Mobile Advertising Alters Voter Attitudes, Behaviors

Considering Super Tuesday hasn’t settled who will run for U.S. President on the Democratic or Republican ticket, mobile advertising may be an effective way for candidates to change voter attitudes and voting behavior, according to a report from Limbo, reports MarketingCharts.

A January SMS advertising campaign the firm conducted for Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama delivered over one million SMS impressions across the two campaigns, Limbo reported.

“The campaigns scored 53 percent awareness, in line with other SMS programs, but higher than might be expected from traditional forms of media. The overall impact was considerable, with 28 percent altering their voting intentions,” said Limbo CMO Rob Lawson

Among the key findings:

• The campaigns functioned to drive greater interaction with the candidate across other paid and non-paid media (see chart):

  • 37 percent paid more attention to news coverage about the candidate.
  • 12 percent became more aware of other marketing for the candidate.
  • 7 percent visited the candidate’s website, with a further 24 percent intending to do so in the future.
  • 5 percent visited the candidate’s mobile internet site, with a further 9 percent intending to do so in the future

• Change in voting intention:

  • 6 percent of those surveyed after the campaigns said that the advertising had changed their voting intentions significantly.
  • This was highest for men, at 7 percent; those aged 35+, at 7 percent; and African Americans, at 9 percent.
  • An additional 22 percent said their intentions had been changed a little.

MarketingCharts has more findings from the study.