Digital creativity for 2020

There's been an awful lot of Democratic political consultant hand wringing that President Trump's online campaign -- which never stopped working after November 2016 -- was miles ahead of anything that a Democratic candidate could put out there. And then came the virus and effective digital outreach became all that much more vital.

I get it. But I also have suspected that the apparent Democratic disadvantage might turn into new ways of campaigning.

People who've made careers in winning elections can get set in their ways. They tend to think that, with enough polling and focus groups, they can devise the perfect message. Their project then becomes getting the candidate, and the staff, and organizers, and volunteers saying the right things -- and only the right things. This is not completely crazy. Polling said voters were worried that Republicans would take away their health care in 2018 and it was appropriate to remind them. And it seemed to work. But anyone who actually talked with voters heard many other concerns and capable canvassers learned to listen. Listening is good; voters like it.

Meanwhile, consultants get paid for delivering their preferred messages via TV (they get a cut of ad spending) and mail (which they produce for a fee.) I'm not saying their relationship to a candidacy is entirely mercenary, but it can lend itself to formulaic thinking.

Digital messaging that works is something else again. It's imaginative; it's a little anarchic; it's sometimes transgressive. And it most likely is going to happen outside the regular campaign structures. And in this moment, maybe that's what Joe Biden needs, an assault on the Orangeman from 1000 directions. The creative juice is there. Don't try to tell me that people who want decent lives -- want peace, justice, fairness and just to get along -- can't win a culture war.

Take this, for example, created by Kylie Scott on the TikTok platform.

@kyscottt

ur doing great sweetie ##antibiotics ##covid19 ##covid ##quarantine ##intheclub ##drunkwords ##trump

♬ original sound - iampeterchao

Not perhaps how I'd deliver the message that we have to depose this dangerous clown who might kill us -- but I'm not the target. The digital artists' role is to deliver their art. The campaign's role is to figure out how to turn people who will look and listen to it -- and who want to express themselves also -- into voters.

The 2020 campaign will likely see unprecedented creativity, because it must. I will try to chronicle the stuff folks come up with as I see it.