New Research Shows Political Content Spreads Faster, Wider Than Commercial Brand Content Online

Digital outreach will be a top medium to engage voters of all demographics in 2012

SocialVibe's May 2011 Iowa Case Study Results: The share rate in SocialVibe's political-focused Iowa case study was more than double the average share rate for its other social media engagement advertising campaigns. (Graphic: Business Wire)

LOS ANGELES--()--Digital advertising technology company SocialVibe today released findings from an online field study that show the efficacy of engagement advertising with political messages. The findings are included in a white paper by SocialVibe CEO Jay Samit called, “All Politics is Social: Social Media Engagement Will Decide Election 2012.” The paper also highlights best practices in digital communications for political campaigns.

“Voters are hungry for sharable content that resonates with their values, priorities and interests,” said Mr. Samit. “The communications challenges facing campaigns are even more complex than the marketing challenges faced by all brands; once campaign season is in full swing, it takes creativity and ingenuity to break through the noise of non-stop political ads. By providing engaging content that people want to share with their friends, engagement advertising overcomes those barriers.”

SocialVibe conducted a digital field study in May 2011 to test the reach of politically-themed engagement advertising campaigns. People on Facebook who live in Iowa were invited to participate in the engagement through SocialVibe’s value-exchange platform. As a result, 94 percent who engaged with the political message watched the entire message, and nearly 40 percent of participants shared the engagement with Facebook friends, which is more than twice the average share rate for SocialVibe’s typical online brand campaign. SocialVibe found that as little as a $25,000 investment in an engagement campaign could spread online to people of voting age in all 50 states within 24 hours.

“Campaigns that embrace the latest trends in commercial brand advertising will see the same kind of results that are driving more and more advertising dollars both online and to mobile devices,” continued Mr. Samit. “Engagement advertising provides a tremendous bang for the buck. It has the power to reach a national audience for pennies on the dollar compared to broadcast advertising. If a presidential candidate launched a similar engagement to that of our field study, voters around the country would be seeing his or her message delivered directly to them – by someone they know – at a time when they are ready to focus on what the ad has to say.”

The whitepaper “All Politics is Social: Social Media Engagement Will Decide Election 2012,” highlighting test study results and discussing five key areas political campaigns should focus on during the upcoming election season, is available and can be accessed at http://advertising.socialvibe.com/political_solutions or downloaded directly at http://bit.ly/igIK6D.

About SocialVibe

SocialVibe is a digital advertising technology company that provides the most effective form of engagement advertising for brands as well as issue-based and candidate political campaigns. Unlike broadcast television or online ad networks that simply deliver impressions, SocialVibe provides opt-in engagements that social media users can share across their social graph. The company enables campaigns to engage at a time when people are most motivated to participate in brand experiences, such as while playing a social game or accessing premium content. SocialVibe enables engagements on the Web and on mobile, reaching more than 150 million socially-connected U.S. consumers. Visit www.socialvibe.com or check out twitter.com/politicalvibe.

Photos/Multimedia Gallery Available: http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/mmg.cgi?eid=6762016&lang=en

Contacts

Sparkpr for SocialVibe
Meredith Obendorfer, 415-321-1882
mobendorfer@sparkpr.com

Contacts

Sparkpr for SocialVibe
Meredith Obendorfer, 415-321-1882
mobendorfer@sparkpr.com