Candidates today are facing voters who spend more time on computers and on mobile devices than on TV, Radio, or reading print. According to several media rating services like Nielson TV, viewers and radio listeners continue to drop each year as more people move exclusively online. The key to reaching today’s households and active voters is to locate and meet them on the news and entertainment sites that they frequent. This shift in voter behavior started during the 2008 through 2012 cycles, leading some candidates and their staff to start to rethink past traditional campaign marketing methods of robocalls, door knocking and last minute TV buys. In 2014, many campaigns recognized that nearly one-third of their constituents could only be reached online – through online display, social media, and email.
When Progress Missouri, a progressive advocacy organization, wanted to raise awareness in Missouri’s 4th congressional district about the House of Representatives’ vote to upend Medicare Coverage, there was a need to reach as many targeted voters as possible with a specific message. The target audience – senior citizens who would be negatively affected by increased costs in Medicare coverage. The objective was to generate awareness and encourage senior citizens to contact their Representative’s office to voice concern. This outreach strategy would have been difficult and expensive to implement through direct mail or on television. Even online using decade-old cookie based ad delivery systems only one out of three unique voters would have been reachable.
If Progress Missouri used traditional cookies to reach senior citizens in the 4th district, they would only have reached 30% of the qualified voters with an active cookie, leaving 70% of their audience untouched. This gap is attributed to the fact that 50% of voters block cookies, and nearly all mobile devices do not except cookies.
With Smart Zones, political candidates can double their reach to voters:
To learn more about how you can reach your winning voter margin, visit our Politics & Advocacy page and download our overview.