Velti
Does whether or not you own a smartphone affect the way you'll vote in an election? If one candidate is dominating the mobile advertising market, then it might.
Velti and Harris Interactive partnered recently to conduct an online survey of about 800 iPhone and Android users, and found that there was a huge difference in political alignment depending on whether a person owned a smartphone or not: 49% preferred President Obama, while 31% chose Mitt Romney.
A breakdown of the results shows more interesting numbers:
- iPhone/Android owners with a college degree or higher: Obama, 56% vs. Romney, 35%
- iPhone/Android owners with a household income of $75,000 a year or greater: Obama, 49% vs. Romney, 39%
- iPhone/Android owners who are retired: Obama, 34% vs. Romney, 57%
Obama found more support in this survey from younger voters and voters who are single/never married.
How about you, #nerdland? Vote in our poll below if you own a smartphone, and then keep reading below the jump for more about Obama's and Romney's mobile campaign moves.
While these numbers might seem arbitrary (an online survey is never truly indicative of the way an election will really go come November), they could be important as both campaigns work to find new ways to reach out to voters.
Last month, Romney became the first politician to use Apple's iAd, a mobile advertising platform developed for Apple products that allows third-party brands and developers to embed ads into applications. The campaign is also working to get their ads to Android users through Google's mobile network, and have started an aggressive Facebook campaign as well.
"We're executing the plan that we need to in order to win in November," Zac Moffatt, Romney's digital team director said in an interview with Business Insider. "If it was just about how many people you could hire, the person in charge would never lose. It's about having the tools to be successful."
Of course, Romney's mobile campaign hasn't come without a few bumps. Who could forget this "Amercia" typo in Romney's iPhone photo app?
Team Obama, meanwhile, hasn't advertised much of their mobile and online tactics this time around. In 2008, Obama became known for using tools like YouTube and Twitter to reach out to younger voters. The Obama campaign is continuing their online interaction with voters through more channels, such as Tumblr and Pinterest, but I'm not sure if it's as aggressive as the Romney campaign. (Even on my own Facebook when I log in, I see ads for Romney.)
What do you think about the candidates' mobile and online campaigning? Is it too much, or surprisingly effective?
Leave a Comment:
Willard "Mitt" Romney: Bain's ugly "Pretty Woman" guy - after all these years -
still an un-reformed, soulless corporate take-over guy
We know what Mitt's business experience has been. His "business model" success
story sends a cold shudder down one's spine! He prides himself in that he will
apply his honed business practices and principles knowledge to the governing of
people; i.e., shut down govt operations that do not support profit-making
entities - abandoning the needs of people and those operational community
services structures that housed those services like old abandoned warehouses and
factories - adding to the financial, visual and social blight of
communities........ leaving the reclamation to those within those communities to
do the impossible...........
If there is a God, pray that He intercedes and dashes the power and control of
the money-changes in our "Temple" of Government!
I suspect it has more to do with age than anything. The younger a person is, the more likely it is they use a smart phone, no? This is not to say older folks don't use them, but not nearly as many nor as often.