In this blog post…
In the American political landscape, understanding the intricacies of voters’ attitudes and behaviors has never been more crucial. With the 2024 election season on the horizon, the challenge lies in moving beyond broad categorizations like “Democrat,” “Republican,” or “Independent.” Voters seek candidates who resonate with their beliefs and values.
To meet this challenge, Experian has created political personas that offer a nuanced understanding of American voters. In this blog post, we’ll explore how these Experian audiences can help you tailor your engagement strategies for the upcoming election cycle.
Before we dive into our political personas, let’s break down what political campaign marketing is and six benefits of using digital marketing in political campaigns.
What is political campaign marketing?
Political campaign marketing is the strategic engine that drives candidates toward electoral success. It involves crafting and sending out tailored messages to effectively reach constituents to inform them about candidates’ stances on key issues. Think of it as the art of narrative construction, using various communication channels—from traditional media to digital platforms—to engage and mobilize supporters. In an era marked by information saturation, effective campaign marketing serves to cut through the noise to deliver compelling messages that inform, inspire, and spur action.
Benefits of digital marketing in political campaigns
As the 2024 election approaches, using digital marketing in political campaigns becomes paramount to effectively reach and influence voters where they spend a significant portion of their time—online.
Kamala Harris’s entry into the race has shifted spending priorities, particularly in critical states such as Ohio, where the Senate race has already attracted $300 million in ad spending. Political ad spend on connected TV (CTV) is expected to rise significantly, from 2.7% in 2020 to 12.8% this year. The Harris campaign is spearheading this trend, dedicating $200 million to digital ads, with a substantial portion directed toward streaming platforms.
Embracing digital marketing can help campaigns effectively shape opinions and mobilize support. Here are five key benefits of integrating digital marketing strategies into political campaigns:
- Unparalleled reach with targeted advertising: A well-connected digital platform partner can help you reach your target audiences across the ecosystem – from social to the open web.
- Optimization flexibility: Digital marketing allows for quick adjustments in response to real-time data and evolving circumstances.
- Interactive engagement: The interactive nature of digital channels creates meaningful engagement and dialogue between candidates and voters, building connections and community.
- Insights: Robust analytics provide valuable insights into audience behavior and preferences, facilitating continuous optimization and refinement of outreach efforts.
- Amplified messaging: Through digital marketing, political campaigns can amplify their message, mobilize support, and forge deeper connections with voters.
Data serves as the foundation for these benefits. Interactivity hinges on data to deliver the right message and creative for engagement. Insights are gained through pre-campaign research, analyzing audience attributes to grasp their interests and behaviors. Flexibility relies on real-time campaign data, a unique advantage in digital marketing.
In an era where audiences are available readily on most major activation platforms, advertisers need to understand how audiences are built to be privacy conscious and consistent in a cookieless environment.
Experian’s political personas
Digital marketing in political campaigns is crucial to reach and influence voters online. Integrating Experian’s political personas into your political campaign strategy can help you grasp the complexities of today’s American voter landscape and craft tailored engagement strategies. These personas offer invaluable insights into voter viewpoints on key political issues, enriching digital marketing efforts and empowering campaigns to connect with constituents more effectively.
Experian has created 10 political personas to help you better understand today’s American voter so you can reach consumers based on their viewpoints into key political issues.
Our political personas group voters along the political spectrum from most “committed” on the ends of the spectrum.
Let’s walk through how we define each persona starting from the most “committed” personas on the ends of the spectrum.
Committed Democrats
This audience contains consumers who are likely to have a “very liberal” outlook on political issues. They have strong liberal opinions on various topics including key issues and the economy and are very involved in their communities.
Committed Republicans
This audience contains consumers who are likely to have a “very conservative” outlook on political issues. They are well-informed, community-minded individuals with strong opinions that reflect their conservatism. They have very conservative attitudes regarding key social issues.
Moderate Democrats
This audience contains consumers who are likely to have a “somewhat liberal” outlook on political issues.
Moderate Republicans
This audience contains consumers who are likely to have a “somewhat conservative” outlook on political issues.
Political Leaning Liberals
This audience contains consumers who are likely to have strong opinions on key issues that may not align with the traditional Democrat point of view.
Political Leaning Conservatives
This audience contains consumers who are likely on-the-fence on traditional Republican points of view on key issues.
Liberal Leaning Independents
This audience contains consumers who are registered independents and who are likely to have a “middle of the road” outlook on political issues while tending to lean more liberal.
Conservative Leaning Independents
This audience contains consumers who are likely registered independents and likely have a “middle-of-the-road” outlook on political issues while tending to lean more conservative.
