Is Clinton’s lack of earned media prolonging her struggle with Sanders?
Trump’s controversial nature pulls in billions in earned media
Twitter has remained Trump’s most valuable tool, exploited 24×7
So who would have thought it. Hillary Clinton had just one opponent in the fight for Democratic nomination in the US – an elderly unknown called Sanders from Vermont with no political nous to speak of. She had the pledged delegates in the bag and her campaign coffers full. But like an irritating piece of Velcro collecting votes everywhere, Sanders won’t go away. Clinton is having to fight every inch of the way to the Democratic party nomination.
The brash, loud-mouthed Donald Trump on the other hand faced 16 competitors all with strong political credentials, the fearsome battlelines drawn up against him by the powerful Bush dynasty and the GOP establishment, the Koch money pouring in to support everyone but him, and millions spent on Dump Trump campaigns, and yet here he is, Teflon Trump, with no opponent left standing and the GOP nomination in the bag.
And now it seems he’s neck and neck in the polls with Hillary Clinton. It’s amazing, as Trump would say.
Trump’s domination of earned media
Donald Trump has changed political campaigning forever. His domination of ‘earned’ media is simply astounding. Love him or hate him, the media gives him airtime and column inches 24×7. Here’s the math.
According to the NYTimes, by mid-March 2016 Trump had accrued $2billion of earned media – more than twice as much as Presidential rival Hillary Clinton. In April 2016 alone, researcher mediaQuant says Donald Trump pulled in $392 million worth of earned media.
The mediaQuant survey looks at the whole nine yards of earned media – 14 traditional and social media segments – worldwide newspapers, TV broadcast, blogs, Twitter, consumer media, some 100,000 global news sources overall.
Trump makes sure he does the legwork that goes into ensuring the number stays high. He is available for media comment 24×7 – to capture airtime 24×7. He also relies on just one social media tool, Twitter, which he exploits day and night – and his tweets are addictive – read how he has refined tweeting down to a fine, classical art.
Forget data and analytics – Trump is forging ahead on earned media and twitter.
Judith Ingleton-Beer, CEO of IBA International
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