By: Ray Day

CONTACT:

Ray Day
ray.day@stagwellglobal.com 

We wanted to share our latest consumer and business insights, based on research from The Harris Poll, a Stagwell agency. 

Among the highlights of wave 138 (fielded Oct. 14-Oct. 16) in our weekly consumer sentiment tracking:

ECONOMY, INFLATION WORRIES UP AGAIN:

Today, 89% of Americans are concerned about the economy, inflation and jobs – up 3 points from last week.

• • 85% worry about a potential U.S. recession (up 3 points)
  • 83% about U.S. crime rates (up 2 points)
  • 74% about political divisiveness (up 1 point)
  • 74% about the War on Ukraine (up 1 point)
  • 73% about affording their living expenses (no change)
  • 60% about a new COVID-19 variant (up 3 points)
  • 48% about the Monkeypox outbreak (up 1 point)
  • 47% about losing their jobs (down 1 point)

VOTERS SEE ECONOMY ON NOVEMBER BALLOT:

Mid-term elections are less than three weeks away, and inflation and the economy might be casting the deciding votes, according to our latest survey with Harvard’s Center for American Political Studies.

• • When asked to pick the most important issues facing the country today, voters identified inflation (37%), the economy and jobs (29%), immigration (23%) and crime (18%).
  • 73% believe inflation is increasing (versus 12% who say it is moderating and 14% who say it is staying the same).
  • 65% think the U.S. economy today is weak (versus 35% who say strong), and 57% say their financial situation is worse (up 20 points from a year ago).
  • 84% think the U.S. is in a recession now or will be in the next year.
  • 65% oppose easing sanctions on countries like Iran and Venezuela to lower gas and oil prices. Instead, they want greater output of American oil and gas.
  • 54% think the U.S. should cut military sales and technical aid to the Saudi Arabian government in response to its oil production cut.

NO KIDS = FREEDOM, MILLENNIALS SAY:

Americans are having fewer children than are needed to keep population numbers stable. Yet why are people choosing not to have children? In our survey:

• • Of those without children, 52% do not want to have a child in the future, while 20% remain unsure.
  • For those who have decided against having children, 54% want to maintain their personal independence/finances, 40% want work-life balance, 33% say it’s due to housing prices, 31% cite the current political situation, 31% say it’s because of safety concerns, and 28% cite climate change.
  • 55% of men and 53% of women reported that their desire to maintain independence influences their decision not to have children.
  • 65% agree that the freedom that comes with not having kids brings them happiness – increasing to 73% among Millennials, according to a similar survey with Fortune.

CREDIT SCORES IMMUNE FROM PANDEMIC:

The pandemic disrupted many Americans’ finances, yet that did not translate into lower credit scores, according to our survey with NerdWallet.

• • 27% of Americans say their credit score has gone up since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, with just 14% saying it declined.
  • 69% with increasing credit scores attribute the gain to paying down debt.
  • For those who saw their scores drop, 47% attribute it to taking on or increasing debt.
  • 65% with higher credit scores took financial action as a result, such as applying for a rewards credit card (30%) or a mortgage/home equity line of credit (25%).
  • 61% of Americans plan to act during the next year to improve their credit scores, with half (49%) planning to pay off or pay down debt.
  • Still, credit misconceptions remain, with 46% of Americans incorrectly believing that closing a credit card you don’t use can help improve a credit score.

1 IN 4 ARE HALLOWEEN CANDY LOYALISTS:

With Halloween around the corner, our survey with Instacart has revealed consumers’ latest candy-buying habits.

• • 72% of Americans say they like Halloween.
  • 24% say Halloween is their favorite holiday.
  • 84% of people who buy Halloween candy will buy chocolate, while 56% will purchase fruity and chewy candy.
  • 23% of Americans are candy loyalists – with 65% buying the same Halloween candy for five or more years, and 40% buying the same types of Halloween candy for 10 or more years.
  • 63% of Americans report they now love a type of Halloween candy that they hated as a kid. Of those, 29% say they now love licorice, an 28% have developed an affinity for candy corn.

