New Data from Bizo and Vizu Characterizes the Political Affiliation and Donation Intentions of Business Executives

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 15, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- As online political campaign ad spend is expected to reach an all-time high in the 2012 election year, it is imperative that campaigns use their spend effectively to get their message in front of the right audiences to meet fundraising objectives and influence votes. Against this backdrop, Bizo partnered with Vizu to conduct a joint campaign to characterize, in real-time, the party alignment and political donation plans of business executives, a highly coveted audience. The display campaign data reveals that business audiences and small business executives, in particular, are a critical group for candidates to understand and tap for votes and donations. With nearly 40 percent identified as Independent/unaffiliated voters and nearly 27 percent more likely to donate to a political cause versus their big business counterparts, small business executives comprise a key group of influential people that will be pivotal to success in the 2012 elections.  

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Politicians are not only rallying for votes, they are also jockeying for lucrative political donations. As with any online advertising campaign, the key to effective digital ad spend in political campaigning is reaching the right audiences. With political campaigns forecasted to spend record-breaking amounts, successful candidates will tap into the more than 20 percent of business executives planning to donate to a political cause this season in order to capture highly sought after campaign dollars.

Key highlights from the study include:

• Republican or Democrat? Neither!: More than 36 percent of business executives do not affiliate themselves with Republicans or Democrats.
• Small business executives are Independent thinkers: With small business executives 20 percent more likely to identify themselves as Independents versus large business executives, it is a large group of voters that can be swayed with the right message.
• Small companies but deep wallets: Small business executives are 26.6 percent more likely to donate to a political cause than their counterparts at large companies.
• Blue Party at the Blue Chips?: 33.8 percent of large company executives claim to be Democrats, while 35.1 percent claim to be Republican.

"It is clear that 2012 will be a record-breaking year for ad spend in the political arena. This data reveals that key business audience segments are up for grabs, and politicians that identify and hone in on these influential undecided voters can reach untapped campaign donations," said Russ Glass, CEO of Bizo. "As more and more people turn to the Internet as their primary source for news and information, the campaigns that best leverage the web as a mainstream channel to reach their audiences will gain an edge against the rest of the field."

About the Study

In October 2011, Bizo ran a display campaign targeting business executive audiences across the web. With Vizu's Audience Incite, a real-time audience characterization tool, Bizo successfully identified in real-time the political affiliation of Bizo's executive audience and their propensity to donate in the next 12 months. The study findings are based on a statistically significant sample size of approximately 890 business executives. Click here to view an infographic of the political affiliation data.

About Vizu

Vizu Corporation (www.brandlift.com) brings the same metrics used to measure and optimize brand advertising effectiveness in the offline world to the online medium. By providing the first real-time, enterprise technology platform that allows brand advertisers and their partners in the digital media ecosystem – publishers, ad networks, exchanges, and demand side platforms – to collaborate around measuring and optimizing Brand Lift metrics, Vizu enables its customers to move their target audience through the purchase funnel, from building awareness to creating intent and preference. Vizu's brand advertising effectiveness platform is used by over 60 percent of Advertising Age's Top 100 Brand Advertisers and comScore's Top 50 Media properties to support all key aspects of the advertising lifecycle, including media buying, audience profiling, and Brand Lift optimization.

About Bizo

Bizo is how marketers reach and engage business professionals, wherever they travel online.  Bizo can precisely target more than 100 million professionals around the world, including more than 80 percent of the U.S. business population. This unprecedented reach and targeting gives marketers cost-effective access and insight into business professionals – the most valuable online audience segment.  Simply put, Bizo knows business audiences. More than 400 leading brands including AMEX, Monster, Salesforce.com, Microsoft, and FedEx count on the precise display ad targeting, social media measurement, and deep audience analytics that the Bizo Audience Marketing Platform provides to successfully execute their branding and direct response initiatives.

For more information on Bizo, or for a free look at the Bizographic make-up of your website audience, visit www.bizo.com.

SOURCE Bizo