Courtney Weaver (00:00):
It could be a teacher, a veteran, a small business owner, a mom. Influencers are huge out there in this space right now.
Eric Wilson (00:10):
Welcome to the Campaign Trend podcast, where you are joining in on a conversation with the entrepreneurs, operatives, and experts who make professional politics happen. I'm your host, Eric Wilson. Our guest today is Courtney Weaver, executive vice president at Image of Full Service digital firms supporting clients in the political issue, advocacy and public affairs industry. In this episode, we dive deep into the world of influencer marketing in political campaigns, trying to cut through the industry buzz to deliver practical, actionable insights. Alright, Courtney, the term influencer put that in quotes, has become a buzzword since 2024. So let's cut through the hype for our listeners. When working with a campaign, what exactly is an influencer? Who are these people? What role do they play?
Courtney Weaver (01:00):
Yeah, so I think a lot of the time, to your point, when you hear influencer, you think of really big names. You think of Kim Kardashian, Dave Port Knight, Alex Earl, and then on the conservative front, you think of Charlie Kirk, you think of Ben Shapiro. But in a campaign context, really it's any trusted voice who can move the needle with a specific audience. So it could be a teacher, a veteran, a small business owner, a mom, mom. Influencers are huge out there in this space right now. And I think what's important to kind of recognize with influencers is that I would look at them as small business owners themselves. They've built up this audience through their trusted voice, through their content, and they've monetized it. So they have this tapped in audience that's engaged, that trusts them. So really when they're talking about any sort of issue or candidate, it's really coming from a place of, oh, this is like I'm grabbing a beer with someone and we're talking about politics or their recommendations or opinions in general. Just kind of feel more authentic than an ad that you would see on meta or programmatic. So really when you think about influencers, it's leveraging the trust that they've built with their audience versus say just the content that they're producing.
Eric Wilson (02:13):
It's crazy to me how much is back to the future. So for years and years, I mean this is not new to anyone who's worked at grassroots level politics where there are important people who influenced the conversation. It used to be the case that those were the talking heads that went on cable news. They talked to reporters when they were writing up what's going on in the county. They were the ones who talked to their friends at the local civic organizations. But what's changed is those people still exist and they're still important, but there's this new group of people who previously may not have had a voice, may not have had a platform, but because of social media, because of the internet, they now reach lots more people. So again, this is politics 1 0 1. We just have a new modality of reaching these people.
Courtney Weaver (02:57):
Totally. And it's also, I think if you look at influencer marketing, its foundation is word of mouth marketing, which is the original form of marketing. So really it's just the digital space has given it much more reach and leverage.
Eric Wilson (03:10):
And I think another thing that's important for our conversation is to point out that it is not just political influencers. So you mentioned the mom influencers, totally. No mom influencer is going to grow a following by talking about politics all the time. That's not how we operate. At least people listening to this podcast probably talk about politics all the time. But most people don't talk about politics all the time. And so whether that's a sports influencer or a hobby that we follow, there's going to be a heavy mix of things that are not politics. And even when they're talking about politics, it may not be about a candidate or a party, but hey, it's important that we go and vote or here's what I think about this issue.
Courtney Weaver (03:47):
Totally. I think in large part, when you think about influencers and what they're talking about, they have niche audiences and it's like how can we leverage influencers with those audiences that ultimately the content that they're seeing from the campaign or organization that you're working with is relevant and important to them. So for instance, we worked on a ballot initiative campaign in Florida last election cycle, and we were looking for influencers that could speak to the overall impact this ballot initiative would have if it passed. We were on the no side. It was talking about things that would affect their family, things that would affect their kids, whether through marketing efforts of this potential case. I think what's important to recognize is that you don't need traditional political influencers to speak for your campaign or your initiative. You can find influencers that are relevant. So like mom influencers would make America healthy again.
(04:45):
I'm sure there are plenty of campaigns out there that could speak to mom influencers and they can speak to their audience about how removing red dye or anything like that could be impactful for their kids' health. I think school choice is a great opportunity too. Going again back to mom influencers, you could find mothers who are teachers at private schools or mothers who are homeschooling their kids and they can all speak to the advantages of school choice and how it benefits their family. So you don't have to go the traditional political route. I think there's plenty of opportunity out there with so many influencers speaking about so many things. You can find the right one that could essentially help you reach an audience that maybe you couldn't with traditional media.
