in 85 of Ohio’s 88 counties. That’s 377,943 and 265,470 searches, respectively. Depending upon the search,
ROB V. TED SEARCH
PORTMAN STRICKL AND DIFFERENCE
HAMILTON COUNT Y 42,919 22,080 20,839
FRANKLIN COUNT Y 73,104 52,484 20,620
CUYAHOGA COUNT Y47,152 32,928 14,224
MONTGOMERY COUNT Y 19,551 11,974 7,577
BUTLER COUNT Y11,972 6,389 5,583
voters saw positive information we promoted on Senator Portman’s name or negative information we tied to Strickland’s searches.
During the critical get-out-the-vote stretch of the last month, Senator Portman experienced a click-through rate of 9.52%
PORTMAN SEARCH ADS BY DAY/HOUROverall, Senator Portman was searched 377,943 times. Of those searches, the majority were between 9:00AM and 12:00PM, with a bump at 6:00PM when voters were returning from work. Monday and Tuesday were the most active days for search on Senator Portman’s name.
SEARCH FOR TED STRICKL AND
Portman ran an elaborate search and display campaign to the microsite ohiolostjobs.com. The ads were tailored for each of Ohio’s 88 counties, and showed how many jobs were lost while Ted Strickland was governor. The ads were targeted to Ted Strickland-specific searches.
OHIO LOST JOBS
TESTING AND OPTIMIZATION Harris Media and Google worked together to test how effective display ads were. By measuring search traffic behavior we received data on what messages were resonating with people.
SEARCH LIFT ON HEROIN
650% increases in searches for “Senator Portman”
506% increases in searches for “Drug Addiction”
35% increases in searches for “Addiction”
37.4% increases in searches from microtargeted audiences.
35% increases in searches from Google’s Affinity audiences.
TrueView ads are video ads on YouTube.
Because YouTube allows viewers to skip
ads after 5 seconds, we tested bumpers
ahead of videos to increase view rates.
One bumper increased the view rate by 13% and decreased the cost-per-view by 6 cents.
YOUTUBE ADVERTISING
Early on, the Portman for Senate Campaign rebranded Ted Strickland as “Retread Ted” to show that, if elected, Strickland would take Ohio backwards.
We created the microsite retreadted.com and social accounts for “Retread Ted” for the purpose of calling Ted Strickland out on the issues. From a naked eye, it looks like the page doesn’t involve Senator Portman, which allowed us to keep the “Senator Portman” pages positive.
RETREAD TED
RETREADTED.COM
Digital media is a “mobile first” atmosphere. Understanding this, we designed all of our websites for Senator Portman for mobile viewership. Each of our negative microsites attacking Retread Ted, which were the bulk of the online persuasion campaigns, received more than 65% of traffic from mobile devices.
Mobile Visits
66%Mobile Visits
78%
Mobile Visits
57%Mobile Visits
70%
MOBILE VISITS
SOCIAL MEDIA
FACEBOOK | 182,300 TWITTER | 18,292