ICYMI:

In case you missed it, check out some of the thought-leadership and happenings around Stagwell making news:

• From National Research Group’s latest in-depth study: In Nigeria, Big Tech, crypto, and hustle culture come calling
• From a recent study by The Harris Poll: Social media fuels OOH visibility according to OAAA, Harris Poll

As always, if helpful, we would be happy to provide more info on any of these data or insights. Please do not hesitate to reach out.

Thank you.

Originally Released On

PR Newswire

CONTACT:

Sarah Arvizo
Stagwell
pr@stagwellglobal.com 

Insights Series Launches with Deep Dive into Nigeria in Partnership with Stagwell Affiliate Partner SBI Media

NEW YORK and LAGOS, Nigeria, Oct. 19, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — National Research Group (NRG), a global insights leader at the intersection of technology, content and culture, launched its “Capstone Series,” a first-of-its-kind exploration into the culture, content and technology driving leading-edge global growth markets. NRG is part of Stagwell (NASDAQ: STGW), the challenger network built to transform marketing. In partnership with SBI Media, a Lagos, Nigeria-based media agency and part of Stagwell’s Global Affiliate Network, NRG kicked off the series with “Exploring Nigeria,” a future-leaning view into the technology, culture and entertainment trends shaping the Nigerian landscape.  

“Our Capstone Series is a research undertaking combining a global viewpoint with on-the-ground perspective and expertise at a level of depth we’ve not seen before in emerging markets,” said NRG Chief Strategy Officer Chris Rethore. “The proof of that is in our inaugural study, which has given us a nuanced, layered understanding of Nigeria’s shifting cultural landscape – showing us what makes Nigerians tick, how their identity impacts their consumption behaviors, and what can be done to better serve these passionate consumers. We hope that media, entertainment and tech companies find value and actionable intelligence in this and future studies to help shape decision-making in vanguard markets over the next few years.”

 “This study would not have been possible without the partnerships we have built through Stagwell’s Global Affiliate Network, now numbering nearly 80 partners across APAC, EMEA, LATAM, and North America,” said Stagwell Chief Strategy Officer Anas Ghazi. “Partners like SBI Media accelerate our global research, survey, and insights capabilities at Stagwell, adding authentic understanding of local markets around the world.”

“We are delighted to collaborate with the innovative team at NRG on this landmark project — the first of its kind in the Nigerian and sub-Saharan African market,” said SBI Media Group CEO Rotimi Bankole. “We are convinced that the findings in the NRG Capstone Series will provide brands, artists, creatives, and the larger stakeholders in the entertainment and content industry uncharted insights to decipher, discover and leverage engagement opportunities in the market.”

Exploring Nigeria
Anchored by a robust survey of 5,000 in-market consumers with added expert viewpoints of academics, industry insiders and in-person consumer interviews, “Exploring Nigeria” provides broad understanding into the cultural pillars that drive the country and its people. The research dives into 10 key topic areas exploring consumer habits and attitudes in Nigeria today, including the criticality of mobile, the rollout of 5G, the creator economy, content consumption, streaming services, audio and gaming as growth verticals, the power of social media, the future of money, and more.

