Marketing Takeaways from the 2012 US Election: Data Impact, Social Media, Buying Search Results…..
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Below are some of the major Marketing Trends and themes which took center stage in the recent election south of the border.
1) Data driven: Data helped candidates push out the appropriate content for the different geographic target segments within the US. Real time metrics let the marketing strategists for the two parties modify their output over the course of the campaign.
2) Social Media was Crucial: The younger generation likes to get their news from Twitter and Facebook before anything else. By targeting these platforms the politicians were meeting the voters on their time and space; this is one factor which resulted in a higher youth voter turnout this election. During this election it is estimated roughly 40% of US adults used Social Media to discuss Politics. Additionally according to bussiness2community.com , there are roughly 150million Facebook users that voted in the election. It is clear that the influence these people have through their online networks further compounds the significance of Social Media reach.
-A prime example can be taken from Twitter also, as Barack Obama’s appearance at the Democratic National Convention led to 52,000 tweets per minute, leading to 4 million tweets during his 39 minute speech.
-New Record set by the American President as he made Twitter history yesterday. He tweeted “Four more years” along with a photo of him and Michelle Obama hugging. This broke the previous retweet record of 320,000 held by Justin Bieber.
3) Buying Search Results: Mitt Romney’s marketing strategists even made an attempt to influence Facebook users who were supporting Obama. Users saw the Governor Popup when typing Obama in the search bar. I’m still trying to figure out if this was smart, desperate, or perhaps inefficient use of capital that could have been directed elsewhere- like YouTube advertisements.
Below are further Social media stats which highlight trends we are witnessing.
Want more marketing insights about the election, checkout this news column by Lori Wilson.