Mike Bloomberg’s Campaign Is Paying ‘Micro-Influencers’ To Make Him Look Cool

It’s almost ironic because they basically represent the alpha and the omega of the political spectrum within the modern Democratic Party, but there’s no question that the Iowa Democrats massive fuck-up during the caucus hurt Bernie Sanders more than any other candidate, and helped Michael Bloomberg (and Biden, and Buttigieg) more than any other candidate.

That’s because Bloomberg wasn’t even on the ballot in Iowa, and has bet the farm on an unusual campaign strategy focused on winning a string of primaries in March. No candidate has ever clinched the nomination without bagging either Iowa or New Hampshire, but then again, no candidate has ever had an 11-figure fortune to throw around, either.

Aside from spending $10 million for an almost unbelievably brief Superbowl spot, what has Bloomberg’s coterie of overpaid advisors recommended? How about ’embracing a strategy that’s worked for hundreds of shady ‘fit tea’ hawkers’, Bloomberg is giving money to social media influencers in the hopes that they’ll make him look ‘cool’.

According to the Daily Beast, Bloomberg’s team are utilizing “Tribe”, a “branded content marketplace” that helps politicians and brands coordinate influencer-based ad campaigns, and they’re optimistic about its prospects to really help their astronomically wealthy boss punch through the clutter (we thought that’s what his media behemoth was supposed to do?).

Specifically, the campaign is focusing on “micro-influencers”, that is, people with between 10k and 100k followers. That means the campaign is spending up to $15 million on this endeavor (that’s a lot of memes). They are offering $150 for these influencers to create original pieces of content’ that explain why Bloomberg is the best candidate to lead the USA.

The Bloomberg campaign has quietly begun a campaign on Tribe, a “branded content marketplace” that connects social-media influencers with the brands that want to advertise to their followers, to pitch influencers on creating content highlighting why they love the former New York City mayor—for a price.

For a fixed $150 fee, the Bloomberg campaign is pitching micro-influencers—someone who has from 1,000 to 100,000 followers, in industry parlance—to create original content “that tells us why Mike Bloomberg is the electable candidate who can rise above the fray, work across the aisle so ALL Americans feel heard & respected.”

“Are you sick of the chaos & infighting overshadowing the issues that matter most to us? Please express your thoughts verbally or for still image posts please overlay text about why you support Mike,” the campaign copy tells would-be Bloomberg stans under the heading “Content We’d Love From You,” asking influencers to “Show+Tell why Mike is the candidate who can change our country for the better, state why YOU think he’s a great candidate.”

Content creators have been asked to highlight Bloomberg’s credentials as a “middle-class kid who worked his way through college”, they’ve also been asked to avoid profanity and anything “overtly negative.”

The campaign post, reviewed by The Daily Beast, encourages submissions to be well lit, mention why the influencer thinks “we need a change in Government,” and for the creator to “be honest, passionate and be yourself!”

Influencers are asked not to use profanity, nudity, or “overtly negative content,” as well as be U.S. residents to participate.

The DB definitely has an agenda (like Buzzfeed and Deadspin, it roughly translates to ‘capitalism bad!’), but, credit where credit is due, at least the reporter highlighted the fact that this is a novel strategy that isn’t being used by any of the top-polling candidates, suggesting that Bloomberg’s unorthodox candidacy is generating some appropriately outside-the-box ideas.

The campaign also asked that influencers avoid topics like stop and frisk and Hizzoner’s failed campaign against oversized soft drinks. We suspect readers can do the math on that.

But at this rate, if Bloomberg keeps cranking out gaffes like ‘shaking a dog’s snout’ – gaffes that make him appear like an alien from the billionaire planet – he’ll manage to keep his name near the top of TikTok’s list of trending topics.