Key takeaways include:

• Mobile is the gateway to connectivity. Mobility is table stakes when it comes to streaming, with 78% noting it’s very important that streaming services work well on mobile. Over half (55%) of all movie/TV consumption is on smartphones, while viewership on laptops, smart TVs, tablets and desktop devices is less frequent. Smartphones are also the overwhelming method for gaming (83%).
• 5G will “transform my country for the better,” say 81% of Nigerian consumers. With internet connection quality viewed as the biggest tech problem in the market, nearly 70% are aware of the pending 5G rollout, with the primary benefit seen to be enhanced speed (74%).
• YouTube leads as the top streaming service with 82% of respondents using it weekly, and 40% of these who use it multiple times per day. Only a daily basis, 64% use it the most often over other services such as Netflix (46%), Prime Video (25%), and AREWA24 (44%), the Hausa-language channel. Of the top five daily activities in general, 66% said they watch a short-form online video.
• Nigerians want Nigerian content to positively reflect their culture and values. Of the top five features that make film or TV feel most authentic, 60% indicated the characters should demonstrate Nigerian values (e.g., family/community work ethic, integrity) and should portray a positive image of Nigeria to the outside world (52%).
• …But Hollywood is still the dominant entertainment source. U.S. content owns the largest share of film viewing (75% of Nigerian consumers have watched Hollywood films in the past 6 months), while American TV is a close second behind Nigerian-produced TV (61% vs. 68%). English-language content from other non-US markets also has appeal. Where other countries have flourished with local content, streamers can heavily feature English-dominant titles from their global catalogs – 80% say they most enjoy watching content in English.
• Audio is ready for a shake-up. Due to limited internet connectivity, music streaming has yet to really take off in Nigeria – only 49% stream music through a streaming service. Nigerian consumers are more likely to depend on downloading and backpacking content.
• Big Tech = big influence. Tech companies including social media companies have a “great deal” of impact on Nigerian culture (64%), second only to religious institutions (73%).
• Finance-related technology that can directly benefit Nigerians fuels their desire to succeed professionally, to learn and grow, and to make money. More than half of respondents indicated they are aware and knowledgeable about cryptocurrency (90%), mobile wallets (85%), artificial intelligence (78%), 5G (76%), blockchain (71%), virtual reality (65%), and NFTs (59%).

NRG’s planned upcoming Capstone Series reports include Indonesia (Q4 2022), Argentina (Q1 2023) and Turkey (Q2 2023).

Study Methodology
NRG conducted an online survey from June 19, 2022 to July 4, 2022 among a nationally representative sample of 5,000 internet-enabled Nigerian consumers aged 16-64. Quantitative fieldwork was enhanced by integrating expert interviews with in-market academic and business leaders as well as in-depth, virtual interviews with Nigerian consumers.  

About National Research Group
National Research Group is a leading global insights and strategy firm at the intersection of entertainment and technology. Rooted in four decades of industry expertise, the world’s leading marketers turn to us for insights into growth and strategy for any content, anywhere, on any device. Working at the confluence of content, culture and technology, NRG offers insights for bold storytellers everywhere. To learn more, please visit www.nationalresearchgroup.com, and follow us on LinkedIn and Instagram.

About SBI Media
With the vision to become Africa’s most global agency, SBI Media Group is Nigeria’s largest independent media agency (RECMA 2021) built on the culture of bravery, thought leadership and innovation. As a member of the Stagwell Global affiliate network, we are in partnership with a diverse clientele of telecoms, technology, aviation, automobile, telecoms, eCommerce, FMCGs financial services and allied industry. Our fast rising presence cuts across six economic cities including Accra Ghana, Johannesburg South Africa, Nairobi Kenya, Dubai in the United Arab Emirates and recently our London office serving Europe and the Asia Pacific. We are headquartered in Lagos, Nigeria’s economic and financial capital with over 100 media professionals in digital transformation, creative and content, media strategy, research, planning and exchange.

About Stagwell
Stagwell is the challenger network built to transform marketing. We deliver scaled creative performance for the world’s most ambitious brands, connecting culture-moving creativity with leading-edge technology to harmonize the art and science of marketing. Led by entrepreneurs, our 13,000+ specialists in 34+ countries are unified under a single purpose: to drive effectiveness and improve business results for their clients. Join us at www.stagwellglobal.com. 

