Scarborough and TargetSmart Communications Announce Joint Political Data Offering

NEW YORK, June 11, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Local market consumer research firm, Scarborough, and leading political data solutions provider, TargetSmart Communications, today announced that they have forged a data relationship to combine TargetSmart's nationwide voter file with Scarborough's consumer data into a single integrated data set. The result is robust insights on voter trends and patterns by political party and in-depth information on important voter groups (such as Women, Young Voters, Hispanics, Super Voters). The new data set is designed to help support the efforts of political advertising campaigns, media companies and other relevant players in order to best reach and target voters for the 2012 elections.

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"Today's announcement of our relationship with TargetSmart Communications is an example of the ways Scarborough continues to invest in the information industry and of our commitment to bring greater value to Scarborough data sets through relationships with other companies," says Brian Condon, executive vice president of commercial development for Scarborough. "The political season is starting to heat up and as always is highly competitive. We are confident that the Scarborough/TargetSmart political offering will provide new and more targeted ways for media companies, political advertising campaigns and other relevant parties to look at voter behavior and trends to support their efforts to most efficiently reach key constituents." 

"This new political data service from TargetSmart and Scarborough is an important step in developing greater application and smarter use for political data," says Bill Russell, director of business development for TargetSmart Communications. "By creating more efficient and sophisticated local data, our goal is that our joint new services will create valuable and added insights on voters that might help campaigns have an edge over their competition."

The Scarborough/TargetSmart data will enable agencies, politicians and lobbyists to look at consumer behavior around certain key election issues. In Florida, for example, the matter of in-state casinos and the impact they will have on the local economy is currently being debated among politicians. According to the Scarborough/TargetSmart data, nearly one-third (30%) of the registered voters in the state of Florida have visited a casino in the past year.  Forty-three percent of those Florida based casino visitors are registered democrats. Sixty percent of this same voter group is classified as early voters and 29 percent are Super Voters (Super Voter is defined as voters who have voted in more than two general elections and more than one primary election.)

How can these voters be targeted by campaigns? To reach these Florida voters via radio the Scarborough/TargetSmart data shows that 38 percent of this casino visiting voter base listens to the adult contemporary format.  Close to half (48%) of these casino goers who are also registered to vote in Florida watch the local morning news and 45 percent watch sports on television. Advertising in the newspaper (5 dailies and 1 Sunday) reaches close to three-quarters of these voters (74%). Social media would be another good avenue to reach these constituents as half of them have used a social site in the past 30 days (49%).

The source for the data in this release is Scarborough USA+/TargetSmart Release 2, 2011. This new data set is available for purchase on a national or local level, report-by-report or as an in-depth analysis. For additional information on voter trends and voter targeting insights, please contact Brad Sherer at [email protected].

About Scarborough Research

Scarborough ([email protected]) measures American life. Our consumer insights reflect shopping patterns, media usage across platforms and lifestyle trends for adults. Media professionals and marketers use Scarborough insights to make smarter marketing/business decisions on things like ad placement, multicultural targeting, and sponsorship opportunities.  The company's core syndicated consumer insight studies in 77 Top‐Tier Markets, its Multi‐Market Study and its national USA+ Study are Media Rating Council (MRC) accredited. Other products and services include Scarborough Mid‐Tier Local Market Studies, Hispanic Studies and Custom Research Solutions. Scarborough measures 2,000 consumer categories and serves a broad client base that includes marketers, advertising agencies, print and electronic media (broadcast and cable television, radio stations), sports teams and leagues and out‐of‐home media companies. Surveying more than 210,000 adults annually, Scarborough is a joint venture between Arbitron Inc. and The Nielsen Company.

About TargetSmart Communications

TargetSmart Communications compiles and maintains a national database of registered voters and the unregistered voting age population that contains contact information, voting, geographic, and demographic information on nearly 240 million adults.  Our voter data is compiled directly from state and county government sources in conjunction with the National Voter File Co-Op, a joint venture of State Democratic Parties to offer the best and most up-to-date voter lists to Democrats, their consultants and allies, and non-partisan organizations.  TargetSmart provides political organizations and campaigns with a highly-accurate, robust set of capabilities that support a variety of political purposes, including fundraising, voter targeting and contact, voter registration, GOTV, and constituent management.

SOURCE Scarborough Research; TargetSmart Communications