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This week on mypodcastReal America, I sat down with Rep. Michelle Steel (R-Calif.) and Rep. Young Kim (R-Calif.), the first two Republican Korean American women to serve in Congress, to discuss how Democrats are leaving Asian Americans behind.

On the eve of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, the Republican National Committee is highlighting our efforts to reach communities Democrats take for granted. As Democrats run further left, their radical agenda has become out of step with voters. Americans of all backgrounds are discovering that theres never been a better or more important time to vote Republican.

The GOP has been making inroads into the Asian American community for years. Under the Trump administration, Republicans saw a7 percent gainwith Asian Americans from 2016 to 2020. The shift was even greater among Vietnamese Americans, who experienced a14 percent shift towardRepublican candidates. And if that news wasnt bad enough for Democrats,43 percent of the Asian American and Pacific Islander communitysee race relations getting worse under Joe Biden.

Meanwhile, the RNC is building relationships with Asian Americans by opening Asian Pacific American community centers in California, Georgia, Texas and a brand new one in Nevada, with more to come. These grassroots, local offices are part of how were building relationships with Asian Americans and taking our message of law and order, educational opportunity, and economic growth to new voters.

Asian Americans arent the only community where the RNC is making inroads. While Democrats push socialism, radical abortion policies and refer to them as Latinx, Hispanic Americans are concerned about preserving freedoms, raising strong families and putting food on the table. Its no wonder a recent Quinnipiacpollfound that Bidens approval rating with Hispanic voters was lower than any other racial or ethnic group: just 12 percent say they approve strongly of his time in office.

In fact, polls consistently show Hispanics are moving away from the Democratic Party. A Wall Street Journalpollfrom December found that Hispanic voters were equally divided over who they would vote for in the next election. The momentum certainly seems to be with the GOP: A record103 Republican Hispanic candidatesare seeking congressional seats this year. Its an early sign that our efforts to take our message to new voters and investment in Hispanic community centers in states like Texas, Wisconsin and Florida are making an impact.

A similar pattern is playing out among Black voters, who have been particularly hard hit by Democrats destructive agenda. Democratic support for the defund-the-police movement has led to asurge in violent crimethats disproportionately impacting Black Americans. Inflation is hitting Black Americans especially women hardest, with 44 percent saying rising prices pose a serious financial hardship. Thats why Black support for Democrats is quickly eroding: Backing for Democratic Congressional candidates fell from 56 percent in November to only 35 percent in March.

Its no better for Biden, whose approval with Black Americans plummeted 30pointssince he took office. Black GOP Congressional candidates like Texas Wesley Hunt and Michigans John James are proof that skin color doesnt dictate values or political affiliation. Our strategic engagement with Black Republican candidates, elected officials, and community leaders through our RNC Black American community centers are helping Republicans establish a presence in districts previously dominated by Democrats all over the country.

These trends are part of a broader story. For generations, Democrats thought they had a monopoly on minority voters. But now, Democrats failed promises, polarizing agenda and rising prices are catching up with them. Were building relationships and making significant investments in these communities. Were winning over new voters by taking our message of freedom and opportunity to their doorstep. And were identifying and equipping young Republican leaders from minority communities through our RNC Rising Star program.

Democrats are simply doubling down on their failed policies and overplaying their divisive rhetoric without offering solutions or plans to keep families safe, empower entrepreneurs and create opportunities for advancement. Meanwhile, Republicans are committed to enacting policies that will lift all Americans from every background. Come November, Democrats will be in for a rude awakening.

Ronna McDaniel is chairwoman of the Republican National Committee. Follow her on Twitter: @GOPChairwoman.

Link:
Minorities are finding a new political home with the Republican Party - The Hill

But if Trump does not run for president in 2024 or if his popularity within the party fades by then New Hampshire will be a critical testing ground, and potential competitors are already assessing Sununus potential pull. Thats because, following the Iowa caucuses, any candidate resting their candidacy on a more moderate, nonevangelical base of support potential candidates such as former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie or Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan will desperately need a strong showing in New Hampshire, where moderates traditionally go to win over a more socially moderate Republicans and independents.

