I think it’s also more fundamental in the sense a number of EA orgs are inherently “comms-focused” because they’re lobbying for some sort of cause to some sort of decision maker (convince politicians to endorse challenge trials or ban datacentres and lead paint,, or maybe persuade fish farmers or maternal care workers in LEDCs to adopt a different approach). Or if they’re not directly lobbying they might be trying to communicate research to a relatively small group of people like computer scientists or people who want to do inter-species utility loss comparisons.
Also, with some notable exceptions I think a lot of EA is quite insular: orgs want to convey that they’re doing important work to OpenPhil funders, a pipeline of talent coming from EA groups, “aligned” organizations to collaborate with or the sort of small donor that’s already thinking about long shot solutions to x-risks or making donations to improve the welfare of unfashionable creatures. That’s a short list to a/b test, a hard group to target with paid media, and also an audience which has exacting expectations about how things are communicated, so the digital marketing to wider audience approach may not work so well. The down side is that competing for the same attention is going to usually be net less impactful than finding interest from the wider public...
I think it’s also more fundamental in the sense a number of EA orgs are inherently “comms-focused” because they’re lobbying for some sort of cause to some sort of decision maker (convince politicians to endorse challenge trials or ban datacentres and lead paint,, or maybe persuade fish farmers or maternal care workers in LEDCs to adopt a different approach). Or if they’re not directly lobbying they might be trying to communicate research to a relatively small group of people like computer scientists or people who want to do inter-species utility loss comparisons.
Also, with some notable exceptions I think a lot of EA is quite insular: orgs want to convey that they’re doing important work to OpenPhil funders, a pipeline of talent coming from EA groups, “aligned” organizations to collaborate with or the sort of small donor that’s already thinking about long shot solutions to x-risks or making donations to improve the welfare of unfashionable creatures. That’s a short list to a/b test, a hard group to target with paid media, and also an audience which has exacting expectations about how things are communicated, so the digital marketing to wider audience approach may not work so well. The down side is that competing for the same attention is going to usually be net less impactful than finding interest from the wider public...