As the presidential campaigns aim to get out the vote using multi-channel marketing like never before, Nielsen Mobile provides some context on how mobile phones may play a role in this election season.

First, some general stats (as of Q2 2008):

- 43 million U.S. mobile subscribers use mobile Internet

- 33 million receive text alerts

- 32 million use instant messaging

- 29 million download wallpapers or screensavers

- 4 million mobile subscribers subscribe to and view mobil

     video, with additional mobile video users accessing video

     content over mobile websites

 

Already, much has been said of the Obama campaign’s use of mobile marketing.  The Obama campaign sent a text message to 2.9 million mobile phones announcing Joe Biden as candidate for vice president.  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.

Nielsen Mobile reports that, as of Q2 2008, mobile media was slightly more popular with Democrats than Republicans.

- 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)

 

Mobile Media Use (past 30 days) by Political Affiliation - Q2 2008
Data Type	Democrat	Republican
Data user	61.6%	54.6%
Non-data user	38.4%	45.4%
Text messaging/SMS	52.5%	46.0%
Picture messaging/MMS	26.5%	21.2%
Ringtone downloads	18.5%	12.9%
Mobile Internet	17.2%	13.1%
Email	15.8%	12.8%
Software/Application downloads	11.0%	8.2%
Instant messaging	10.9%	7.2%
Game downloads	7.7%	5.7%
Location-based services/GPS	6.2%	5.8%
Video/Mobile TV	4.4%	2.5%
Source: Nielsen Mobile

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.

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.

Select Mobile News Sites - July 2008
Brand or Channel	Unique Audience (000)
CNN News	4,829
Yahoo! News	2,898
ABC News	2,366
FOX News	2,274
MSNBC News	2,242
Google News	2,054
MSN News	1,472
The New York Times	1,372
CNN Politics	1,164
AOL News	1,082
BBC News	958
CBS News	865
Washington Post	598
Drudge Report	567
Reuters News-Politics	560
AP News	546
Source: Nielsen Mobile

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.

 

About Nielsen Mobile

Nielsen Mobile, a service of The Nielsen Company, is the world's largest independent provider of syndicated consumer research to the telecom and mobile media markets. Nielsen Mobile focuses exclusively on tracking the behavior, attitudes and experiences of mobile consumers; their reports also provide up to seven years of data on Internet, video, gaming, audio and advertising trends for mobile phone users. Nielsen’s technology-driven research provides unique and holistic insight into how mobile customers use their devices and what they think about brands, devices and services. For more information, please visit www.nielsenmobile.com.

###

Nic Covey

+1 312-385-6718