Im just looking at the path forward, said one adviser to Hogan. Sununu causes chaos for a large part of the 2024 field if he runs.

Even if Sununu doesnt run, he will be a highly sought-after endorser in the state. For potential candidates, said Wayne MacDonald, a New Hampshire lawmaker and former state Republican Party chair, Sununu will be, at that point, a fourth-term Republican governor. He has a great organization and a strong base of support, and that endorsement is going to be very important.

Trump, perhaps, is the one exception to that rule. He easily won the New Hampshire primary in 2016 and again in 2020, and its unclear if any Republican Sununu included could defeat him there.

Lewandowski said at a Mar-a-Lago event earlier this month that if Sununu does run against Trump in 2024, there is 0.000001 percent chance that Chris Sununu will be the Republican nominee for president of the United States.

Lewandowski suggested there is still time for Trumpworld to jettison Sununu with the filing deadline not until June.

I think Chris is very vulnerable in a Republican primary, so well see if somebody runs against him, he said.

Sununu has not been as critical of Trump as some Republicans, like Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse or Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson. Sununu supported Trump in 2020 and insists he is not anti-Trump.

But Sununu has rejected Trumps baseless claims that the 2020 election was rigged, calling him misinformed. In another break with Trump, the governor said people convicted of participating in the riot at the Capitol on Jan. 6 should not be pardoned, and he said he didnt need Trump to campaign with him in New Hampshire.

Then came the Gridiron Club dinner in Washington, D.C., where Sununu later said he was simply telling jokes.

The needling of the former president which is frowned on under the GOPs current iteration does not appear to have hurt Sununu. In the latest Saint Anselm College poll, Sununu ranks favorably among men, women and people of all age groups and education levels in New Hampshire. Despite his moderate profile, he is viewed favorably by 86 percent of Republicans, and more than 80 percent of people who describe themselves as very conservative.

Hes navigated the Trump stuff, just objectively, politically really well, said Fergus Cullen, a former New Hampshire Republican Party chair. He knows when to hug him, and when to push him away.

Meridith McGraw and Stephanie Murray contributed to this report.

Read the original post:
The one Republican Trump can't touch - POLITICO

Social media platforms are where billions of people around the world go to connect with others, get information and make sense of the world. These companies, including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tiktok and Reddit, collect vast amounts of data based on every interaction that takes place on their platforms.

And despite the fact that social media has become one of our most important public forums for speech, several of the most important platforms are controlled by a small number of people. Mark Zuckerberg controls 58% of the voting share of Meta, the parent company of both Facebook and Instagram, effectively giving him sole control of two of the largest social platforms. Now that Twitters board has accepted Elon Musks $44 billion offer to take the company private, that platform will likewise soon be under the control of a single person. All these companies have a history of sharing scant portions of data about their platforms with researchers, preventing us from understanding the impacts of social media to individuals and society. Such singular ownership of the three most powerful social media platforms makes us fear this lockdown on data sharing will continue.

After two decades of little regulation, it is time to require more transparency from social media companies.

In 2020, social media was an important mechanism for the spread of false and misleading claims about the election, and for mobilization by groups that participated in the January 6 Capitol insurrection. We have seen misinformation about COVID-19 spread widely online during the pandemic. And today, social media companies are failing to remove the Russian propaganda about the war in Ukraine that they promised to ban. Social media has become an important conduit for the spread of false information about every issue of concern to society. We dont know what the next crisis will be, but we do know that false claims about it will circulate on these platforms.

Unfortunately, social media companies are stingy about releasing data and publishing research, especially when the findings might be unwelcome (though notable exceptions exist). The only way to understand what is happening on the platforms is for lawmakers and regulators to require social media companies to release data to independent researchers. In particular, we need access to data on the structures of social media, like platform features and algorithms, so we can better analyze how they shape the spread of information and affect user behavior.

