In his recently started bid to be the 2020 Democratic presidential nominee, billionaire Mike Bloomberg is running an untested, historic marketing campaign that could spell serious ramifications for American politics. The former Republican and New York City mayor is worth $63 billion and has already spent over a whopping $300 million on campaign infrastructure like state offices and staff hires as well as an unprecedented media blitz of advertising on traditional TV, Google's
In an unusual effort to make Bloomberg seem "hip," cool, and trendy, especially for the younger demographics who spend much time online, his campaign is directly paying so-called social media "influencers" to make memes that make him seem cool. An initial report claimed Bloomberg is paying $150 to social media influencers with 1,000 to 100,000 followers in order to create original content shows why Bloomberg would be the most electable and best presidential candidate. Bloomberg's campaign is working with Tribe, a firm partnering with around 70,000 aspiring influencers, in order to solicit and curate original meme content.
While $150 per a pop might seem expensive to other campaigns, Bloomberg's is experimenting with his mountain of cash. The campaign likely conducted a cost-benefit analysis and discovered the cost of paying influencers is well worth the benefit of outreach among millennials and Gen Z social media users. Now Facebook changed its advertising rules to allow branded content from political candidates, giving the green light to previously banned content like political memes and other sponsored posts.
While Bloomberg's advertising push and social media meme initiative seem untested but harmless, his real intentions are arguably more nefarious. Bloomberg is skipping the 4 early voting states but heavily investing in the Super Tuesday slate. Despite being shut out of debates so far, he is betting his rising poll numbers due to the advertising blitz will translate into a stronger than expected Super Tuesday finish. He hopes the results will push fellow moderates Joe Biden, Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), and even Pete Buttigieg out of the race to support him against the progressive wing. Even if Bloomberg does not outperform that day, he commands the vast resources needed to compete until the last primaries during the summer.
Bloomberg's endgame is persuading the Democratic Party establishment to eschew Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT), who could win a plurality of delegates, and instead award the presidential nomination to him at the national convention with another moderate running mate like Hillary Clinton. While such a move would be unprecedented and extremely controversial and possibly damaging to the Democratic Party, Bloomberg believes his massive fortune can convince party elites and delegates to switch over in order to defeat President Donald Trump in November.
The author is an independent voter sharing his own opinion.
- 1. https://www.axios.com/bloomberg-spending-2020-election-2ceac839-1efc-4914-afe2-66016ac20faf.html
- 2. https://www.cnbc.com/2020/02/13/mike-bloomberg-pays-influencers-to-post-memes-for-2020-campaign.html
- 3. https://www.thedailybeast.com/mike-bloomberg-is-paying-influencers-to-make-him-seem-cool-9
- 4. https://www.politico.com/news/2020/02/14/bloomberg-meme-changes-facebook-instagram-115333
- 5. https://www.cnn.com/2020/02/16/politics/michael-bloomberg-analysis/index.html