Originally Released On

PR Newswire

CONTACT:

Sarah Arvizo
Stagwell
pr@stagwellglobal.com 

Epicenter Experience is Stagwell Marketing Cloud’s 3rd Acquisition in 2022, Adding Mobile and Location Data to its Evolving Data and Insights Stack

NEW YORK and BOSTON, Oct. 19, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Stagwell (NASDAQ: STGW), the challenger network built to transform marketing, has acquired Epicenter Experience (Epicenter), an enterprise software company that leverages mobile and location data to map and sequence complex consumer behavior patterns. Epicenter will become part of the Stagwell Marketing Cloud (SMC), a proprietary suite of software-as-a-service (SaaS) and data-as-a-service (DaaS) products built for in-house marketing teams.

“We have strong momentum building around the Stagwell Marketing Cloud’s insights and analytics capabilities, and we’re excited to add Epicenter’s location-focused platform as another supplement to our data stack,” said Stagwell Chairman and CEO Mark Penn. “With this AI-powered technology, we can deliver more comprehensive data intelligence to brands, helping them more effectively drive customer acquisition and retention goals.”

“With The People Platform we’ve built a tool that provides contextual awareness and behavioral understanding on a granular level, providing our clients with a connective tissue that they’ve come to view as a ‘currency service.’ We look forward to enhancing the SMC with this technology that can be applied within any industry,” said Epicenter Experience CEO and Co-founder Paul Krasinski. “Through these direct-from-consumer learnings we empower our customers across retail, healthcare, consumer goods, sports, entertainment and more to create more valuable, more personalized connections to their audiences at scale.”

SMC has been actively investing in emerging technologies and data-focused platforms as part of its strategy to serve in-house teams with transformative marketing technology capabilities. This is the SMC’s third acquisition in the second half of 2022, following Apollo Program in July and Maru Group in October. Epicenter will continue to be led by its current leadership team including Co-founders CEO Paul Krasinski and CFO Lynne Lipinsky.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Stagwell is the challenger network built to transform marketing. We deliver scaled creative performance for the world’s most ambitious brands, connecting culture-moving creativity with leading-edge technology to harmonize the art and science of marketing.  Led by entrepreneurs, our 13,000+ specialists in 34+ countries are unified under a single purpose: to drive effectiveness and improve business results for their clients. Join us at www.stagwellglobal.com.

By: Ray Day

CONTACT:

Ray Day
ray.day@stagwellglobal.com 

We wanted to share our latest consumer and business insights, based on research from The Harris Poll, a Stagwell agency. More from The Harris Poll is available at this link.

Among the highlights of wave 137 (fielded Oct. 7-Oct. 9) in our weekly consumer sentiment tracking:

• JOB, COST-OF-LIVING WORRIES UP AGAIN: Today, 86% of Americans are concerned about the economy, inflation and jobs – moderating from last week. Yet worries about affording living expenses and losing a job are on the rise again.
• 86% are concerned about the economy and inflation (down 4 points from last week)
• 82% about a potential U.S. recession (down 4 points)
• 81% about U.S. crime rates (down 1 point)
• 73% about political divisiveness (down 1 point)
• 73% about affording their living expenses (up 1 point)
• 73% about the War on Ukraine (no change)
• 57% about a new COVID-19 variant (down 2 points)
• 48% about losing their jobs (up 3 points)
• 47% about the Monkeypox outbreak (up 2 points)

• GEN Z NOT BANKING ON SOCIAL SECURITY: Of the four generational groups currently in the working world, Gen Z is the least likely to depend on Social Security to fund their retirement – and the most likely to retire early. That’s according to the “Emerging From the COVID-19 Pandemic: Four Generations Prepare for Retirement” survey released this week with the Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies.
  • Gen Z workers (43%) are more likely than older generations to expect to retire before age 65 (versus 30% of all workers expecting to retire before age 65, 37% for Millennials, 24% for Gen X and 14% for Baby Boomers).
  • 67% of Gen Z workers are saving for retirement through employer-sponsored 401(k) or similar retirement plans or outside the workplace.
  • The median age at which Gen Z is starting to save – 19 years old – is much younger than the median starting age for Millennials (age 25), Gen X (30) and Boomers (35).
  • Among Gen Z and Millennials, 73% said they are concerned that Social Security will not be there when they are ready to retire.
  • That compares with 40% of Boomers who expect Social Security to be their primary source of retirement income.
  • Gen X workers have the least faith in Social Security, with 78% saying they are concerned that Social Security will not be there for them when they are ready to retire.

