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- Cox for Governor
DESIGNING THE GREATEST POLITICAL UPSET IN UTAH HISTORY
“This looks like a national political campaign. I’ve never seen anyone do something this sophisticated on Facebook in a state-wide race.” Manager, Facebook Elections Team
His opponent, Lt. Governor Spencer Cox, came to Fluid in hopes of winning the 2020 Republican nomination.
The CHALLENGE
Huntsman, who once touted a 90% approval rating while governor, had returned to Utah with multiple ambassadorships and a slew of high-profile endorsements under his belt. This national and global recognition created a seemingly insurmountable barrier for any challenger—not to mention his campaign’s extremely deep pockets.
The solution
We introduced a strategy built on the insight that Utahns are proudly independent from national political trends—that they trusted their own communities more than famous endorsers.
That strategy led to a campaign called “Endorsed by Utah” allowing thousands of everyday Utahns to publicly endorse Spencer on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter—ultimately becoming the strongest grassroots campaign in state history.
The dynamic and responsive nature of our advertising allowed us to micro-target sub-segments on issues they cared most about and update our creative in real-time across digital and traditional channels to chase performance.
On the final day of the campaign, get-out-to-vote efforts were executed and targeted based on Fluid’s statistical analysis showing which voters were the least likely to have seen our ads.
The Numbers
Based on YouTube survey data, Google estimates that we drove a 40,000 increase in Cox supporters from our video ads alone.
In a shocking upset, Spencer Cox defeated Jon Huntsman by 1% of the vote in the highest primary turnout election in state history. He went on to overwhelmingly win the governorship in November.
Utah saw a 90.09% voter turnout (compared to 41.4% in 2016)
Governor Cox won with 63% of the vote in November
That’s not all, folks.
Cameron Construction
What else can we do?
DEFY
Cox for Governor
