Politicians Are Turning to Influencers, Just Like Brands Are

I previously wrote an article about the rise of influencer marketing and I could not help but notice how the current presidential candidates are using social media to spread their messages and garner support for their campaigns. Michael Bloomberg recently partnered with popular Instagram accounts to create meme content to promote his candidacy called the Meme 2020 project.  The campaign's meme strategy includes creating posts that look like images of fake direct messages from the candidate's Instagram account and are clearly labeled as being sponsored. Younger voter turnout is expected to reach an all-time high in 2020 and these candidates are quickly trying to secure their votes with this audience. Chegg’s 2019 “State of the Student Report” reports that 80% of U.S College students intend to vote in 2020.

Michael Bloomberg is not the only candidate to do participate in this. Bernie Sanders also has the endorsements of Cardi B, Ariana Grande, Emily Ratajkowski and Shailene Woody to name a few. It’s safe to say that they are being strategic in doing this because young adults look up to these celebrity influencers and take actions based on their decisions. The below graph shows that 22% of Gen Z and 20% of Millennial Internet Users have made a purchase inspired by an influencer or celebrity post on social media.  There is a level of trust that these influencers instill in the younger audience and political candidates want to tap into this. It will be interesting to see how this plays off in the upcoming months.