• HIGH SCHOOLERS WANT MORE CAREER HELP: High school students across the country are frustrated with the lack of support they are receiving in preparing for a future career. Our survey with the Data Quality Campaign and Kentucky Student Voice Team found:
  • 54% say the pandemic has changed how they think about what they might do after graduation.
  • Only 35% say their school informed them of which postsecondary or career paths are available to them.
  • 80% of students agree they would feel more confident about their career path if they had better access to information to determine their options after graduation.
  • This lack of career preparation already is showing up in the workplace. Of Gen Z members who interned or started a job this past year, 49% say that they did not feel like their training and onboarding were done well.
  • 58% of interns also report feeling lost at work without anyone to reach for questions and support.

• LESS THAN HALF OF VOTING AMERICA WATCHES TRADITIONAL TV: When it comes to reaching Americans this election season, less than half of voters (49%) have a traditional TV, according to a new HarrisX survey with Samba TV.
  • 1 in 4 of those who do still have traditional TV plan to cancel in the next six months.
  • Independents (42%) are the least likely to have traditional TVs.
  • Millennial and Gen Z voters are more than twice as likely to stream than they are to have a traditional linear subscriptions today. The gap is even wider for younger voters in battleground states.
  • Facebook remains the most used platform by registered voters nationally but has less of an impact in key battleground states.
  • Democrat voters are significantly more likely to use TikTok than Republicans nationally –with 37% of Democratic voters using it weekly compared with 27% of Republican voters.

• MANY WOMEN STILL MISS DEADLY BREAST CANCER SIGNS: October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and most women are unaware of the unusual symptoms of a particularly aggressive and deadly form of the disease, according to our survey with The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center.
  • The good news: 78% of women recognize a lump in the breast as a sign of breast cancer.
  • However, less than half of women would flag redness of the breast (44%), pitting/thickening of the skin (44%) or one breast feeling warmer or heavier than the other (34%) as possible symptoms of breast cancer – specifically the rare and highly aggressive form of the disease known as inflammatory breast cancer.

• ICYMI: In case you missed it, check out some of the thought-leadership and happenings around Stagwell making news:

• How A.I. Could Help You Craft The Perfect Media Pitch

• Should brands be mimicking political advertising methods to attract consumers?

• How SKDK Sees the Midterm Media Landscape

As always, if helpful, we would be happy to provide more info on any of these data or insights. Please do not hesitate to reach out.

Originally Released On

PR Newswire

CONTACT:

Sarah Arvizo
Stagwell
pr@stagwellglobal.com 

SMC’s second acquisition integrates SaaS platform linking global behavioral, transactional and attitudinal data

Maru brings new, global capabilities to SMC. Maru’s SaaS solution, HUB, is a fully scalable survey platform that allows in-house marketers to analyze behavioral, transactional, and attitudinal data all in one place. With tens of millions of survey completes processed a year, the Maru/HUB platform manages research from ad-hoc studies to global trackers. Partnerships with 14 vetted sample partners worldwide allow Maru to connect clients with expertly profiled respondents.  

“Stagwell is pleased to add this sophisticated ‘research as a service’ partner,” said Mark Penn, chairman, and CEO, Stagwell. “Maru will be a great addition to our Stagwell Marketing Cloud and round out our research offering from full-service analytical to do it yourself. Maru is research built for enterprise scale but in simple, convenient and affordable ways.” 

