The former New York City mayor is quietly testing a campaign tactic no Democrat has: attempting to pay influencers to create content about him.

Billionaire Democrat Mike Bloomberg wasn’t part of the headlines involved in the disastrous Iowa Caucuses this week. Instead, he decided to try to pay for eyeballs. 
As reported by The Wall Street Journal, the 77-year-old former New York City mayor is doubling his 2020 presidential campaign’s advertising budget to fuel a wave of new spending on television, radio, Facebook, and Google. The kicker? Bloomberg’s team is also allocating a considerable sum to a new campaign tactic: soliciting the endorsement of micro-influencers, which Bloomberg would post on its own accounts. 
Per The Daily Beast, Bloomberg is partnering with Tribe, “a branded content marketplace” started by Australian media personality Jules Lund, to coordinate the influencer content campaign. 
According to Tribe’s website, every campaign begins with a creative brief, in which the brand or organization describes the kind of original content they’d like to see influencers create. Then, the organization can review influencers’ submissions, select the posts they want to use, and pay influencers for the content that Bloomberg will then post on their own channels.
Bloomberg’s campaign brief, which was reviewed by The Daily Beast, lists a fixed fee of $150 for content and includes a number of parameters for prospective submissions. Specifically, the brief asks creators who have between 1,000 to 100,000 followers, and are U.S. residents, to explain “why Mike is the candidate who can change our country for the better” and “why YOU think he’s a great candidate.”
The brief also stipulates that creators should avoid poor lighting, profanity, nudity, and “overtly negative content.” Other recommendations include an obligatory reminder to “be honest, passionate and be yourself!” 
“Are you sick of the chaos & infighting overshadowing the issues that matter most to us?” the campaign copy probes. “Please express your thoughts verbally or for still image posts please overlay text about why you support Mike.”
Correction: A previous version of this article suggested that the content produced may be posted on influencers’ own channels. Tribe said in a statement that content submitted could only be posted to Bloomberg campaign accounts.