Minneapolis Advertising Agency Post-Presidential Debate Survey Finds Surprising Results

MINNEAPOLIS, Oct. 4, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Minneapolis-based advertising agency Martin|Williams conducted a survey following the presidential debate on Wednesday night wondering what questions people still had, and found some surprising results.

The agency asked 250 adults in the U.S., "Following the first presidential debate, what one question would you ask the candidates?"

Democrats were 50 percent more likely to want to ask the candidates about jobs and the economy while Republicans were twice as likely to ask about balancing the budget, and one in five independents wanted to ask the candidates about the veracity of their claims with some wanting to ask the candidates about their willingness to take a lie detector test.

In the Midwest, respondents were three times more likely than the average respondent to ask questions about how the candidates would cooperate with other areas of government (Congress, opposition party).

Of the survey sample, 70 percent had watched the debate and among those voters 38 percent felt that Mitt Romney had won the debate; 30 percent believed President Obama had won the debate; 30 percent felt that neither candidate had won the debate. The stated party affiliation of the total sample had 32 percent democrats, 22 percent republicans, and 24 percent independents.

Among the much-courted independent voters, 41 percent had watched the debate and 40 percent felt that Romney had won, but 37 percent believed that neither candidate had won a clear victory.

Looking at social media in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area proved to be most surprising. Although Romney is widely believed to have put on a better performance than President Obama, the sampling of Twitter conversations originating from the Twin Cities give Obama the post-debate edge. For the week prior to the debate (9/26-10/2), three percent of tweets mentioning Romney were positive, 86 percent neutral and 11 percent negative. Post-debate (10/3-10/4), the numbers didn't change significantly with four percent of tweets about the candidate positive, 84 percent neutral, and 12 percent negative.

During the same pre-debate time period, two percent of tweets mentioning Obama were positive, 87 percent neutral, and 11 percent negative. In the post-debate time period, Obama experienced a bump to five percent of tweets categorized as positive, 84 percent as neutral, and 11 percent as negative.

SOURCE Martin|Williams Advertising