Senate Leadership Fund’s Billy McBeath and Bully Pulpit Interactive’s Mike Schneider sound off on political ads from across the aisle

U.S. politicians across the aisle, from ultra-Libertarian to extreme Republican, have used digital advertising to fuel their presidential campaigns. With the 2022 midterms and 2024 presidential election fast approaching, the time is ripe for new strategies. On this episode of The Current Podcast, meet two men who sit — Wizard of Oz style — behind the curtain of political advertising: Billy McBeath and Mike Schneider.

McBeath is the digital director and senior advisor at the Senate Leadership Fund — a Republican super PAC that specializes in getting conservatives elected to the Senate. Schneider, on the other hand, sits on the liberal side of the political spectrum. He worked on President Biden’s presidential campaign in 2020 as a partner and head of BPI Labs for Bully Pulpit Interactive.

“What we’re really buying for is impact and outcomes,” Schneider says on The Current Podcast. “Where can we deliver a persuasive video message to a voter to get them to shift their opinion?”

“It’s all about how can you measure how your message is received, not how many times it was viewed,” McBeath adds.

The next upcoming elections also align around the expected deprecation of third-party cookies, which McBeath is awaiting. “We’re basically going to be rebuilding the airplane while we’re flying it next cycle,” McBeath says. “It’s going to be fun, but also really challenging.”

McBeath and Schneider also discuss the fast nature of a political marketer’s job, why connected TV will be the way forward for all future elections, and how important identity will become as we get closer to the deprecation of third-party cookies.