Political Unregistered Liberal Leaning
This audience contains consumers who are not likely to have aligned with a specific party, but have a more liberal attitude. They are well-informed and are aware of important political issues. They frequently align with but are not necessarily completely aligned with liberal points of view.
Political Unregistered Conservative Leaning
This audience contains consumers who are not likely to have aligned with a specific party, but have a more conservative attitude. They are well-informed and are aware of important political issues. They frequently align with but are not necessarily completely aligned with conservative points of view.
These 10 personas can help you better understand who the American voter is, but when combined with our 200 politically relevant audiences, such as watches political TV, donations to charitable causes, engagement channel preferences, hobbies, and more, the ability to study and improve engagement for each persona is considerably magnified.
How to combine our political personas with other audiences
If you’re a political candidate looking to reach an important population, Experian audiences are available on-the-shelf of major platforms. For example, if you want to reach unregistered voters and independent voters to influence green initiatives within your community, you can focus on unregistered and moderate personas in the area and combine that with audiences interested in green initiatives, like our GreenAware segments – which predict a consumer’s attitude and point of view on environmental issues.
You can use our “Political Unregistered Liberal Leaning”, “Liberal Leaning Independents,” and GreenAware “Think Greens” audience segments to reach constituents who are likely to be most interested in your message.
To reach voters based on their regional voting patterns, you can use our new battleground counties and district audiences:
- Affiliation Switcher Counties
- Battleground Counties
- House Battleground Districts
- Democrat Counties
- Republican Counties
- Independent Counties
Add Experian’s audiences to your 2024 election strategy
Political advertising spend is projected to surpass $12 billlion in the 2024 election cycle, generating the largest amount of voter outreach in the history of American elections. Experian’s audiences are available on major activation platforms allowing you to strategically reach constituents who would be most impacted and interested in your initiatives.
As we approach a cookieless future, Experian’s political personas are cookie resilient. Our data is rooted in both offline and online data that doesn’t rely on third-party cookies. The personas do not rely on an individual’s browsing behavior. Experian can help our partners understand and engage with these political audiences.
Over 200 politically relevant Experian audiences are available for activation on-the-shelf of the leading TV, demand, and supply platforms. Here are the platforms where you can find our political audiences:
- ArcSpan
- Audigent
- Cadent
- Eyeota
- Magnite
- Microsoft
- Nexxen
- Pandora
- Permutive
- Samsung Ads
- The Trade Desk
- Verizon Media
- Viant
- Videoamp
- Yieldmo
Can’t find the audience you’re looking for or need a custom audience? Connect with our audience team for more information.
Latest posts
As my colleague Jake Davis and I were planning this blog post, we had a lengthy conversation about what we were going to focus on. If you’ve experienced even one holiday season as a digital marketer, you know there’s a ton of crucial decisions to be made about your Q4 digital endeavors. Some of our clients have been planning since the end of the summer for “prime time,” and more than a few mentioned that they earn up to 40% of their annual revenue between October and December. Jake and I are both marketers – my perspective is from the strategy and planning angle, while Jake is The Man when it comes to data and analysis. Together, we make each other better by challenging each other’s ideas and perceptions. We think this blog post captures the best of both of our perspectives. Ultimately, there are a lot of variables at play all year long, but making smart decisions about creative, segmentation, deployment time, content, etc. carries a lot more weight as you close out Q4. I am interested in volume trends and thematic changes through the holiday season; because I believe marketers truly want to be proactive about crafting their holiday plans. In the real world, however, the calendar is a living document and a moving target – if a brand is not hitting its projections, course correction at the 11th hour can happen. Our goal is to ensure that type of recalibration is more the exception than the rule (and to give you some pointers even if you find the calendar is more of a guide than a concrete plan). Jake and our analytics team do some of their most innovative analysis annually, after the holiday season. That analysis of the 2015 holiday season, along with projected trends and industry developments, is what we are using to help frame this particular piece of thought leadership. With that being said, here are four charts and some explanations that can help you win by December 31st: 1. Peak Days Black Friday and Cyber Monday still have a hold on the public’s attention and wallet, even with promotions that began at the end of October. Factor in mobile shopping, and Cyber Monday in particular could be especially lucrative: mobile first consumers are ready, willing and even more able to make purchases from virtually anywhere, not just in front of their computers or tablets. But expect a decline in email marketing effectiveness from the year before…for all of the same reasons it will be so lucrative elsewhere. 