On the Brian Lehrer Show Tuesday, Micah Sifry of Tech President talked about how the Obama and Romney campaigns are using data to target and tailor their messaging to raise cash and rustle up votes. Below is some of the background reading we did to get ready for the conversation.
The hope for the Obama team, says West, “is that his online reach will outweigh any Superpac funding advantage Romney might have for television advertising, by reaching deep into communities with targeted online advertising, grass-roots organizing and fundraising.”
+ Video Describing How Campaigns Can Use Online Tracking
Many of the Obama e-mails are close variations of each other, illustrating the sophisticated techniques used by campaigns to target different audiences. One recent message from Beyoncé was aimed at African American women, while other pitches target Latinos, military families, pet owners and a host of other niches.
With the web and now the rise of mobile, campaigns' pursuit and use of information about individuals has never been more sophisticated. Sure, they ask people to voluntarily share some data when they register on a candidate's website or sign up for a Facebook app. But they also quietly put cookies on their browsers, buy information about their behavior from third party tracking services, pick up the geographical info shared on their mobile devices, and merge that with consumer data in order to tailor messages according to individual proclivities.
+ Americans Reject Tailored Advertising:Annenberg Study (PDF)
Targeting refers to the analysis of data about a population to determine who should receive a persuasive message, how, when and for what reasons. Tailored advertising refers to shaping a persuasive message for a particular individual based on conclusions the targeting process generated about that person’s interests and values.
With the Obama app, getting a glimpse of your neighbor's political affiliation can take seconds. While The New York Times dubbed the app "the science-fiction dream of political operatives," some of the voters who appear in the app are less enthusiastic about it.
Jody Avirgan started two days before The Brian Lehrer Show won a Peabody, and he is taking full credit. He comes to WNYC from WFUV, where he produced "Cityscape" with the great George Bodarky. He's worked for KQED Radio in San Francisco, is a founder of Longshot Radio, and has produced pieces that have aired here and there and everywhere.
There's nothing new here including the sense of mild paranoia. Who online thinks that they're not being tracked? Most who have tried to block cookies have found that the web is a lot more annoying to use. When I went door to door for Clinton the first time around, voters were happy to give me their info to receive info from the campaign in the mail- they wanted to be informed!
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Comments [2]
There's nothing new here including the sense of mild paranoia. Who online thinks that they're not being tracked? Most who have tried to block cookies have found that the web is a lot more annoying to use. When I went door to door for Clinton the first time around, voters were happy to give me their info to receive info from the campaign in the mail- they wanted to be informed!
Important to remember...
Who was Lew Lehrman?
Lehrman is the last guy to run for a major office, (Governor, NYS) and vastly outspent his opponant, and yet lose.
(You can look up how long ago.)
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