If the 2016 election demanded we think differently about voter intelligence and targeting, why are there still so many uncertainties surrounding modeling and outreach?
Here are a few reasons we may agree on:
Solely Relying on Voter Files
Campaigns understand the divide in the electorate is no longer a clean left and right, but the data has failed to keep pace. The voter file is important for base mobilization, but its predictive capabilities beyond party affiliation and turnout are flawed – not to be mention 60% of voter reach is lost in the offline-online match. Modeling with 3rd party data? Consider a Deloitte study that found only 29% of consumer insights from a major data broker were more than 50% accurate!
Limited Voter Insights
Voters are still largely bucketed based on their demographics like race, gender, and class. If campaigns don’t have access to deeper insights that provide a person-level understanding of their audience, they’re missing the most important factor – the human factor. Personal values and motivations are the why that drive the what voters will do. If this insight isn’t part of your data, those traditional buckets won’t hold water.
Campaign Bias
It can be hard for strategists to remain objective in the heat of a campaign, but the moment human bias seeps into their models they have a problem. Campaign analytics needs to remain a fundamental exercise in objectively assessing the electorate. Too often in-house data solutions miss realities that are critical to understanding voters throughout election lifecycles.
At Resonate, we leveraged artificial intelligence and deep learning to solve for these issues and unlock the reality of today’s complex voter landscape. By tapping into our consumer insights platform of over 175 million Americans, we uncovered nine voter segments that differ predictably along the most relevant political drivers: shared priorities, values, motivations, policy positions, candidate platform support, and media consumption habits.
Simply put, we let the data do the talking and it illuminated 9 voter blocs based on a unique set of insights influencing candidate choice. Here’s a quick preview of the segments:
Our research confirms that candidates and parties who rely exclusively on traditional data and targeting for their campaigns will miss engaging a significant pivotal audience. It’s the segments like the Cautious Conservatives and other less-entrenched groups, on both the right and left, that are going to define our nation come November. These are the groups that parties and candidates have an opportunity to engage in a meaningful issues-based dialogue in the final months.
Read the eBook Supercharge your Voter Intelligence and Targeting to discover the 9 voter groups that comprise the AI Voter Landscape.
These segments identified through Resonate’s unprecedented voter study are now available for targeting via Resonate’s simple-to-use SaaS marketing activation platform. Resonate’s deep history in helping political campaigns identify and target niche voters has resulted in a strong track record of candidate victories, including an over 75% win rate in the 2018 primaries.
If you would like to speak to a Resonate representative on how you can leverage these methods to target and win the voter segments you need, please contact us directly.