Eric Wilson (05:23):
And one thing that I focus on a lot is talking about the mindset shift here so we can transport ourselves back to the era when TV first came online, what we were looking for in a candidate and in a campaign shifted when we moved from the grassroots to now broadcast era of TV and radio. You think about the first televised presidential debate where JFK looked a lot better than Richard Nixon and that kind of upended things we were coming out on the other end of that era where what we're looking for in campaigns is going to be different than what we have been
Courtney Weaver (05:58):
For sure. And I think too with the influencer piece of that is again, don't necessarily need to have a specific political influencer mind. You can absolutely find anyone to speak on this. If it's important to the influencer and they feel like it's relevant to their audience, they will absolutely speak on it, which I think is important too.
Eric Wilson (06:18):
I do think it's important that we talk about the pros versus cons on influencers. So certainly influencer marketing has emerged as a response to the media fragmentation, the platform fragmentation, but it doesn't have that quick turnaround, that precise targeting and scale that we get with paid media. So how are campaigns incorporating it into their overall strategy? I think very clearly, you and I would probably agree you still need to be running your paid digital campaigns. It's not all going to influencers, but how do they fit together?
Courtney Weaver (06:53):
Totally. I think influencer marketing is a great compliment to the overall media mix. I think you can reuse it to reinforce social proof. So when someone sees an ad and then sees a creator that's relevant to the topic, it kind of resonates more. So I always think about it when I'm talking about an overall media plan. We're talking about frequency goals. So in many regards we say seven to 10 is the maximum frequency of the message actually saturating. So look at it in the sense of how do I add that into my frequency mix so I can further saturate the message and have it resonate with people? And I think that's where influencer marketing is a great mix for that. I think it should compliment, it should not overtake or completely be the only strategy that you have. I think too, when you're looking at influencer marketing, it's great for storytelling, for education, for persuasion. So if you need to move the needle on something, influencers are a great voice to have to compliment what you're putting out on ads to just amplify and basically have it saturate more.
Eric Wilson (07:54):
And I think one of the other thing that's really important to remember here is that you can't skip the line. So if you're saying, oh, well hey, I'm tuning in and I want to do influencers, you've got to do the traditional, whether that's CTV, crazy calling it traditional now, but your traditional online advertising where you're doing search, you're doing social, you're doing video, then you can come in over the top with this influencer market. It's always got to be hand in glove. And so I worry that some people are going to say, I'm going to skip that first step and go right to influencer.
Courtney Weaver (08:30):
Totally. And I think it's a compliment. I really do because when you think about influencer marketing and how it can work with your overall media mix, I think one part of the strategy is how do you leverage it on paid? And I think with UGC and Whitelisting, it's a great opportunity to leverage that content and then have it part of your paid that's on the traditional side of digital, which is programmatic social, O-T-T-C-T-V.
Eric Wilson (08:53):
Alright, so you used a lot of acronyms there and one of the rules on the show is that if you use an acronym, you've got to explain it. So what is UGC
Courtney Weaver (08:59):
User generated content? So what I really love about it is that the creator will create a video that they would ultimately probably post on their channel. However, with UGC, so user generated content, they can create the content and then it be used on paid channels as an ad. And what I love about it,
Eric Wilson (09:16):
So they put it out on Facebook, you can promote it on Facebook or Instagram or
Courtney Weaver (09:20):
Whatever. Exactly, exactly. And what's nice about that is that it has a native feel to social platforms. So your ads are going to look as if they're part of the scroll that people are accustomed to. It doesn't look like some flashy ad. So it's a great mix between what you're producing with your television or digital team and then also what the influencer is creating for you to then promote unpaid.
Eric Wilson (09:43):
And then of course we can add in making sure that they see it at the right frequency, that
Courtney Weaver (09:47):
The right people
Eric Wilson (09:48):
Are seeing it. So you get the best of both worlds. And we even see sometimes that kind of faux user generated content where it's made to look like a selfie video or something like that and it's not. And that can be really effective.
Courtney Weaver (10:05):
Exactly. I mean, I think back to even before my influencer marketing kind of days, I think back to when I was on congressional campaigns and direct to camera would overpower and perform your traditional ads because it felt authentic. It felt like someone was having a conversation with you. And that's largely what social media is a conversation. So kind of meeting your audience where they're conversing I think was great, and that was the first form of it with the candidate and now you're seeing others be able to leverage it through their audiences.
Eric Wilson (10:33):
Again, this is obvious to anyone who has studied politics for any length of time, but if you've been on campaigns, you've tried to get surrogates to go out and talk for you. This is surrogates online, the op-ed that was user generated content we pitched into a newspaper. So again, it's the new modalities, the tactics or the strategies, the rationale behind it are not new. So hate to keep being the wet blinken on influencer marketing here because I'm a big believer in it, but I want to address kind of the legitimate criticisms or the questions that people have. And so it's not a cure all solution. What types of campaign challenges are best suited for influencer marketing?
