Political Advertising for 2012 U.S. Elections
SocialVibe, a leading digital advertising company, has announced the launch of a political advertising solution tailored to serve the needs of political campaigns and political action committees.
According to the company, SocialVibe’s engagement ads are used by leading brand advertisers to offer people something of value – such as credits for online games or access to premium content – in exchange for interacting with an ad.
By applying the engagement ad model to the political realm, campaigns can simultaneously present persuasive messaging to potential voters and encourage them to take action on campaign-related activities as well as share the digital experience with their friends, the company says.
[ Also Read: Meet the GOP Presidential Hopeful Michele Bachmann ]SocialVibe recently conducted a virtual field study in Iowa that demonstrated the effectiveness of politically themed engagement ads to generate interaction and social sharing.
SocialVibe found that the test campaign – an interactive quiz about political affiliation – was shared at more than twice the rate of a typical SocialVibe brand campaign, with 94 percent of people engaging with the experience all the way through to completion.
The study’s results also showed that this type of low-cost campaign could be launched in Iowa and would reach people in all 50 states within a 24-hour period.
[ Also Read: Poll Says Half of Americans Won’t Re-elect Obama ]Reaching more than 150 million people in the U.S., SocialVibe claims its engagement advertising is appropriate for all levels of candidate and issue campaigns, from a city council election to a statewide ballot measure, as well as the race for the Presidency.
The company’s engagement advertising units incorporate interactive features such as video, polls, quizzes and other tools to engage and glean information, such as political preferences and priorities, and are deeply embedded in eight of the top 10 apps on Facebook as well as many of the hottest properties on the Web, such as Huffington Post and Pandora.
[ Also Read: How MMS becomes the Prime Minister ]The world’s leading companies such as GE, Best Buy, Disney, McDonalds, Coke, American Express, AT&T and Toyota have partnered with SocialVibe to implement brand campaigns using engagement advertising, says the company.
SocialVibe works with campaign managers, social media mangers and political digital strategists to tailor each engagement to specific audiences, honing in on demographic and geographic data.
For example, a political campaign can create an engagement specifically targeted at women who self-identify as conservative, “like” a specific candidate or party, and live within a particular zip code.
[ Also Read: Americans Call for End to U.S. Militarism ]People who complete an engagement then have the opportunity to share it with their social network, giving campaigns the opportunity to present their message via a trusted source to people who are ready to give the ad their full attention.
“Campaigns that insist on reaching out to voters only through traditional means will find themselves left on the sidelines in 2012. Print mailings, robocalls, and even TV advertising will all take a back seat to digital advertising this election season,” said Jay Samit, CEO of SocialVibe.
“Engagement advertising has proven to be the most cost effective form of advertising for brands. By bringing the model to the political landscape, campaigns and voters alike can get the true value out of political advertising within social environments like Facebook.”
The announcement was made Wednesday, August 3.