2. Send size matters Batch and blast is probably here to stay, no matter how much we preach about the long-term benefits of smaller, targeted campaigns. Even the savviest marketers will resort to some large sends this holiday season, so when you do, it will serve you well to remember this maxim: volume is negatively correlated with email KPIs. Your send size might be the only reason you see a decline in your open rate – and that’s just math! 3. Animation: a key to unlocking engagement Animation has been around for a while now, but that doesn’t mean it’s any less effective. Last holiday season, mailings that included animation were clicked on 30% more than expected based on other trends. While that might because only the best mailings get this treatment, expect animation to get your customers moving. 4. Free shipping Free shipping was the most popular offer in 2015, although slightly less effective than 2014. As recent news about an increase in shipping rates reaches consumers, free shipping could prove to be even more compelling than past years. On the other hand, marketers that offer free shipping may see their bottom line affected (so prepare for Free Shipping with higher qualifiers, and remind your consumers about all the other great benefits they’ll receive by shopping with your brand). As with last year, our ultimate take-aways included the strong Jake and Liz approved suggestion to look at performance from your digital channels in a holistic sense. How have you been communicating with your customers the entire year? Is your website mobile optimized? Is your content personalized and relevant? Are you targeting the right audience? Are you using browse and abandon behavior to send triggered emails and make product recommendations? Most importantly, do you understand the context in which you’re deploying your email? It’s a competitive world out there, and most everyone has the same tricks up their sleeves. Be creative and daring when thinking of what minor innovations could prove major to your bottom line. While the charts above describe holiday 2015 (and rest assured, they will likely describe holiday 2016), it’s the tiny variations – the curious interpretations – that will drive your program forward. And when you’re struggling to come up with that variation? We’re here to help. Read more analytics posts here.
NEW YORK, Nov. 29, 2016 /PRNewswire/ — For the second consecutive year, Tapad, part of Experian, has been listed among Deloitte's Technology Fast 500™, a ranking of the 500 fastest-growing technology, media, telecommunications, life sciences and energy tech companies in North America. Tapad, number 147 on the 2016 Deloitte list, is the leading provider of unified, cross-device marketing technology solutions. "It is an honor to once again be recognized by Deloitte for our growth and momentum, particularly given the stature of the other technology companies on the list," said Are Traasdahl, founder and CEO of Tapad. "Our product innovation, particularly in TV analytics and measurement, is a major contributor to our progress. I'm extremely proud of our hard-working, talented team for continually executing at such a high level." "Today, when every organization can be a tech company, the most effective businesses not only foster the courage to explore change, but also encourage creativity in using and applying existing assets in new ways, as resourcefully as possible," said Sandra Shirai, principal, Deloitte Consulting LLP and U.S. technology, media and telecommunications industry leader. "This ingenious approach to innovation calls for the encouragement of curiosity and collaboration both within and outside the office walls." "This year's Fast 500 winners showcase that when organizations are open to diverse perspectives and insights, they are able to create an environment for their employees and customers to see the possibilities and ingenious solutions that might lie ahead," added Jim Atwell, national managing partner of the emerging growth company practice, Deloitte & Touche LLP. "Entrepreneurial environments foster change and innovation within businesses, and we look forward to watching these companies continue to drive change across all sectors." Contact us today
Distribution via LiveRamp enables seamless cross-device customer experiences through more platforms NEW YORK, Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ — Tapad, now part of Experian and the leading provider of unified cross-device marketing technology solutions, today announced an expanded partnership with LiveRamp™, an Acxiom® company and leading provider of omnichannel identity resolution, to make the proprietary Tapad Device Graph™ accessible beyond Tapad-hosted direct integrations. Through LiveRamp, Tapad's Device Graph Access now extends to more than 400 ad tech and mar tech platforms. Tapad's Device Graph™ enables marketers to understand, monetize and measure consumer engagement across all digital channels, and Tapad's unified consumer view is recognized as one of the most accurate, scalable cross-device solutions in the market today. Through the expanded partnership with LiveRamp, the Tapad Device Graph can be distributed to the hundreds of platforms used to reach consumers on digital channels and measure campaign performance – even as devices are added daily to Tapad's extensive graph. "Increasingly, marketers want access to cross-device targeting and measurement capabilities within their preferred platforms," said Anneka Gupta, chief product officer of LiveRamp. "Our expanded partnership makes it easy for marketers to access Tapad's graph through the rapidly growing set of integrations available in our partner ecosystem." This is the latest of several initiatives between the two technology platforms designed to make the integration of cross-screen platforms seamless, privacy-safe and easy to use for dynamic and engaging marketing efforts. "During the past year, Tapad has expanded its global presence and rapidly grown its data business – Tapad Coral – doubling the number of companies integrating our device graph into their platforms and growing our annualized run rate by 210%," said Pierre Martensson, GM of Tapad Coral and APAC. "Our expanded partnership with LiveRamp positions us to meet the increased demand for Tapad Device Graph Access and enable new platforms to apply our graph with unprecedented speed." Connect with us today to get started