Courtney Weaver (11:11):
I love this question. I think this actually speaks to how you can leverage it the best for your campaign or organization. I think persuasion and education is what I would consider the top tier use for influencer marketing. When you have to educate or introduce a new policy or a ballot initiative that feels complex to people, they couldn't just go and read the ballot initiative and then understand it. It's breaking down complex issues into very salient ideas. I think that is a great use of it. And on top of that, it's a trusted voice. Again, they've built this audience to trust what they have to say to actually hear their opinion and take stock in it. So I think knowing that you are going to have to explain something very complex or a little nuanced. Influencers are great for that, I think to targeting specific audiences. So Gen Z or a certain ethnic group or veterans, rural voters, anything hyper-specific, there is most likely an influencer who can speak to that and has the audience built for that. And then also driving earned media. If you can do a smart influencer activation, it can often lead to earned media opportunities because of that collaboration piece with a bigger name or even just an interesting name and an interesting niche. So I think that's something of use there too.
Eric Wilson (12:23):
You're listening to the campaign trend podcast. I'm speaking with Courtney Weaver from image about influencer marketing in campaigns. And I think probably before we start talking about some of the more tactical, actionable items that we want people to get out of this episode, what should the campaigns understand before they go to work with influencers? There's a big mindset shift there, right?
Courtney Weaver (12:47):
Huge. One of the biggest things I would want people to take away is that this is not a digital platform where you can plug and play ad creative and you can just go live. This is relationship based. It is a person on the other end of the email or the direct message that you send these people. And I think it's important to acknowledge that this will definitely take time. You can't spin it up in 24 hours. Typically, an influencer campaign could take four to six weeks depending on how many influencers you want to reach out to and work with. They're not contractors, they're collaborators. You are going to be able to give them guidelines and guardrails of what they could produce, but ultimately you have to trust them because they know their audience best and they know the content that performs well on their channels.
(13:29):
So to be able to give them that creative freedom that might be difficult. For some campaigns especially, they want to control the message. There has to be a level of trust between influencers on that one, and I think that's really important. And then also being clear on your goal. I think you want to tell them, this is our goal. We want awareness or we want to drive clicks to our website for voter registration or finding your polling location, you have to be super clear and concise because there's a myriad of ways you could do this. And there's a myriad of ways how the creator can produce the content. So if you're not clear and concise, you could get content that you're not ultimately happy with. And then I think finally, budget, you have to be realistic here. Again, I'll go back to the fact that these people are small business owners. They're going to want to be paid or they're going to want some sort of collaboration that will benefit them as well. If you're not going to go the paid route, I think there's plenty of opportunity to consider both, but be realistic about your budget. Even nano influencers are going to want to be paid. So keep that in mind when you're thinking through how much do I really want to spend on this?
Eric Wilson (14:31):
Yeah. A couple of things to underline there. People may not be aware of this, but when you are a content creator online, various platforms are going to engage in some sort of revenue sharing or the content that you create, the eyeballs that you bring in on X or TikTok or Instagram. There are also platforms that have affiliate marketing where you talk about some product, you get a share of every sale that you generate. So that is going on in this industry. And so that's really who you're competing with. Just like when you go out and buy an ad on Facebook, you're competing against the laundry detergent or the soft drink. Another insight that you shared that I want to underline is that you have to, I don't want to say give up control because what you're doing is you're accepting that you don't have control because that totally went away the moment we started letting people share their own thoughts and do things on the internet. The days of what are we driving today? What's the message we're driving today that doesn't exist anymore. And so you've got to accept the lack of control, not give it up, you don't have it. It's just accept it. And that's really key to working with these influencers and they're going to be around with their audience longer than your campaign is, and so that's their North star.
Courtney Weaver (15:41):
I think that's such a good point too. You have to remember that when you're reaching out to these influencers, there has to be some level of relevancy to the content that you want them to produce because if their audience can't trust them, they lose that ability to kind of persuade. So I think it's important that these influencers understand what they're getting into, but also what you're pitching them has to have some sort of relevancy for them to even engage.
Eric Wilson (16:04):
So let's get tactical. What are the platforms, services or agencies campaigns can use to start working with influencers?
Courtney Weaver (16:12):
So ideally, I'd love for people to take away that they can come work with me at Image, but I totally understand campaign budgets. I've been on campaigns before where it's choose stringing budgets and you can't do much, so you have to get creative. So I think there's a lot of great tools out there. One of the ones I did want to call out was Hype Auditor. They have a lot of free resources that you can use, so like pricing calculators, engagement rate calculators that I think are super helpful across Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. And then there's also great search engines within the platforms that you're looking for influencers. So TikTok has a great one. You can literally write in anything into that search bar and come up with something and then X has a great advanced search so you can use that to your advantage.
