ROCK BOTTOM: Celebrity, Social Media & The 2020 Presidential Race
The Rock 2020? Is this Real Life?
As of 2017, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, better known by most as simply The Rock, was the most followed person on Instagram with a staggering 99 million followers. With a net worth of USD$65 million, a successful wrestling career, and dozens of blockbuster movies under his belt, what more could he want to achieve? As we’ve learned through the previous U.S. presidential election, becoming one of the world’s most authoritative political figures in this day and age takes little more than some celebrity and, arguably, some character.
The Rock has also made this discovery and, as such, announced that he is “seriously considering” a run for President of the United States in 2020.
While many people will roll their eyes at the thought of Luke Hobbs of Fast and Furious running a country, there’s something to be said about the potential that lies in his widespread social media following in a time that is dominated by online presence.
The Facts
Here’s how The Rock lines up against current president Donald Trump in terms of social media following:
Obviously, there is a certain advantage here for The Rock. Beyond his social media postings being far more personal and relatable than Trump’s, he also has at least twice the following on three out of four top platforms. Trump has reigned supreme on Twitter (most likely for posting tweets like this one), however the continuous decline of Twitter as a top platform puts the significance of his following into question. According to CNN, Twitter “failed to add any new monthly active users globally during the June quarter” in 2017. Further, they continue to lose users in the U.S.
My Two Cents on Strategy
If The Rock leverages his influence on platforms like Instagram, Snapchat and Youtube that are most popular with millennials, the will likely be able to positively engage a group of voters that Donald Trump has certainly not. Essentially, The Rock’s social media identity is representative of someone who has achieved the so-called American Dream, but remained cool, calm and collected in the process and still manages to relate to the average young voter through posts like this. Having said that, he balances this relatable attitude with posts that are dripping with allure — engage the side of America that is entirely obsessed with lifestyles of the rich and famous.
Pre-awareness is a marketing tactic used in the movie industry, The Rock’s home territory, that could change this campaign entirely. Pre-awareness is a term used for an audience’s sense of comfortable familiarity with a concept, a brand, or a series, essentially guaranteeing success. We’ve seen pre-awareness used to market everything from movie franchises like Netflix’s Stranger Things, to products like the iPhone X.
Has this strategy been employed in political campaigns? Yes and no. It would be naive to think that neither Trump nor Clinton’s campaigns used algorithms and filter bubbles to advertise certain ads to certain demographics on certain platforms. Filter bubbles are a result of a personalized search in which a website algorithm selectively guesses what information a user would like to see based on information about the user (such as location, past click behavior and search history). As a result, users become separated from information that disagrees with their viewpoints, effectively isolating them in their own cultural or ideological bubbles.
I remember being subjected to one specific Clinton campaign video throughout the election on Facebook and Instagram. While I’m not sure whether this ad was fed to me due to my own online identity as a millennial female, it definitely seemed that way. Regardless, come election day, my non-existent vote was definitely with her. I think that says enough in itself about pre-awareness. That I, a Canadian with absolutely no voting power in the U.S., was aware and knowledgeable enough on both candidates that I felt at least somewhat confident in which name I would put down on my ballot if that were possible. I didn’t even have to search for information on both candidates as it was consistently handed to me throughout the presidential race.
All Things Considered
If The Rock chooses to run for President in 2020, it would be very unlikely for him not to harness the power that his massive social media following holds. If he wants to do this the right way, he needs to move away from traditional targeting tactics used in previous elections. He needs to break out of predictable voter demographics and find ways to target those who wouldn’t typically listen. All of this, while continuing to keep his loyal fans locked in.
In the end, if The Rock does run for President, 2020 is going to look a lot like this:
But, really, what more did we expect?
RTA 902, Blog Post 1 #PAID
