Politics and Technology

A few weeks after Sen. Barack Obama’s presidential campaign developed a free iPhone application that’s designed to help rally support for his cause, the Democratic legislator apparently got some good news from the mobile device world.

 

In a self-described “unscientific survey,” a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based mobile solutions company says that Obama leads his rival, Republican Sen. John McCain by a near four-to-one margin among mobile phone users.

 

Officials at JumpTap (News - Alert) say they conducted their survey Oct. 7 to 24 with Utica, New York-based Zogby International, a polling firm. The companies relied on responses t oad banners running cross mobile Web sites that included Fox Mobile Entertainment (News - Alert) and the Miami Herald and Sacramento Bee newspapers.

 

According to Paran Johar, chief marketing officer of JumpTap, all eyes now are on a whole new wave of media that is sweeping the globe and affecting the way people of all ages communicate, and mobile is leading the way.

 

“Those that quickly understand how to effectively use these new channels will achieve record success finding and engaging with the audiences relevant to them,” Johar said. “The survey data sheds new light on how mobile advertising is effective in reaching people of many different demographics.”

 

No one knows how accurately any poll can predict an election, let alone an unscientific one. Much of the mainstream media’s coverage of the McCain-Obama race over the weekend focused on the wide discrepancies among polls.

 

Nevertheless, the JumpTap-Zogby poll found that of 3,462 likely voters who took the survey, 71 percent supported Obama, 25 percent chose McCain and the other 4 percent were unsure or would choose another candidate.

 

More than 68 percent of viewers who responded to the “vote” ad banners completed the 10-question survey.

 

What may be more interesting than the poll results themselves is how much it says about the booming mobile device and application market that such a survey could be conceived.

 

Using mobile devices to disseminate information is one major storyline from this year’s presidential election.

 

Today, as TMC (News - Alert) reported here, Seattle-based Chimp Software and online magazine Slate, users of Apple’s (News - Alert) popular iPhone and iPod Touch devices will have instant access to data about where the nation is leaning in the race for the White House.

 

Slate introduced “Poll Tracker ‘08,” which uses data from Pollster.com to deliver the latest polling numbers from each state, with graphs depicting historical polling trends and charts about previous elections’ voting patterns, according to the companies.

 

News of Obama’s iPhone application quickly followed.

 

According to Mike Wendland, technology columnist for the venerable Detroit Free Press newspaper, Obama’s iPhone program was created by campaign volunteers and it feeds news reports, videos, campaign talking points and photos to the device.

 

“There’s even a Local Events feature that uses the iPhone’s built-in GPS capabilities to return a list of campaign appearances and rallies in the user’s area,” Wendland reported. “The Call Friends feature is geared for those in swing states and helps them do volunteer get-out-the-vote calls aimed at increasing support for Obama.”

 

Part of Obama’s different focus on mobile technologies may speak more about his support base than about any fundamental difference between his campaign and McCain’s.

 

Here’s how the ages broke down of respondents to the JumpTap-Zogby survey: age 18 to 29, 24 percent; age 30 to 49, 52 percent; age 50 to 64, 20 percent; and 65-and-over, 4 percent.

 

According to Johar, the results of his poll versus others demonstrate the widest differential between the candidates, logically linking the Obama campaign’s focus and success on leveraging mobile marketing in unprecedented ways.

 

“The Obama political campaign, which recently won Advertising Age’s (News - Alert) campaign of the year, over successful brands including Apple and Nike, demonstrates that mobile has the power to reach and engage targeted audiences more effectively than any other medium,” Johar said. “We are seeing first-hand how savvy marketers are moving quickly to capitalize on mobile advertising opportunities.”