(16:58):
And then Instagram, I started typing in, for instance, we're working on a campaign where we do want to engage mom influencers, and so I started typing in mom influencers or types of hashtags they might use, and that brought up a lot of opportunity to look through influencers that made the most sense for that campaign. So there's a great manual way to do it. And then obviously I'd be remiss to not say you can leverage AI for this chat, GPT perplexity, even Claude, you can tell the AI platform basically what you're looking to achieve with the influencer campaign. It is not foolproof. I'll tell you. We started leveraging it just to see what it would get us in results compared to our marketing platform that we use. And they were generating fake profiles and profiles who were private profiles who hadn't posted in three years. So it's not like a foolproof way, but it's a great compliment to what you can do manually across the platforms.
Eric Wilson (17:52):
And I also want to make sure that people know about Creator Grid. We've spoken to the founder before on the show, URI Renat. They're doing great stuff with helping campaigns with more of a cost per acquisition model with influencer outreach. So there are a lot of different ways that you can do this. One thing that I really remain skeptical on Courtney is the geography of this. So obviously we're looking for scale. We want an influencer who's going to reach some sort of group of people, but for a smaller campaign, let's say we're running for a house of delegate race here in Virginia this year. Can we do influencer outreach on campaigns that size?
Courtney Weaver (18:29):
You can, but I think the expectation is that you're not going to get a ton of influencers and you're not going to get an extreme amount of reach. I think what you need to leverage, it's kind of a grassroots political kind of engagement. You would go to someone who has a network of 50 people that they could potentially influence. I think you could look to those people who are on social media who are very hyperlocal. There is a market for your nano niche hyperlocal influencers. Now are they all talking about politics? No. So you'll have to definitely understand what the level of comfort might be for them to do that. But I think, again, since it is relationship based, it's very easy to translate into how people work the political angle when reaching out grassroots wise. So I think there's definitely a market for it. I definitely think it's harder, but I don't think it's impossible.
Eric Wilson (19:21):
Again, we're in this interesting space where we're kind of catching up to what campaigns did in 2024. We're pushing ahead for 2026. How do you expect influencer marketing and politics to evolve and develop as we head towards the midterms?
Courtney Weaver (19:35):
Yeah, so I think you're going to see, obviously more integration between your overall media mix with influencers. I think authenticity and alignment is going to be super important, more important than even follower count. I think a lot of times when influencer marketing really got popularized, people were like, I need the biggest audience and I just need a flash in the pan Now. It's like, okay, there are a lot of influencers out there who have found their niche and their audience, and you can really leverage those because it's very authentic and I think that you'll see more of, I also think too influencers should be embedded earlier on, especially because they're so useful in their persuasion and education component of campaigns. So I think you'll see more of that rather than just, okay, what is our last ditch effort we can do to try to move the needle? Let's tack on influencer marketing. I think you'll see more of it upfront.
Eric Wilson (20:25):
I think the big takeaway for me and from our conversation is that think about how you can incorporate that user generated content into your paid plans. Because if you're a smaller campaign, you may not be able to find an influencer, but you could find someone who would give a good testimonial or give a good explainer about something, and then you can use the digital targeting and advertising to promote that. I think that's a really important tactic that campaigns of all size need to be looking at
Courtney Weaver (20:51):
A hundred percent. Also too, I think an interesting tactic that we leveraged on that ballot initiative campaign I mentioned was leveraging creators just to kind of repost things. So knowing that they had the audience we wanted to tap into, but maybe we just didn't need a custom post from for this time around, but we were launching a new ad, we would say, Hey, do you mind just giving a repost to this on your stories or onto X? And we found a lot of success with that, just getting that leverage and reach that we wanted.
Eric Wilson (21:21):
All right. Well, my thanks to Courtney Weaver for a great conversation. I'll include a link to image's website in our show notes. If this episode made you a little bit smarter or gave you something to think about, all we ask is that you share it with a friend or colleague. You look smarter in the process and more people learn about the show. It's a win-win all around. You can subscribe to the Campaign Trend podcast wherever you listen to the podcast, so you never miss an episode. And be sure and check out campaign trend.com for our articles and newsletters and find out ways that you can support campaign trend by becoming a friend of the trend. With that, I'll say thanks for listening. See you next time. The Campaign Trend Podcast is produced by Advocacy Content Kitchen, a media production studio.
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