Political Media Strategist Says Vertical Video Alone Won’t Reach Apolitical Voters Before Midterms

The Vertical Buzz season 3

Season 3 guest Kevin Singer

Kevin Singer, a former Meta strategist, says the first five seconds of a vertical political ad are critical and 2028 presidential campaigns set the template

LOS ANGELES , CA, UNITED STATES, September 21, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Posting organically on vertical video platforms is unlikely to reach voters who aren’t already engaged in politics, according to Kevin Singer, a political media strategist who previously managed U.S. public affairs media at Meta.

Singer made the comments in an episode of The Vertical Buzz, a YouTube series on vertical entertainment, premiering Thursday, Sept. 24, about six weeks before the Nov. 3 midterm elections.

In a new episode of The Vertical Buzz, host and creator Buzz Leer sits down with political media strategist Kevin Singer for “THE VERTICAL ELECTION: HOW POLITICAL CAMPAIGNS ARE FIGHTING FOR YOUR PHONE,” an examination of how mobile-first video, social media, algorithms, artificial intelligence and the demand for authenticity are changing the way candidates communicate with voters.

“The phone isn’t a smaller television. It’s a different stage,” said Leer. “Candidates aren’t simply competing against other candidates anymore. They’re competing against everything else in our feeds — news, sports, entertainment, creators, friends, family and whatever our thumb finds next. Political campaigns now have to figure out how to stop the scroll.”

Key points from the discussion:
• Organic vertical content tends to bypass apolitical audiences, even when campaigns use the format.
• The first five seconds of a vertical political ad have to deliver both a hook and key information about the candidate.
• Best practices from 2028 presidential campaigns are expected to filter down to local races.

“Your content organically is much less likely to reach people who are apolitical,” Singer said. “You can be on vertical video, but the algorithm isn’t going to distribute your content to a lot of the people that you need to see it.”

Singer said the opening moments of a vertical ad are where campaigns most often lose viewers. “You haven’t captured that person’s attention yet, and so that first five seconds, you can’t waste it on anything,” he said. “You’ve got to get across both a hook and ideally as much key information as you can about the candidate.”

He also said the demand for authenticity in politics has grown as vertical video has become a standard format. “If you’re just filming a TV spot, you can fake authenticity for 30 seconds,” Singer said. “Can you fake authenticity on an ongoing basis, over and over and over again?”

Looking ahead, Singer said the 2028 presidential primary field will drive local adoption. “All of the primary candidates are going to be putting out a lot of vertical content,” he said. “Best practices will disseminate downwards, and you’ll start to see more of that happening organically at the local level.”

The episode, titled “The Vertical Election: How Political Campaigns Are Fighting for Your Phone,” also covers artificial intelligence, both as a way for campaigns to produce content faster and at greater scale and as a challenge to voter trust in whether political content is real. It includes examples of current political vertical video, which Singer analyzes as both a media strategist and a professional actor.

“Candidates aren’t simply competing against other candidates anymore,” said Buzz Leer, host and creator of The Vertical Buzz. “They’re competing against everything else in our feeds — news, sports, entertainment, creators, friends, family and whatever our thumb finds next.”

For Leer, the political conversation is part of a much larger transformation The Vertical Buzz has been documenting across entertainment, advertising, sports, brands and media.

“Vertical is no longer simply a video format,” Leer said. “It’s becoming a language for how people communicate through the most personal screen we own. Politics was inevitably going to become part of that transformation.”

The episode premieres Thursday, Sept. 24, on The Vertical Buzz YouTube channel: It is part of Season 3 of the series.

About Kevin Singer
Kevin Singer is founder and principal of Singer Strategic, which provides media strategy, creative production and advertising for political campaigns and nonprofit organizations. He has more than a decade of experience in political communications, paid media and public affairs, including managing U.S. public affairs media at Meta. A 2013 UC Berkeley graduate, he is also a professional actor whose Bay Area stage credits include George in Sunday in the Park with George and Niccolò Machiavelli in The Prince Part 1.

About The Vertical Buzz
The Vertical Buzz is a media platform covering vertical entertainment and mobile-first storytelling. Created and hosted by actor and media entrepreneur Buzz Leer, it features interviews with creators, actors, directors, executives, strategists and technology leaders. More at theverticalbuzz.com.

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