Nielsen Mobile reports that mobile media was slightly more popular with Democrats than Republicans, as of Q2 2008.
- Overall, 62% of Democrats are data users who use one or more data
service on their mobile phone (compared to 55% of Republicans) - Democrats are more likely than Republicans to use text messaging (53 percent compared to 46 percent)
- Democrats are more likely to use picture messaging and MMS (27 percent compared to 21 percent)
- Democrats are more likely to use mobile Internet, as well (17 percent compared to 13 percent)
Though the differences may not seem great, these variations indicate
that advertising across mobile channels tends to be more efficient at
reaching Democrats than Republicans.
Obama campaign is using mobile
marketing. Last month the campaign sent a text message to 2.9 million
mobile phones announcing Joe Biden as Senator Obama's pick for vice
president, as estimated by Nielsen Mobile. Additionally, the Obama
campaign has a full mobile website containing news, videos and ringtone
and wallpaper downloads.
Meanwhile, the McCain campaign has not been as active in mobile
media, but that may make sense. Perhaps the McCain campaign knows that,
in 2008, mobile is a more effective channel for reaching Democrats than
Republicans.
Note the Pew Center has shown a landline basis in polling.
That's not to say that conservative voters are without a place in
mobile media. The Drudge Report, a news site many consider to be
conservative-leaning, attracted a mobile Internet audience of 567,000
unique users per month, as of July 2008.
Other political and general news sites are attracting large
audiences as the election approaches, too. CNN had the most popular
general news site on mobile and also the most popular politically
focused component as of July 2008. CNN News attracted 4.8 million
unique users and CNN Politics attracted 1.2 million unique visitors in
July 2008. As the election draws near, the audience for CNN Politics
has grown sharply, from 364,000 unique visitors per month one year
prior.
Mobile Internet won't be the only way that voters follow the
remaining weeks of the election, though. Today, more than four million
mobile subscribers subscribe to and watch video on their phone and many
additional subscribers watch mobile video through mobile Web. Among
mobile video viewers, news channels are consistently among the top
channels watched over the phone. Further, Nielsen Mobile's most recent
Mobile Video Report estimated that 680,000 mobile video users are
interested in seeing more political and government coverage over mobile
video, leaving open the opportunity for mobile news video channels to
expand their coverage for a welcome audience.