Digilant, today released the results of new audience insight research, US Voter Persona Study: Trump and Clinton 2016 Voters Across 3 Generations. It reveals important audience insights about the preferences, interests, and behaviors of US voters who support Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. The study examines the voter audiences across three generations – Millennials, Generation X, and Baby Boomers, and reveals how different these voters really are. Findings from this audience insight study yield valuable insights for political and brand marketers alike who want to reach voters during the 2016 US presidential election season. It shows that at a high level, these audiences have many similarities. However, a deeper analysis of the data at a generational level shows that these audiences exhibit very different preferences, interests, and behaviors. The study’s methodology leveraged Consumer Persona, Digilant’s proprietary insight and predictive modeling system, with third party consumer data to predict the likelihood of a user to take a particular action.
Specifically, Consumer Persona digested six third party data segments — based on age and affinity towards either Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump — to identify the unique preferences, interests and behaviors of each audience. The six audiences included Millennial Trump Supporters, Generation X Trump Supporters, Baby Boomer Trump Supporters, Millennial Clinton Supporters, Generation X Clinton Supporters, and Baby Boomer Clinton Supporters. “This Consumer Persona study arrives at a critical time for programmatic advertisers who want to target and engage voters this election season,” said Alan Osetek, Global CEO, Digilant. “It’s clear that voters are a complex audience. Our study delivers findings that can be used by programmatic advertisers to better understand the nuances of US voter audiences based on the candidate they support and the generation they fall within. For advertisers who want to drive return on ad spend, the next step is to apply this new level of understanding to their programmatic audience targeting strategy to effectively reach and expand their audience.” Key findings from the study include:
Millennial Voters
The millennial audiences of Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton supporters share some common ground — they are passionate shoppers. However, they have very different shopping habits and preferences. For instance, millennial Donald Trump supporters are heavy online retail shoppers, year-round. On the other hand, millennial Hillary Clinton supporters prefer to consolidate their shopping efforts, and they tend to make purchases on major shopping holidays such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
Gen X Voters:
The study reveals that Generation X Trump and Clinton voters are quite different, especially when it comes to entertainment and activity preferences. For example, Generation X voters who support Hillary Clinton frequently engage in sports and outdoor activities, while Donald Trump supporters prefer to spend time playing video games and streaming music.
Baby Boomer Voters:
Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton supporters in the Baby Boomer generation share an interest in purchasing antiques and collectors’ items. Yet, when it comes to how they consume content, their preferences take different paths. Donald Trump supporters of this generation are technology enthusiasts who prefer to download their content. Conversely, Baby Boomer Hillary Clinton supporters prefer to read print magazines and books.
Hillary Clinton Supporters:
Hillary Clinton supporters who fall within the Generation X and Baby Boomer generations share a love for the arts and entertainment. However, a closer look at these generations of Hillary supporters reveals that Generation X prefers to enjoy these activities at home, while Baby Boomers prefer to take-in the arts outside of the home, at the theater or Cinema.
Donald Trump Supporters:
Beyond sharing a preference for a political candidate, Trump supporters across the generations are quite different. Millennials who support Trump are investment savvy and heavy online shoppers, while Generation X Trump supporters are frequent gamers who prefer shopping at chain stores. At the same time, Baby Boomer Trump supporters have an affinity for baked goods and prefer to make purchases via mail order catalogues.
The findings from this audience insight study demonstrate the importance of leveraging advanced data solutions to gain a better understanding of target audiences to facilitate precision targeting, and drive marketing performance. Brands and advertisers looking to capitalize on the 2016 election need to spend their programmatic advertising budget wisely. They should shift away from targeting voters based solely on candidate affinity, and instead target voters based on a multitude of data points. This approach can deeply impact how they reach and engage their audience, especially in the days leading up to the election. Osetek added, “While programmatic advertisers are leveraging data today, many are using outdated solutions that only scratch the surface and don’t deliver a deeper perspective. This study highlights how different audiences can be when you take a more granular look at the data. Investing in robust and powerful advanced data solutions is a must for advertisers today – it can truly help deliver a competitive advantage.”
To view the study click here.