“From full service to self-service, SMC believes marketers need to integrate connected technologies to stay ahead and drive business growth in the modern digital economy. This acquisition demonstrates our commitment to that belief,” said Elspeth Rollert, chief marketing officer, SMC. “We pride ourselves on a commitment to entrepreneurs like Ged Parton who are building the future of connected brand ecosystems, and we’re thrilled to have the Maru Group team join SMC.” 

Maru strengthens SMC’s global, blue-chip client list and presence including Buenos Aires, Chicago, London, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Southampton, Toronto, and Vancouver.  

“Maru’s suite provides real-time access to insight and results, bringing into one ecosystem adaptive interpretation of behavioral, transactional, and attitudinal consumer data,” said Ged Parton, CEO, Maru Group. “By joining SMC, we’re scaling our services to some of the fastest-growing brands worldwide and translating our belief that understanding the intersection between behavior and emotion is critical to establishing the strongest possible consumer connection to drive better business results.”  

Maru joins SMC as its second acquisition amid an accelerated focus on technology-based marketing innovation from parent company Stagwell. In July 2022, SMC acquired Apollo Program.  

SMC’s leadership team is growing with the appointment of former Accenture Applied Intelligence Practice lead Mansoor Basha as chief technology officer. Mansoor joins Matthew Lochner, managing director; Abe Geiger, chief product officer; and Elspeth Rollert, chief marketing officer.  

Products across the suite are picking up momentum, too, as marketing professionals race to integrate technology. In August 2022, ARound – a shared augmented reality solution for live events  – launched in partnership with the Minnesota Twins, bringing the world’s first stadium-level shared A.R. experience to life. Further, PRophet, Stagwell’s AI-powered tool for predicting the success of media pitches, has launched “2.0” enhanced by partnerships with PeakMetrics, Podchaser, and The Harris Poll. 

Stephens Inc. served as advisor to Maru Group. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. 

Stagwell is the challenger network built to transform marketing. We deliver scaled creative performance for the world’s most ambitious brands, connecting culture-moving creativity with leading-edge technology to harmonize the art and science of marketing. Led by entrepreneurs, our 13,000+ specialists in 34+ countries are unified under a single purpose: to drive effectiveness and improve business results for their clients. Join us at www.stagwellglobal.com.  

By:

Nolan Mendoza
Stagwell Jr. Designer 

This Hispanic Heritage Month, Stagwell is collaborating with creatives across its global network to curate artwork that reflects their cultural heritage. Our series continues with a contribution from Stagwell Jr. Designer Nolan Mendoza called “The Diablitos.”

“Growing up in a mixed Mexican American household, tradition and art shaped my early interests for design. There is something unique and proud about Mexican style, which fuses bright colors and humanist shapes. Everything is designed by hand. And the art is often heavily influenced by Catholicism. I’ve carried all of those techniques and styles into my own personal work today. The Diablitos is an ongoing personal project born of processing Catholic guilt and being queer while trying to balance and maintain my relationship with a higher power. Each piece is hand-carved from linoleum and printed with ink, displaying its own unique and original marks and qualities.”

Originally Released On

PR Newswire

CONTACT:

Sarah Arvizo
Stagwell
pr@stagwellglobal.com 

Stagwell’s fastest-growing network transforms for the convergence of creative, media, and commerce.

NEW YORK, Oct. 6, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Stagwell (NASDAQ: STGW), the challenger network built to transform marketing, has expanded and rebranded the Stagwell Media Network to the Brand Performance Network, closing a crucial gap in the industry to produce and deliver connected solutions that perform across creative, media and commerce.

“‘Creative + Media + Commerce’ – the new equation for modern marketing – is simple, but executing against it is complex. Brands need truly integrated partners to navigate this convergence,” said Mark Penn, chairman and CEO, Stagwell. “The Stagwell Media Network has clearly resonated well with clients; look at its breakout performance and recent substantial client wins. Now, with this expansion, we’ve fully integrated creative and media, and are scaling our growing expertise in e-commerce solutions, creating a group able to activate the full equation of modern brand performance.”

