Mike Bloomberg brings Memes to the 2020 Election by: Kelly Ramirez

         Although most presidential candidates have been using social media platforms to their advantage during the 2020 election, Mike Bloomberg decided to take a different route on that. In the beginning of February, Bloomberg’s campaign teamed up with social media influencers to drop “memes.” Bloomberg’s campaign has been working with Meme 2020, a company that represents some of the biggest social media accounts in the “influencer economy.” The idea of this campaign was to reach out to famous meme accounts such as @KaleSalad, @TankSinatra, @WhitePeopleHumor, and @FuckJerry who all have over millions of followers.

Here are a few examples:

Bloomberg has been using this unique social media strategy in the hopes of attracting younger voters, mainly under the age of 25, who have been known to be notoriously hard to reach. His team knows he can’t win this audience through television ads or even on Facebook, as studies have shown that Gen Z-ers prefer Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, and even VSCO. Some of the accounts that have been posting the Bloomberg memes have over 60 million followers. The memes were released at the same time during a two-hour period on a Wednesday evening, which was a smart tactic to get the attention of young people who scroll through Instagram before going to sleep.

By commissioning some of the internet’s top-viral creators to create content about him he has been able to reach tens of millions of followers. Bloomberg has already spent more than $300 million throughout his campaign. Bloomberg’s national spokeswoman, Sabrina Singh, said, "while a meme strategy may be new to presidential politics, we're betting it will be an effective component to reach people where they are and compete with President Trump's powerful digital operation." 

There have been people saying this campaign tactic has been a success, but there are also people saying that his “social media stunts keep backfiring.” First, there is no clear call to action. Even though there is a clear market segment of whom he wants to reach, there is no direct call to action on what to do after seeing the meme. None of the memes include a way to go to his campaign site or donate, or even register to vote. The only tactic it would have is that this target audience may start looking him up online to learn more about him, but there is no research to back that up. A popular meme-account, @thefatjewish, criticized Bloomberg and his campaign by commenting on one of the memes posted by another account saying he was approached by Bloomberg’s campaign but declined due to his past positions and policies. 

The campaign definitely has more entrepreneurial than institutional engagement. This social media strategy is something that has not been seen before in politics. It definitely is eye catching, but is it solely to just laugh for a few seconds then scroll past it or what exactly is Bloomberg aiming for? Reporters have mentioned their confusion and if his campaign tactics are just trying to be “funny” or is there an actual meaning behind them. The campaign is not necessarily using the platform to position Bloomberg as a leader, however in some way it is building a community amongst potential supporters. The campaign is definitely using the platform in an innovative way. Using memes as a tactic is something new that has never been seen throughout a presidential election, and although it may seem a little cringeworthy, it is getting attention. Some have even called this election the “influencer election.” 

Referring back to missing a direct call to action, that might be the biggest missed opportunity. The strategy could have gone the extra mile and included a call to action, the link to his campaign website, or a place to register to vote. It may be attention grabbing, but it is missing that one thing to fully make it marketable to the audience he is trying to reach.