It’s an election year, and once campaigns have refined their messages, they have to figure out how to reach their voter targets. This week our Insight looks at our Share of Ear® dataset to see how to efficiently reach members of different voting groups with audio ads.
First, it’s important to emphasize that campaigns at all levels should be putting more of their money into audio. Fully 84% of the voting-age public is reached by ad-supported audiodaily.
But when we look at how listening time is allotted, there are some differences. As the chart below illustrates, Republicans listen to more AM/FM Radio than other groups, with an index of 109 (or 9% more listening than average). The ad-supported spoken-word channels on SiriusXM are a particularly efficient place to find Republicans, with an index of 146.
Meanwhile, podcasts stand out as the more efficient platform for reaching Democrats, indexing at 121.
And what about those elusive Independents, who often tip an election? Both streaming music, and in particular music videos on YouTube, over-deliver for these potential voters, with indexes of 103 and 123 respectively.
Regardless of the party that buyers are trying to reach with political ads, audio stands out as a superior pathway to reaching voters. Audio provides enormous audiences and often a far less cluttered political environment than other ad channels.
To learn more about Share of Ear and how it helps advertisers understand the audio environment, click here.
Note: To determine political affiliation, Share of Ear respondents are asked, “No matter how you vote, do you usually think of yourself as a Democrat, Republican, Independent, or Something Else.” Although Edison Research is the provider of exit poll data to the National Election Pool, the data in this week’s Insight is from the Share of Ear dataset, not exit polls.