For example, platforms have assured legislators that they are taking steps to counter mis/disinformation by flagging content and inserting fact-checks. Are these efforts effective? Again, we would need access to data to know. Without better data, we cant have a substantive discussion about which interventions are most effective and consistent with our values. We also run the risk of creating new laws and regulations that do not adequately address harms, or of inadvertently making problems worse.

Some of us have consulted with lawmakers in the United States and Europe on potential legislative reforms like these. The conversation around transparency and accountability for social media companies has grown deeper and more substantive, moving from vague generalities to specific proposals. However, the debate still lacks important context. Lawmakers and regulators frequently ask us to better explain why we need access to data, what research it would enable and how that research would help the public and inform regulation of social media platforms.

To address this need, weve created this list of questions we could answer if social media companies began to share more of the data they gather about how their services function and how users interact with their systems. We believe such research would help platforms develop better, safer systems, and also inform lawmakers and regulators who seek to hold platforms accountable for the promises they make to the public.

Social media companies ought to welcome the help of independent researchers to better measure online harm and inform policies. Some companies, such as Twitter and Reddit, have been helpful, but we cant depend on the goodwill of a few companies, whose policies might change at the whim of a new owner. We hope a Musk-led Twitter will be as forthcoming as before, if not moreso. In our fast-changing information environment, we should not regulate and legislate by anecdote. We need lawmakers to ensure our access to the data we need to help keep users safe.

Link:
Its Time to Open the Black Box of Social Media - Scientific American

Major luxury goods mall Beijing SKP, pictured here in 2021, said Friday it would close with no reopening date specified after the city confirmed three Covid cases in an apartment community nearby.

Qilai Shen | Bloomberg | Getty Images

BEIJING China showed few signs of loosening its zero-Covid control policies as the country continued to battle its worst outbreak in two years.

Some businesses have resumed production in Shanghai and northern China. But the capital city of Beijing temporarily closed Friday a large luxury mall and non-essential businesses in one area to control an ongoing spike in cases stemming from the highly transmissible omicron variant.

China's top leaders said at a meeting Friday that Covid and the Ukraine crisis have increased challenges and uncertainties for the domestic economy, according to state media. Chinese President Xi Jinping headed the economic meeting, held regularly with China's leadership, known as the Politburo.

The leaders noted the mutation's new characteristics and said the country should stick to its "dynamic zero-Covid policy," state media said.

That implies the Covid policy will not ease in the near term, said Bruce Pang, head of macro and strategy research at China Renaissance. He said the meeting reflects how headwinds for growth are stronger than previously expected, and noted leaders called for more policy support in order for China to achieve its GDP target of around 5.5%.

Many investment banks have cut their China GDP forecast, one as low as 3.9%, in the wake of new Covid cases and controls.

Mainland China reported more than 5,600 new confirmed Covid cases with symptoms for Thursday, with the majority resulting from cases in Shanghai that had previously showed no symptoms.

The southeastern metropolis, home to the world's busiest port, has kept residents mostly in lockdown for more than a month in an attempt to control the local outbreak. Other parts of the country, including Beijing, have locked down neighborhoods, conducted mass virus tests and restricted travel in an attempt to control new spikes in cases.

Beijing reported two new Covid cases without symptoms and 47 with symptoms similar to the daily count for much of the last week. More than 15 other province-level regions reported new cases, including the export-heavy Shandong, Guangdong and Zhejiang provinces.

Specific virus control measures may "sacrifice" the convenience of life for some regions and people, affecting the economy in the short term for some localities, Liang Wannian, head of the Covid response expert group under the National Health Commission, said at a press conference Friday.

But that will allow the largest area and number of people to work and live normally, for a cost-effective balance, he said.

Liang on Friday described the virus situation in Shanghai and Beijing as seeing significant improvement. He said the dynamic zero Covid policy does not mean zero infections, as variants such as omicron mean authorities cannot ensure that no single case appears.

Shanghai has tried to allow some major businesses to resume production by releasing a list about two weeks ago with 666 companies that could get priority for restarting work.

