Revolutionary Approach to GOTV Provides 25% Increase in Voters

LOUISVILLE, Ky., March 13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- In 1980, the English new wave band The Buggles released their iconic song "Video Killed the Radio Star" in the height of the Cold War between the United States and Russia.  The hit track celebrated the evolution of a newer technology over its obsolete predecessor.  At a time when Russian hacking and political influence has us questioning how to get better informed Americans to the polls, a unique technology firm is turning politics on its head – and everyone in the world of political campaigns is taking notice. 

A firm known as 'El Toro' out of Louisville, Kentucky is revolutionizing programmatic media through its patented approach of matching physical addresses to IP addresses, allowing clients to effectively target voters in their homes and on their devices where they live.  While campaign hacks debate whether or not political television ads are dead, is this new technology the silver bullet to actually kill this campaign dinosaur?  The results of this case study might certainly lead you to that conclusion.

In this real-life scenario, the client was a municipal organization in a southwest Ohio county.   The campaign, managed by the Ohio firm Burges & Burges Strategists, had identified a group of high fidelity voters who had a 72.77% likelihood to vote – those who had voted in 2 or more of the last 4 similar elections – and launched a get-out-the-vote (GOTV) campaign aiding a ballot measure on behalf of Ohio's Montgomery County Health & Human Services.  So dire was the need for a win, its very success would secure the continuation of numerous programs serving tens of thousands of citizens with developmental disabilities, homebound seniors, and children in foster care – as well as helping the county fight infectious diseases and drug abuse.

The County needed to increase their specifically targeted voter turnout for a ballot measure in order for voters to reauthorize a $55 million tax levy – at a time when tax issues were historically unpopular.   El Toro needed to heavily target the County's high-fidelity voters and influence them to vote in favor of the measure.

El Toro's Approach

Nearly 108,000 homes were identified as part of the voter segment.  These voter homes were split into two groups:  a control group which consisted of about 45,500 voters and a targeted group which was approximately 62, 500.  The target group was delivered 2.2 million display and video advertisements during the four weeks leading up to election day.  The control group did not receive any IP-targeted ads.

Campaign Results

The target group had an incredible 91% election turnout compared to the control group turnout of 73%.  This 18-point, or 25% increase, in turnout was made possible by using precise digital political targeting.  At a cost of less than $4 for each of the 11,500 incremental votes received, these results were 14.5-times more cost effective than the expected cost per incremental vote (Stratmann). "From my observation and study of these methods, delivering messages to voters with such razor-sharp precision and effectiveness has never been easier," said University of Louisville political science professor Jason Gainous, Ph.D.  "El Toro might have possibly cracked the code."

So successful was the campaign, Burges & Burges has submitted the GOTV strategy results to the American Association for Political Consultants (AAPC) for their 2018 annual Pollie Awards.  "The dramatic influence in critical GOTV voter turnout was impressive," said Dorigen Cowling, Senior Consultant at Burges & Burges.  "El Toro really bowled us over with their incredible results, and our client couldn't be happier with their success."

So confident is El Toro about delivering similar results for other political and issue campaigns, they are offering a money-back guarantee for any GOTV campaign of over $100,000.  If El Toro doesn't increase turnout among targeted voters by at least 5%, they'll give 50 percent of the total spend back to the campaign.  That's confidence you can take to the bank – or better yet, to the polls.

About El Toro

El Toro is revolutionizing programmatic media through its patented approach of matching physical addresses to IP addresses, allowing clients to effectively target consumers.  The El Toro system is 100% cookie-free and its proprietary approach connects with real people at an unparalleled accuracy, eliminating ad fraud.  With a 95% or greater confidence level, El Toro is the premier choice for digital advertising.  Information on El Toro's money-back guarantee can be found at http://www.eltoro.com/political-guarantee-lander/.

SOURCE El Toro