The proximity of Creative X Media X Commerce is core to the Brand Performance Network’s evolved offering. Now, the network is home to more than 6,000 experts across 60 locations in 20 countries worldwide, representing award-winning creative and managing close to $5 billion in media and commerce. 

In August 2022, Stagwell integrated iconic creative agencies Crispin Porter Bogusky, Forsman & Bodenfors, Observatory and Vitro into the Brand Performance Network; Stagwell at the time also reported the Media Network posted 33% net revenue growth in the second quarter of 2022, making it Stagwell’s fastest-growing integrated network.  

“We launched the network a year ago in response to the needs of the modern marketer, to be omnichannel, data and tech-enabled, and global,” said James Townsend, global CEO of Assembly and the Brand Performance Network. “Today, we’re evolving again to reflect the drive we’ve seen from blue-chip global brands rightly demanding truly connected creative, media, and commerce solutions to unlock transformation and growth for their businesses. This will offer our people more opportunity and our clients even more value.”

“Today’s announcement is a great moment to welcome the new creative agencies and their leadership teams to the network,” said Brad Simms, president and CEO, GALE, and global chief product officer of the Brand Performance Network. “Their compelling and impactful work perfectly complements strategic media execution and personifies our focus on brand performance.” 

All agencies within the network will continue to operate under their individual brands, consistent with Stagwell’s fundamental belief in collaboration between complementary groups over agency consolidation. Brands within the network will retain their cultures and unique capability sets, while scaling through more integrated work.

The new identity is being designed by business agency GALE. 

About Stagwell
Stagwell is the challenger network built to transform marketing. We deliver scaled creative performance for the world’s most ambitious brands, connecting culture-moving creativity with leading-edge technology to harmonize the art and science of marketing. Led by entrepreneurs, our 13,000+ specialists in 34+ countries are unified under a single purpose: to drive effectiveness and improve business results for their clients. Join us at www.stagwellglobal.com.

About the Brand Performance Network
Stagwell’s Brand Performance Network is a group of leading creative, media, and commerce agencies home to more than 6,000 experts with an expansive global footprint across 60 offices in 20 countries, managing $5 billion in media. The network includes creative agencies GALE, Forsman & Bodenfors, Crispin Porter Bogusky, Vitro, and Observatory, media agencies Assembly, MMI Agency, Goodstuff and Grason, B2B specialists Multiview, multi-lingual content agency Locaria, travel and media experts Ink, and commerce experts Brand New Galaxy. The network offers marketers a more dynamic partner for global B2B and B2C connected solutions spanning data, technology, media, and creativity aimed at accelerating business growth for brands worldwide.

Contact: 
Beth Sidhu
pr@stagwellglobal.com

By Mark Penn 

CONTACT

hello@stagwellglobal.com

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Quick, tell me when your state’s primary was. Odds are, most Americans can’t.

Seems like democracy is much threatened these days, and yet no one seems to care much about voting in the most important elections in the country – the primary elections. While turnout has surged in general elections, up to 67% in the last presidential race, it has gone nowhere in primary elections, with most getting between 20% and 40% of voters to the polls. But there are simple reforms that could go a long way toward fixing the primary problem.

As more and more of the country is one-party territory, these primary elections really determine who governs in America and sets the ideological makeup of our leaders. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, one of the most outspoken members of Congress and a leader of the “squad,” was elected with fewer than 17,000 votes in a Congressional district that has nearly 700,000 people. She was able to win by mobilizing a small number of activists while the average voter was sleeping. Turnout among eligible Democrats in that key race was 13%, similar to many primaries across the country. Even in this year’s hotly contested primary for squad member Ilhan Omar, only 27% of the voters turned out.

