With the 2024 presidential election finalized, there were shifts in marketing platforms that took place during the election and how this could change moving forward. Dear Anna discusses where engagement surged and presents an overview on different platforms. In this episode, Anna Anderson, CEO of Art Unlimited, explains how marketing was impacted. 

Behavioral Shifts in Marketing Consumption

The 2024 presidential election revealed shifts in media consumption, with campaigns leveraging podcasters and influencers alongside mainstream media, marking a turning point in how Americans make decisions. Anna Anderson, CEO of Art Unlimited, advises contractors to reassess marketing channels during election cycles to stay effective amid changing consumer behavior and heightened competition.

“It was fascinating to see the shifts in consumer behavior/media consumption at massive levels,” Anderson said. “We saw a mix of mainstream media but we also saw the very visible shifts where podcasters were leveraged. That’s something we didn’t see at such scale in previous elections.

“That’s a shift in how they make decisions,” Anderson said.

What does this mean for contractors?

“Any time you go through a massive period of crisis (such as COVID), these are moments when we see data shifts.

“We were measuring what is social media consumption across the big channels. What is happening in Meta/Facebook, we saw big shifts in consumption. When we looked at other platforms, such as LinkedIn, they were stable and didn’t get too political.”

Marketing expert Anna Anderson, CEO of Art Unlimited, previously discussed how contractors should market during mid-term elections, and is back to help contractors keep their messaging from being lost among a torrent of political ads.

Even before analyzing numbers and costs, Anderson’s first piece of advice is to conduct an overall assessment of what channels you’re advertising in, such as TV and radio, and go from there.

“You lay out all of those different channels. Then what you need to begin asking … yourself and your team is, are these the same types of media channels that a political campaign would be leveraging as well?” Anderson said several months ago.

From there, Anderson says it’s a matter of examining the cost of marketing during an election cycle and determining what the most effective methods will be for your company to win over people desensitized by a constant barrage of ads.

For those of us in the trades—even though we’re not the mainstream media—we still give out critical information to those in the industry in regards to policies, what we can expect from the incoming administration and so forth. But an interview statistic that has come out has been the Gallup poll talking about the trust in the media and how it’s fallen to an all-time low at 32 percent. Looking at the results post election time, it was another interesting way to observe how the media was used in this cycle.

“I’ll be honest: When I look at this from a very bi-partisan perspective, it was fascinating to see the shifts in media consumption,” said Anderson. “We saw a mix of not only mainstream media being utilized in the political campaigns but we also saw a very visible shift to where influencers, podcasters, ambassadors were leveraged. That was something we didn't see at such scale in previous elections.

“That to me is a shift in how consumers/Americans make decisions,” she continued. “When we look back, we’re going to see this as a milestone point to where consumers [of media]—especially when we look at political campaigns.”

Anderson gives other examples in the political shifts among different platforms but if there’s a big takeaway, it appears the American public are a lot more apprehensive towards the MSM machine.  

For more ideas, listen to the full episode here, and check out previous “Dear Anna” episodes for additional marketing advice.