With the United States one of many countries going to the polls this year, Edison Research has released insights from its Share of Ear dataset to suggest how audio content providers could efficiently reach members of different voting groups with ads.
According to Edison, ad-supported audio reaches 84% of voting-age American public daily, suggesting campaigns at all levels should be putting more of their money into audio. However, where that money goes may depend on who they want to reach.
To determine political affiliation, Share of Ear respondents are asked, “No matter how you vote, do you usually think of yourself as a Democrat, Republican, Independent, or something else?” Pointing to the data, Edison says Republicans generally listen to more AM/FM radio than other groups, with an index of 109 (or 9% more listening than average). The ad-supported spoken-word channels on SiriusXM are a particularly efficient place to find Republicans, with an index of 146.
Meanwhile, podcasts stand out as the more efficient platform for reaching Democrats, indexing at 121. And what about those elusive Independents, who often tip an election? Both streaming music, and in particular music videos on YouTube, over-deliver for these potential voters, with indexes of 103 and 123 respectively.
Edison says that regardless of the party buyers try to reach with political ads, audio is a superior pathway to reaching voters. Audio provides enormous audiences and often a far less cluttered political environment than other ad channels.
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