Just over a third, or 247, of the companies are foreign-funded businesses, the Ministry of Commerce said Thursday.

German automaker Volkswagen and U.S. electric car company Tesla have resumed production, the ministry said, noting other foreign businesses have applied to join the second batch of whitelisted companies. The ministry said it would make every effort to ensure resumption of work.

Changchun city in the northern province of Jilin began resuming normal operations Thursday after weeks of lockdown, according to an official announcement.

Getting truck shipments between ports and factories remains a challenge.

Merchants have had to pay more for logistics costs now about 25% of selling prices, up from 15% or 20% at the start of the pandemic Diane Wang, founder and chairperson of Chinese e-commerce site DHgate, told CNBC on Thursday. The company primarily works with small Chinese companies selling abroad.

But with existing inventory, stay-home and lockdown orders would have to last for at least three months in order to really affect the businesses, she said.

Schools in Beijing closed Friday, beginning the upcoming Labor Day holiday one day earlier. The last day of the long-weekend holiday in China is Wednesday, May 4. Many of the Covid cases in the city in the last week have been traced to schools.

Major luxury goods mall Beijing SKP said Friday it would close with no reopening date specified after the city confirmed three Covid cases in an apartment community nearby. Beijing city government has claimed the department store's sales reached 17.7 billion yuan ($2.72 billion) in 2020 to rank first in the world.

State media said gyms, movie theaters and other non-essential businesses in the surrounding area would need to close, while the city conducted mass tests of residents and employees there through Tuesday, May 3. The report did not mention stay-home orders, but discouraged people from going out.

Nearby, in an area one subway stop south of the main business center, local authorities have extended a lockdown that began Monday until the upcoming Tuesday, May 3. Authorities also expanded the scope of the lockdown area slightly to the south.

The affected areas above are in Beijing's main business district that began three days of mass testing on Monday.

Read the rest here:
Chinese leaders stick to Covid controls as the virus spreads and forces a Beijing luxury mall to close temporarily - CNBC

Digital marketing technologies and their ecosystems have dominated growth in marketing budgets for over a decade. As consumers have shifted their attention from stationary media to perpetual media on the go, traditional advertising lost some of its appeal. In turn, marketers pivoted investments from television, radio, newspaper, events, and outdoor advertising to digital channels, from TikTok to TechTarget.

For the last decade, marketers have consistently predicted that their traditional advertising spending would decline. According to data from the 28th Edition of The CMO Survey, on average, marketers reported an annual decrease in traditional advertising spending of -1.4% between February 2012 and 2022, compared to an annual increase of 7.8% for overall marketing budgets during this same period.

However, recent evidence suggests that a shift is underway. In contrast to the historical trend, in August 2021 and February 2022, marketers predicted that traditional advertising spending would increase by 1.4% and 2.9%, respectively.

Consumer-facing companies are leading the shift, with B2C service companies predicting the largest increase in traditional advertising spending (+10.2%), followed by B2C product companies (+4.9%). Further, and somewhat ironically, companies that earn 100% of their sales through the internet are leading this inflection predicting an 11.7% increase in traditional advertising spending over the next 12 months.

So, why is traditional advertising on the rise, and will the trend continue? We see seven drivers behind the shift.

As consumers are spending most of their waking hours online, it seems they are becoming increasingly numb to conventional digital advertising and engagement. They report frustration and negative brand association with digital advertising clutter that prevents them from reading an article, watching a video, or browsing a website. For example, a HubSpot survey found that 57% of participants disliked ads that played before a video and 43% didnt even watch them. As a result, marketers are looking for a way to cut through the noise.

Traditional ads, on the other hand, are experiencing increased engagement. MarketingSherpa reports that more than half of consumers often or always watch traditional television advertisements and read print advertisements that they receive in the mail from companies they are satisfied with. Indeed, research by Ebiquity suggests that traditional media channels led by TV, radio, and print outperform digital channels in terms of reach, attention, and engagement relative to costs. This performance differential is amplified as costs of online advertising have increased, especially when accounting for impression, click, and conversion fraud whereas the costs of traditional media have fallen. It simply makes good economic sense to rebalance spending away from digital clutter.

