How do You Reach Voter's in the 2020 Election?

This is the year that all local candidates see a major change, whether that means more mail in votes, more budget allocated to digital advertising, or upsetting the incumbent.

The early election cycle amid the Covid pandemic has proven that 2020 will be like no other election in history. Local candidates are going to be more affected by these changes than state or national candidates because they can't shake hands or physically reach out to those who don't know them yet.

Yard Signs - The tradition of yard signs are still a "tradition" but the reality today is that the normal driving habits of your voters, heading to the freeway to work or going back and forth daily has been impacted by the shelter in place orders and the mandate to work from home for most large employers. Your voter is less likely to get in their car daily than ever before. This is great to save gas, wear and tear on your car, and getting to know your close neighbors but not so great for your name ID. We recommend you buy some yard signs but the effectiveness of these around town becomes less and less because your voters are spending less and less time driving around.

Direct Mail - Direct Mail has and continues to be a good way to reach your voting district. You can isolate all the voters by address and deliver them that crucial piece of mail on the day they receive their ballot. Yes, still effective but have you already created the mail piece and have it ready for printing? Many candidates are finding that coordinating the creative, getting pictures and all the little things that go with an effective piece are harder and harder to execute given physical distancing and the reduced hours many local businesses are having to employ to keep the lights on. Delivering the mail is one thing but keeping it top of mind is another, with so much happening today and juggling children's Zoom classes, the daily work from home day, and the confusing news, its no wonder that candidates are looking for ways to stay in front of their voters more than just one day.

Limits on FB Ads - In addition to the physical limitations Covid-19 has put on this election cycle, Facebook and others are pro-actively giving options for voters to opt out. Resonate is reporting "79% of voters could opt-out from political ads on social during this election cycle" (campaignsandelections.com). The hits just keep on coming for one of the most important election cycles in history.

To be honest, the mayhem of the 2020 election is fitting. Mayhem for some, is opportunity for others.

"Across the board, from President to Senate to House of Representatives to Governor, the number of voters who are now looking to vote for the challenger is steadily increasing." The distrust in the system and the awareness of voting, has become a national issue. Newcomers to the space have a real shot at upsetting the incumbent. If you are an incumbent, you need to cement yourself with the values your community identifies with.

Electable Advertising offers address level digital solutions to local candidates with unrivaled scale and accuracy. We would love to discuss how we can assist in this tumultuous time.

Electable Advertising Announces New Media Planning Pivot for 2020 Election Cycle

https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/politics/vote-by-mail-states/

American voters have historically been given three voting choices; vote on Election Day at the polls, request an absentee/mail ballot or choose the early voting option which has become available in most states and allows voting at malls, shopping centers and other selected locations.

Due to recent changes driven by the current COVID-19 pandemic, states have adopted a new category they call “All-Mail”, where all registered voters and even non-registered voters will be mailed a ballot.

This “All-Mail” option will potentially create a 4th voting group made from people who planned to vote at the poll, but ultimately didn’t or people who never got around to requesting a permanent absentee ballot, and also didn’t vote and those who choose not to vote at all.

Now they have a ballot sent to their home and if the projections are correct, will now vote! In fact, according to a recent Gallup poll 64% of all Americans favor voting by mail and 76% of non-registered voters favor the mail option. This new group of potential voters must now be factored into political media planning modeling process.

Our Convergence technology will continue to select, rank and prioritize high propensity voters from the previous three groups, but will now broaden our reach to identify and connect with this new “All-Mail” group of both the registered voters and the registered non-voter. This “All-Mail” group will not carry the weight as the traditional 3 groups of voters, however; due to the easy access a ballot mailed to their homes makes, we expect this group must be recognized and entered into the media planning criteria.

This represents an important media planning change by Electable Advertising, and we believe this pivot will create a new voting audience for our candidate clients and provide them with a strategic advantage over their competition.

For more information about how Electable Advertising can help get you elected and to be connected to one of our nationwide representatives, visit www.electableadvertising.com or call 949.438.3457.

Is IP Targeting Right for Political Candidates?

Our analysis shows that IP Targeting only reaches 30% of households. Why?

A little background on IP Targeting: Every device on a computer network has an Internet Protocol (IP) address. It’s just like a phone number, telling other computers how it can be reached. Your IP address is usually based on a real-world location. Google might use your IP address to guess where you are and give you local results. For example, Google could use your IP address to give you the weather forecast for the town you're in when you search for weather.

Your IP address will be a number, like 172.16.254.1 or 2001:db8:0:1234:0:567:8:1.

This string of numbers is a code that can decipher your exact location by looking at your router, in your home or the wifi network where you work. The IP address is hard coded and in integral piece of the hardware that runs the internet. But thats the problem, its hard coded. You can't opt-out of an IP address... so this is where privacy becomes a BIG issue.

U.S. privacy laws prohibit companies from matching an IP address to the user’s PII (Personally Identifiable Information), as this is considered a form of cyber stalking. In addition, to questions around regulation and new state laws such as CCPA have forced many "hide" the true IP address from advertisers.

There are still several ways IP addresses can be obfuscated to a neighborhood, a different state, or a completely different country.

• Dynamic IP Allocation – Some ISPs and networks use dynamic IP allocation to assign IP addresses to their users. Meaning that a single user could have a different IP address every time they use the internet. This affects the accuracy of an IP database used by marketers.

• Proxy Servers – ISPs sometimes assign a single or a small number of servers to their users, which results in more than one household/business having the same IP address. One of the most cited examples of this happening is AOL. No matter where you live if you are using AOL’s internet services, your IP address will be linked to their servers in Virginia.  This could mean that while you may live in Massachusetts, you could see ads for events taking place in Virginia.

• Centrally Located Networks – Organizations with locations in multiple cities will often have their computer networks mapped to a centrally located IP address. I actually had this happen to me in a previous job. While living in Las Vegas, NV I was always being served ads for places in Los Angeles because of how my company’s network was set up.  My IP address made it look like I was physically in Los Angeles and not Nevada.

• The Ad Exchange Blocks the IP Address - Advertisements online are bought via an ad exchange (an open source of ads that top publishers "plug" into so they can monetize their sites). To self regulate, some ad exchanges simply blocking IP address, making IP targeting useless.

How does Electable Advertising address the limitations of IP Targeting?

Electable's Convergence technology, does not use just one source of data we utilize a cross device graph to map all digital devices utilizing IP, Cookies, Ad ID (unique identifier used in phones, connected TV's tablets), SDK - Latitude & Longitude (opt in from mobile phones).

To learn more about our technology, contact us at info@electableadvertising.com