Biden campaign invests millions into targeted media today. Ava DeSantis writes how the campaign will focus on educating and mobilizing youth, senior, African American, Latino, and AAPI voters.
The Biden campaign will invest $280 million in television and digital media, focusing on “offensive states,” and targeted communities including Latino, African American, and Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) focused programs, and youth and senior audiences. In their announcement, the campaign said their strategy is “one of addition,” contrasting this with Trump’s “paid media program which has driven a negative message of division and invested the majority of their resources into a smaller subset of states.”
The campaign’s focus on African American media, a press release claimed “[emphasizes] Biden’s commitment to speak to and meet Black voters where they are.” The campaign will work with African American owned media outlets to accomplish this. The campaign plans to reserve airtime on BET, TV1, Bounce, and OWN, which they believe will reach approximately half of African American households.
To reach Latino voters, the campaign will reserve TV spots in sports, entertainment specials, VOD, and addressable, local radio influencers, and news spots on Univision, Mitu, Pandora, and Vevo.
To engage AAPI voters, the campaign will invest in local programming in AAPI neighborhoods and communities. The campaign already began targeted programming for youth and senior voters and will continue to expand and promote this work. Senior-targeted programs highlight the risk of COVID-19 for elders. For young voters, the campaign will focus on digital media, as opposed to TV programming.
Swing states and persuasion ads
The programming will highlight Biden’s leadership during the COVID-19 crisis. TV and digital inventory was already invested in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Florida, North Carolina, Arizona, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, Colorado, Virginia, Georgia, Iowa, Ohio, and Texas. These states are predicted to be either ‘toss up’ states or states which ‘lean’ Democrat or Republican, during the 2020 election.
High fundraising numbers, repeatedly above those of the Trump campaign, allow the Biden campaign to invest in persuasion and educational programming. The campaign will work to educate voters about mail-in voting during the COVID-19 crisis and Biden policy.