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

With wide-spread visibility and a name more recognizable than any other candidate in the state, former governor Jon Huntsman Jr. was thought to be a shoo-in when he ran for the office again in 2020.

His opponent, Lt. Governor Spencer Cox, came to Fluid in hopes of winning the 2020 Republican nomination.

Cox for Governor - Our Idea of Dirty Politics Billboard
Cox for Governor - Our Idea of Dirty Politics Billboard

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 challengernot 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.

Endorsed By Utah
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Cox for Governor Building Consensus Post Card
Cox for Governor Building Consensus Post Card

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.

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Utah saw a 90.09% voter turnout (compared to 41.4% in 2016)

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Governor Cox won with 63% of the vote in November

That’s not all, folks.

Cameron Construction

What else can we do?

Cox for Governor

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