As the 2016 US presidential election approaches, it’s obvious that big data will play a dominant role in determining its outcome.
In fact, after witnessing the power of data in Obama’s 2012 victory, it seems that a data-driven “big marketing” strategy is the only way any presidential candidate will be able to win going forward.
Big Data Is The Key To Presidential Marketing
Data can help sell anything, including politicians.
In order to ensure success, big businesses want all the data they can get. Big presidential campaigns need data too in order to market their candidates.
These political businesses (aka campaigns) gather data, analyze it, then use it to target consumers (voters) in order to sell products (candidates).
Big data lets presidential campaigns target prospective voters and build marketing relationships culminating in election-day victories.
It’s a national rollout on a four-year product cycle.
How The Presidential Campaigns Are Using Data
Just like marketing agencies, political campaigns first use data to find prospective clients, or voters.
Data provides critically important insights into social factors and voter behaviors necessary to identify and convert them into supporters.
Having enough data of the right kind increases the chances of political success, since more data allows for more marketing – and cheaper marketing.
And, just as it does for businesses in the private sector, data helps campaigns manage everything from travel itineraries to ad spending.
Based on in-house data analytics, the campaigns craft their marketing messages to fit a range of desired demographics and social channels.
These messages – or even random campaign highlights – can spark a flood of viral content from the public, often in the form of tweets and videos.
The more data, the easier and cheaper the marketing campaign.
In the form of user-contributed content, large amounts of data tend to create free viral advertising moments for candidates.
By carefully analyzing data and picking and choosing the right sound bytes from “free” media, the campaigns can use that same content in paid advertising – effectively reducing campaign spending.
Even further, effective data analysis can identify and highlight influencers who are connected and loosely managed by the campaign via social media.
Big Data Helped Obama Win Big
Barack Obama was the first president to apply the power of data to orchestrate a consumer marketing campaign that identified prospective supporters and built relationships with them on a massive scale – but he’s certainly not going to be the last.
To understand what kinds of tricks the 2016 frontrunner presidential candidates’ data analytics teams are up to right now, let’s first look back at Obama’s data-driven presidential campaign.
Election Tech
The 2012 campaign was a turning point for election tech.
President Obama was the first president to successfully use data analytics to win a presidential election.
In short, the Obama campaign team used big data analytics to find and convince people to vote, and to connect everyone together with social media.
Romney also used technology in his campaign for the nomination, but in retrospect, it’s easy to see that Obama used data analytics much more effectively.
Big Data In The 2016 Presidential Race
For those who hope to follow in data-leader Obama’s footsteps, the first task is to figure out ways to get enough data to provide worthwhile results.
The next task is to decide how to integrate the data from different sources, and apply the right analytics.
Fed by big data and schooled by Obama’s election tech strategy, 2016’s campaign teams are targeting and personalizing their messages more effectively than ever before.
Data-driven Candidates
Since the remaining presidential hopefuls are staying mum about their data strategies, we can only make general observations.
That said, we do know that the Clinton, Trump and Sanders campaigns are each deploying teams of data technologists – just as Obama did.
They’ve learned plenty from his successful campaign, including his previous data-gathering mistakes, privacy issues and social media blowups.
Now, they’re focused on three types of individuals – voters, donors and volunteers.
Careful data analysis is helping the campaign teams find and differentiate between numerous subgroups of each category.
In doing this, the biggest presidential campaigns – i.e. those of Trump and Clinton – have enough money to gather and sample data continuously.
Their campaigns are certainly scoring potential voters – and targeting their marketing and relationship-building efforts at specific demographic subgroups – thanks to sophisticated data platforms more advanced than Obama’s winning Narwhal.
Individualized Dialogs On A Large Scale
Just like any business does for marketing purposes, 2016’s presidential campaigns are working to build relationships based on trust and conviction.
Relationships require a conversation – and everybody knows that a conversation becomes easier the better you know the person you’re speaking with.
In 2016, the power of big data allows campaigners to create far more than a conversation.
Data allows today’s presidential candidates to establish deep, ongoing dialogs based on knowing their target audiences very well.
After striking up a conversation they can quickly build a relationship with deeper dialog, if they already know you.
Which Presidential Candidate Does Big Data Favor?
Judging by the outcome of the 2012 election, big data is at least colorblind when it comes to presidential candidates.
As for 2016’s results, all of the current presidential hopefuls are hungry for data, but the Clinton campaign seems to be doing a slightly more effective job than others.
Younger voters, who are usually more tech-savvy and more likely to leave a trackable “data trail” are skewed toward a Democratic affiliation.
Thus, Democratic candidates in general may have a slight edge over Republican oldsters when it comes to data, especially from social media.
That said, Clinton, Sanders, and Trump are all using social data to refine messages and more closely target prospective voters.
But although he’s connecting well with tech-smart young people and using data however he can, Bernie Sanders seems to be struggling to keep his candidacy afloat.
Clinton’s data strategists are certainly already working on ways to identify and migrate Sanders’ supporters over to her side, which is why Clinton arguably has an advantage based on big data in 2016 – just as Obama did in 2012.
At the same time, Trump has been effectively using social media to bypass the blockade set by the mainline Republican party over conventional methods.
He’s identified and tapped into the anger and dissatisfaction felt by many Americans, and big data analytics are helping him connect with them.
According to recent media reports, his campaign tech team is evolving quickly to catch up with Clinton’s Democratic data machine.
If last-minute Republican efforts don’t derail his candidacy – and if Trump’s minions can harness the power of big data fast enough – he just might win the 2016 presidential election.
These days, a presidential election isn’t about the people, it’s about the marketing power of data – and it’s safe to say that big data will almost certainly have the last word on Election Day 2016.
4 Big Data Lessons From The 2016 Presidential Campaign
Presidential races are all well and good, but if you’re a business owner, there are several key lessons you’ll want to take away from the way the 2016 presidential campaigns are using big data.
More is better. For marketing purposes, the more data you have, the more complete picture you have of your target buyers. That makes it easier to sell products and services.
Social media sells more. Online business owners already know that social media is the only way to boost sales to a higher level.
For bricks-and-mortar business owners, the 2016 presidential campaigns have shown that a personal presence alone just isn’t enough any longer. Nowadays, you need an online social presence too.
Use the data generated by marketing tools to drive the way you present your company online and the way you engage with followers.
Data leads to dialog. Better marketing intelligence leads to more and better sales. Armed with enough data, you can get to know your prospective buyers more intimately, enabling a deeper dialog with them.
Your leads will be better qualified, and you’ll close more sales as a result.
Big data can create powerful free advertising. Like politicians, savvy business owners have already discovered that “free” yet priceless advertising can be gleaned from piles of data contributed by others.
The bottom line is simple: use any of the widely available tools out there for capturing big data, gather your own business intelligence, analyze it, and then apply its intelligence to your company’s initiatives.
Whether you’re trying to win a presidential election or just grow your company, big data holds the answers you need.
What do you think about big data’s role in the 2016 presidential election? Share your thoughts by leaving me a comment below:
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