The same MarketingSherpa survey found that the top five most trusted advertising formats are all traditional, with customers trusting most print advertising (82%), television advertising (80%), direct mail advertising (76%), and radio advertising (71%) to make purchasing decisions. Similarly, it found that British and American consumers trust traditional advertising such as television, radio, and print more than social media advertising. As a result, marketers can use traditional advertising to build brand credibility and trust with jaded buyers.

For years, marketers have relied on third-party cookies to track website visitors, using detailed data on their search preferences to improve the user experience and target consumers with personalized ad experiences. However, with Google phasing out the third-party cookie on Chrome browsers by late 2023 and Apple implementing changes to its iOS14 operating system, the death of third-party cookies is imminent. The CMO Survey found that 19.8% of companies invested more in traditional advertising (outside of online approaches) as a result.

Because of this inevitable change to the advertising landscape, marketers will be forced to rely on segmentation methods that hew closer to traditional advertising models. Without advanced data-driven targeting, marketers will need to refocus on extending their reach.

Podcasts are a form of digital media. However, unlike banner, display, and other social advertisements that often appear within consumers everyday browsing, podcasts use an on-demand approach that is more similar to traditional radio. And this is one reason advertising succeeds. According to Ads Wizz, Podcasts saw a 51% increase in available inventory, a 53% increase in new podcasts, and an 81% increase in podcast ad impressions.

In addition to reaching over 100 million monthly listeners, podcast ads are effective because listeners trust their podcast hosts and are genuinely influenced by their endorsements. In fact, Edison Researchs Super Listeners 2020 study found that 45% of podcast listeners believe the hosts of their favorite podcasts actually use the brands mentioned on their shows. According to the same study, almost half of podcast listeners pay more attention to podcast advertisements than those of any other format. Given the match of target market to podcast content, podcasting has proven to be an effective way to get a companys brand in front of a well-suited and attentive audience.

Digital technology can leverage traditional tools in powerful and surprising ways. For example, who would have thought that direct mail would be resurrected? Thats exactly what happened when mailers are paired with a QR code that consumers can scan to learn more. Furthermore, as Madison Taylor Marketing shares, unique URLs and QR codes allow marketers to gather extremely granular data, permitting them to develop robust marketing analytics regarding ROI and attribution, and eroding the advantage of digital channels.

Marketing is an art and a science of contingencies and context. This means that sometimes traditional advertising is a perfect fit for some brands, markets, and messages. For example, broadcast TV continues to offer an ideal platform for emotional storytelling ads, such as the clever Welcome Back Guinness ad that marked the reopening of pubs and restaurants following the Covid-19 lockdown. New addressable TV solutions, such as by Finecast, now enable advertisers to precision target viewer segments across on-demand and live-streamed TV, thereby eroding the targeting advantage of online channels.

The CMO Survey showed that 54.8% of marketers track digital marketing performance in real time, with an additional 35.2% doing so quarterly or weekly. At the same time, marketers are also becoming skeptical of the hyped returns of digital media, because the platforms control both the advertising inventory and its effectiveness measurement. This has raised credibility concerns related to ad fraud and the worry that digital advertising may be far less effective than reported.

The digital promise of hyper-targeting and personalization is also under scrutiny. For example, recent academic research by Jing Li and colleagues published in the Journal of Marketing shows that retargeting can actually backfire if done too early. And research in computer science has shown that personalization can lead to consumer reactance, especially when consumers are unfamiliar with the brand. In short, marketers are learning that the advantages of digital media can be a double-edged sword and are becoming more cautious about blindly embracing it.

Pundits have long predicted the demise of traditional advertising. However, it is alive and well and headed for growth for the first time in a decade. When used together, traditional and digital marketing can reach more audiences, build and keep trust, and motivate buying from consumers who otherwise might tune out marketing messages.

More here:
Why Marketers Are Returning to Traditional Advertising - HBR.org Daily