Not only are primaries scattered over 20-odd dates from March to September, but the big money flows to partisan efforts that operate under the guise of being nonpartisan. Many nonprofit civic groups today are just taxpayer-funded partisan efforts to register voters in favorable areas or redistrict for the benefit of one party. Former Democrat Attorney General Eric Holder’s National Redistricting Foundation uses litigation to challenge gerrymandering, but seemingly only where it hurts Democrats. Youth registration–focused Rock the Vote claims to be nonpartisan, but its president released a statement explicitly lamenting Trump’s 2016 victory. Donors simply care more about who wins rather than about making the process more open, fair, and democratic, letting the chips fall where they may.

In a slew of swing-state Senate primaries in May 2022 for elections that will likely determine control of Congress, well under half of eligible voters participated. While an estimated 60% of eligible Georgians voted in the January 2021 runoffs that won the Democrats the Senate, just 27% participated in the May 2022 primary for one of those seats. Herschel Walker won the Republican nomination by receiving 800,000 votes in a state of 7 million active voters. In Ohio, only 20% of eligible voters participated in the Senate primary in which J.D. Vance cleared the Republican field. In both Georgia and Ohio, voters can participate in any party’s primary.

Things were only slightly better in Pennsylvania’s Senate primary, where 32% of eligible Democrats and 39% of eligible Republicans chose progressive John Fetterman and Dr. Mehmet Oz, respectively, over more moderate alternatives in a state that is divided quite evenly.

And these are the turnout numbers in high profile races. An abysmal 13% came out to the New York Democratic primary for governor, where Andrew Cuomo’s replacement Kathy Hochul ran for her first full term.

Low primary turnout facilitates the rise of more extreme candidates who could not otherwise be elected by a full constituency. Those who vote in primaries, especially on the right, are more strongly partisan and ideological than other Americans, according to the Brookings Institute’s 2018 Primaries Project.

Less well-known but still powerful positions like district attorney are especially vulnerable to activist candidates in a low-turnout environment. For years, left-wing billionaire George Soros has quietly given millions to “reform-minded” DA candidates, including new Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. Now in charge of the criminal justice system of the nation’s largest city, Bragg won his office last year in an eight-way Democratic primary that attracted just 250,000 voters, or 29% of the eligible population.

Nonpartisan primaries in which all candidates run on the same ballot may encourage moderation, but they have not solved the turnout problem so far. In Alaska, Senator Lisa Murkowski, the only Republican who voted to convict Trump of impeachment and is facing reelection this year, has survived a Trump-backed challenger so far only because the open primary allowed them both to advance to the general election. Yet just 26% of eligible Alaskans participated. Similarly, the only two Republican representatives who voted to impeach Trump and have survived their 2022 GOP primaries both did so in top-two systems, where the ballot includes all candidates regardless of party. Yet turnout was still low – 19% in California Congressman David Valadao’s district and 37% in Washington Congressman Dan Newhouse’s.

So with all of the hullabaloo over every single placement of a drop box, there is no outcry about how American democracy has been undermined with confusing, little-known primary schedules that favor activists on both sides.

To fix these problems we need to take some urgent steps. First, we need to shine light on this low participation and information as a problem. Second, we should deny tax deductibility status to nonprofits that are carrying out one-party agendas and encourage the growth of nonprofits that want high voter participation in all elections by all voters. Third, we need to set three or four regional primary days in which groups of states all hold their primaries at the same time to cut down on all the confusion of 20 or more possible dates. Further complicating this are Democratic campaigns to meddle with the primary process by deliberately providing tens of millions of dollars to extreme candidates they oppose and hope will be easier to defeat in the general election. Though unlikely to be banned outright, this practice further undermines the primary process, and hopefully the parties will agree to end it in the name of a fair democracy.

By

Natalie Oganesyan
Yahoo! Entertainment

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Assembly on August 2, 2022