This blog was provided by Paul Neto, Director of Research at YuMe, Inc. YuMe, a leading provider of video brand advertising solutions, is one of Brightcove's Technology Partners. YuMe’s proprietary data-science driven technologies and large audience footprint drive inventory monetization and enable advertisers to reach targeted, brand receptive audiences across a wide range of Internet-connected devices.
Viewing video content on a computer, tablet or smartphone has become a popular pastime for people all over the world - especially the US. With more screens flooding the marketplace, it's important for politicians to take advantage of all the video advertising avenues available to them to target intended and potential voters during their political campaigns.
In order to determine current trends around voter viewing habits and media consumption, specifically related to political campaigns for this year’s upcoming mid-term election, YuMe polled 817 intended voters (36% democrat, 30% independent, 29% republican) from a nationally representative online panel. Results confirmed rampant multi-screen viewing trends, and gleaned insights into voter’s planned behavior for the upcoming mid-term election.
Key Takeaways:
- More than 60% of voters state they are likely to use digital video for watching debates, speeches, and highlights from campaigns
- Likely to watch online video of debates (66%), speeches (64%), highlights (66%)
- Almost half (48%) agree that it is important to be able to follow election progress on multiple devices
- 65% agree that being able to access candidate information on multiple devices helps them keep informed
- 51% of voters agree that ads are an important information source about candidates
- Streaming video has become an important source of information, with 44% likely to stream video on a connected device to keep up-to-date
- 32% of voters will stream video from a computer/laptop, 15% on a smartphone, 16% on a tablet, 11% on a smartTV
- 54% claim news websites as their main source of information about candidates and their campaigns
- Ads continue to be an important source of information for voters (Television 45%, Online Ads 17%, Online Video 16%, Campaign supported online video 15%)
- 49% of voters agree that politicians who use online media are more approachable
- More than half (58%) agree that digital media has become a primary source of information about candidates
- 63% agree that online video is an important strategy for political campaigns
These results show the value in leveraging digital media when building a successful political campaign, specifically around the growing importance of user-initiated pre-roll video and the benefit that comes from joining a candidate or advocacy group's message and call to action with streaming video. Pre-roll video ads are one of the most effective types of advertising in the digital space, and can influence voter decisions, while raising both engagement and brand awareness for a specific candidate.
Clearly, digital video is important and influential in the political realm. Politicians are hungry for data around media consumption for their campaigns, striving to understand how to best target their audience- intended voters. As voters continue to source information from multiple screens, it will be crucial for politicians to adapt their campaigns across the digital world.
To view the infographic and read the full report, please click here.