The Exchanges

Q So for, for. How do you measure that Vincent though? I imagine listeners are going, yeah, but how do you measure specific voice? I mean, what's the return you're looking for?

A So it just varies based on the, on the client. So someone like Senator Paul does very well with younger voters. So the plurality of people visiting his website are younger voters, people between 18 and 35. Most conservatives, most conservative candidates and most conservative advocacy groups aren't reaching younger voters like that. So where are those younger voters and what do they want to do for Senator Paul? Well, I'm obviously very interested in Getting them to share Senator Paul's content and share our client's content, to sign up for, for email updates, to give money, to buy products in Senator Paul's store. And we have, we have found that, um, you know, uh, applications certainly like Heyo on, on Facebook, applications like, uh, even the, uh, more liberal site change dot, um, uh, org was very successful for Our clients in getting, getting emails, uh, on, on the Iran deal for another client against the Iran deal. So really first we look at what our client needs the outcome to be, and you use the term ROI, and then we step back and we look at which specific platforms can we use to actually generate that outcome.

AI assessment note: “really first we look at what our client needs the outcome to be”

Q that you work with, especially Rand, get little kind of micro victories, whether it's getting them on a new platform that you're convinced there's an ROI on, or even looking back to Karl Rove's micro-targeting operation back in, I believe it was, that helped George Bush really get across the finish line in Ohio. How are you trying to replicate that kind of strategy here in 2016 with your clients?

A Well, you know, as, um, as voters' media choices become more and more fragmented, obviously it becomes more important that we're reaching them where they're consuming news and information. When I was working for Governor Mike Huckabee in 2007 and 2008, our main two online platforms were MySpace and Facebook, and Facebook just became more and more important towards the end of the campaign. Well, now Senator Paul's on so many Not just Facebook, but Snapchat and Instagram and Reddit and on and on and on. And, um, you know, we, we look, uh, every day, every month at what online trends are at what new platforms are and figure out where Senator Paul needs to be to best maximize his specific voice.

AI assessment note: “figure out where Senator Paul needs to be to best maximize his specific voice.”

Q So help us understand, I mean, scale for a guy like Rand Paul, let's just go back to last month, November. I mean, how much based off your, like from your efforts, I assume you're handling all of his online stuff. Um, how much total revenue is driven, let's just say from his online store, from merchandise sales?

A Probably maybe 10% of his, of his total digital online fundraising came, came from his online store. And it, it, um, varies dependent on the, you know, day and, and, uh, week and what products that we are selling. But We've done such a good job of productizing the Senator. I mean, there's a specific Christmas package now, if you go to his, to his site. Um, and we were, we were able to crowdsource different products because most folks in the campaign space, the consultants in Washington think that they know what everyone wants to buy. And it's just normally just a bunch of crap that people don't want to actually wear. So we not only did the sniff test of if we're not going to wear it ourselves, Why is it going on the store? But we even let Senator Paul's supporters vote on products that they wanted to see in the store. So we did a t-shirt design contest where his supporters actually drew up the t-shirts, and then we let folks online vote on what t-shirts that they like most, and those are in the, uh, store now.

AI assessment note: “Probably maybe 10% of his, of his total digital online fundraising came”

Q Okay, very cool. So how do you, um, weird question I have. When you're hiring people, I mean, do you look at and do you ask them interview questions to try and get a sense of what their political views are to make sure they're aligned with your goals, or do you not care about that? You care about are they savvy digitally?

A So that's a great question. I think most conservative firms used to hire people based on if they were true believers and they would fly the, you know, flag. We certainly, I mean, we are a Republican or conservative libertarianish agency, but actually our biggest client is, um, a conglomeration of energy companies who, you know, might be more conservative leaning, but, uh, I mean, their, their goals aren't specifically winning elections every single year, like a Rob Portman or a Ted Cruz. Um, so we, we hire people based on Who's best for the job? And about half of our agency are creative people. They're graphic designers, they're web developers, they're video editors, and those folks, you know, I could care less what their political persuasion is, and more that they're, that they're creative, and that they're doing a good job at the creative aspect of this.

AI assessment note: “I could care less what their political persuasion is, and more that they're creative”