The quick answer is by dividing your opponent.
With the US elections a year or more away, the fight is on between the larger democratic base and the smaller (by numbers) republican base. I won’t delve into US partisan population data but instead talk about how the republicans effectively use their smaller base to win elections on a national scale. Part of that has to do with getting more people out to vote but a significant part of the campaign is dedicated to getting democrats to abstain.
And it is this second part that is soo interesting because it is a time tested strategy of divide and conquer. When colonial powers went to their soon-to-colonies they needed a strategy that would allow them to rule a large population with a small force. The strategy they used was “divide and conquer” essentially playing up all the small differences between local populations so that they would never band together and form a formidable collective opposition to the colonizers.
This same tactic was used by the Trump campaign in 2016 – by playing up the internal infighting between Hillary and Bernie they managed to fragment the democratic base and get likely democratic candidates to abstain or not vote for the democratic candidate.
Trump is already deploying the same tactics for 2020 by playing the democratic candidates against each other while ensuring that the republican base is united in their support for Trump.
ICYMI – According to Whiteops: Methbot a Russian run ad scam has made over USD $3-5 million per DAY over the past month amounting to over $200M in fraudulent ad revenue by tricking algorithms and mimicking legitimate US web traffic. Though this is an expensive and temporary hiccup (some advertisers who have identified the fraud traffic have gotten their money back), it is one that has gotten the attention of the big players and will hopefully lead to a stronger online ad bidding system with greater transparency and increased efficiency. That said, one of the key takeaways for me is the over reliance on automation and the lack of relationship based selling in the ad space. There will always be imposters when the transactions are automated and the players are not vetted. Not to mention that automation is an oft used reason to explain away poor due diligence.
Everyone’s Opinionated and now opinions matter.
This might not come as news to many of you but for me it’s been an epiphany.
The collective conscience can be a powerful tool. But what happens when we use it all for the same purpose. The beauty of diversity is in multiple narratives, from that trial by fire emerges the best idea, the best narrative, the most compelling change agent.
We’re all familiar with product placements in Movies and Sitcoms. Enter the new kid on the block Advergaming where Advertising meets Gaming or Gamification as the industry calls it.