Senatorial Candidate Crushes Campaign with CTV

By day, Nevadan Chris Cunningham is a digital marketing account executive. By night - and every free waking moment - he moonlights as a third party political candidate. After a solid performance during the 2022 midterm elections, Mr Cunningham was singled out and asked to run for Senate by his local arm of the libertarian party. 

Campaigning for a third party meant his priorities, processes, and resources were different from more traditional senatorial campaigns. For example, Mr Cunningham was able to bypass having a party primary which allowed him to save for campaign expenses but also didn’t allow him to gain name recognition ahead of the race or pace his spending in the same way his opponents did.  

With a background in analytics, Mr Cunningham, was focused on growing his share of voice rather than claiming an outright victory, and used web traffic conversions as a proxy for campaign awareness. But most importantly, he was looking for a nimble advertising solution that would adapt to his needs as donations and party resources trickled in and demographic insights became more clear. 

Together with his campaign manager and Vibe advertiser success team, Cunningham was able to reach engaged audiences across the state, vastly increase his name recognition, and make a meaningful case for plurality voting in Nevada politics. 

In one of the most polarized elections in decades, standing out as a third party candidate was a tall order, especially during a condensed campaign with limited funds. Mr Cunningham initially considered linear television to support his boots on the ground campaign, but exorbitant pricing - even on local networks - and lack of actionable data pushed him to explore newer channels like Streaming TV advertising.

He was looking for a platform that would be simple enough for him to launch ads right away, while remaining advanced enough that it would have all of the data he needed to understand how best to reach Nevada’s complex demographic makeup. 

"Trackable traffic and actionable target data is invaluable for a campaign like ours that needs to optimize on the fly, as local sentiment shifts. We never would have understood our rural voters as well without Vibe’s insights."

Mr Cunningham knew he needed to increase his name recognition across the state, but early discussions with local TV networks revealed that a single TV ad during a sports event would cost his campaign $40K, with no way to understand the impact of the ad. The inventory he could afford -  late night comedy shows and Judge Judy reruns - was still going to cost him $5K a pop, so he started exploring other options. 

Vibe’s low minimum budget of $50/day and its massive channel inventory convinced his team to give it a try. Within hours, his Vibe success manager delivered actionable insights based on Mr Cunningham’s unique profile, budget, and KPIs. 

Because of Nevada’s unique population makeup, dividing budget and demographic targeting into separate ad sets with variable budget allocations was key. Clark County, for example, represents 70% of Nevada’s population while the rest is extremely rural or federally protected land but Mr Cunningham’s libertarian views are typically more appealing to rural voters so missing out on those targets was not an option.

"We did really well in rural areas - even a “traditional” TV provider can’t reach all of those areas. We did better in the rural counties where Vibe was our only way to reach voters than in Vegas, with boots on the ground, which is incredibly surprising."

Mr Cunningham needed to make the most of a lean ground team - just one campaign manager and volunteers in fluctuating numbers - so high frequency capping and  massive reach into households across the state, sometimes nine or ten hours away from anywhere he or his team could drive to was instrumental in securing a strong performance.

When yard sign distributions, hand-shaking, and public speaking were not an option, Cunningham’s team was able to rely on CTV targeting to reach undecided voters and make a real impact.

In this case, a mix of hyperlocal targeting on entertainment channels and statewide local news inventory with a high frequency cap all led back to spectacular web traffic results. 

"I was especially impressed with how user-friendly Vibe’s platform was. It allowed us to make changes on the fly like adding budget when donations came in or pushing more dollars to over-performing channels."

More than most, political ads need to be clear, concise, and a bit provocative to stand out in a crowded field. Mr Cunningham started out by filming his ad in a professional studio contacted by his party’s committee but soon chose to scrap the project in favor of a more authentic, compelling video he produced himself, at home, in just one hour. 

Confronted with tightening deadlines, especially as early voting numbers exploded, he decided to take matters into his own hands and ended up preferring the results. 

"The video looked great, and a slightly homemade feel makes sense when criticizing political over-spending, which is a real problem. "

With the help of a few free editing tools and Vibe’s He was able to quickly deliver a TV-ready ad that focused on themes most voters agree on: excessive government spending and safety. 

Thanks to Vibe’s comprehensive reporting suite and simple dashboard, Mr Cunningham was able to optimize his campaign daily to increase his web traffic by a whopping 1100%, vastly improve his SEO results and name recognition, and secure ballot access for his party until 2026!

"Thanks to pixel tracking, we were able to monitor where our flood of traffic was coming from and it was thanks to Vibe. It even helped my SEO which is key with a common name like Chris Cunningham. "

In fact, Mr Cunningham started receiving threats because of how disruptive his campaign was. 

"Plurality voting in Nevada is unheard of. We broke that ground. People weren’t expecting that good of a result and neither was I, honestly. "

Conventional wisdom contends that national races warrant TV campaigns while smaller, local ones should stick to yard signs and flyers, but TV can now be targeted by zip code and district map, so there’s no reason not to leverage that powerful of a medium. This campaign even ended up delivering on some of the networks Mr Cunningham’s team had initially approached for linear TV ads at a much lower cost, which gave everyone a chuckle. 

"If I do opt to run again, I will definitely use Vibe in the future."