Survey Says: candidates succeed on the Internet!

PointRoll, Inc. announced the results of its collaboration with the E-Voter Institute and HCD Research in conducting the First Annual Voter Expectations Survey. More than 250,000 voters interacted with rich media ad units that ran from June through August and carried the survey to 17 small, mid-sized, large-market and national daily newspapers across the United States.

“This survey validates the idea that the Internet is a sleeping giant and differentiator in the political campaigning process,” said Chris Saridakis, CEO, PointRoll. “In exploring the relationship between the views of political communication leaders and voters, we’ve revealed that the interactive online environment is growing in its influence and usage among
voters. We believe it will awaken and energize the political process online.”

Key, initial findings include:

— An overwhelming majority of respondents expect candidates to use online technology as part of their campaign efforts
— 87 percent expect they will have a Web site
— 70 percent expect the use of email
— Two-thirds expect candidates to use the Internet for fund raising, post video commercials on his or her website and run online ad campaigns
— Half expect campaigns to have blogs and podcasts
— While respondents continue to see TV ads as the most effective way for campaigns to reach them, email and websites are ranked higher than traditional methods such as phone and radio ads.
— Less than 5 percent of 18-24 year olds say direct mail is effective (compared to 22 percent of 55-64 year-olds find it
effective)
— 20 percent of 18-24 year olds also say that word-of-mouth is important (compared to 5 percent of 55-64 year-olds)

— Media habits are changing as the Internet is increasingly seen as a trusted source of news.

— Internet users of all ages are actively looking for information on candidates and sharing what they find.

— Winning in 2008 will require using the Internet in addition to traditional media.

“When a majority of voters expect candidates to use web-based tools for fund raising, communicating with the loyal base, persuasion, and getting out the vote, the Internet is no longer an afterthought in planning a winning campaign,” said Karen Jagoda, founder and president of E-Voter Institute.

“Candidates who advertise online and develop strong email lists will see their dollars better leveraged than those candidates who simply spend more on what worked in the last election.”

Survey Itself Validates Rich Media Usage

With an interaction rate of more than 13 percent, the rich media survey respondents validated the ability of a well-conceived and created rich media campaign to connect with and engage voters.

Interaction rate is defined as the percentage of ads that users expanded and interacted with, and this represents a 212 percent out-performance of both PointRoll’s benchmark (6.39 percent) and PointRoll’s interaction rates with rich media ads in the government and non-profit organization segments (7.43 and 6.48 percent, respectively). Users spent an average more than 7.5 seconds on the survey.

“We were amazed by the depth and scope of the survey findings,” said Glenn Kessler, CEO, HCD Research. “While we knew that the Internet was a growing force in the political process, we had no idea that the shift was happening so quickly and that expectations that candidates would use the Internet to be so profound and overwhelming.”