And Then There Were Two: Obama Has Head Start in Online Race to the White House, According to Nielsen Online U.S. Online Population Is Overwhelmingly Registered to Vote and Politically Engaged NEW YORK, NY--(MARKET WIRE)--Jul 7, 2008 -- Nielsen Online, a service of The Nielsen
Company, today reported that Senator Barack Obama's campaign
Web site
outpaced Senator John McCain's in May, the final month of
the Democratic
primary season. BarackObama.com garnered 2.3 million unique
visitors during
the month, compared to McCain's 563,000 (see Table 1).
Obama's campaign placed considerably more image-based online advertising impressions in May, with McCain's campaign leading in search sponsored links. "Barack Obama got a head start during primary season in using the Web effectively to garner support, both in terms of votes and donations," said Jon Gibs, vice president, media analytics, Nielsen Online. "It will be interesting to see how things shape up online as we head toward the general election. McCain's Web site includes both video and social networking capabilities, which have proven successful for his Democratic rival. Now that the contest has shifted away from the primary season, McCain may gain more traction online. But it remains to be seen if his core demographic will embrace the medium the way Obama's has." Table 1: Web Metrics for Barack Obama and John McCain Presidential Campaigns (U.S., Home and Work) Candidate Barack Obama John McCain --------- ------------ ----------- Unique Audience (000) 2,300 563 Image-based Impressions (000) 105,658 8,551 Sponsored Link Impressions (000) 1,806 5,447 Source: Nielsen Online Online Population is Politically Engaged Among active Web users over the age of 18, 89 percent are registered to vote, according to Nielsen Online's @Plan (see Table 2). The U.S. Census Bureau reported that 72 percent of all voting-age citizens were registered to vote in the 2004 presidential election. Registered voters who are Internet users are fairly evenly divided between the two major political parties, with 36 percent Republicans and 35 percent Democrats. Seventeen percent reported being registered Independents with the balance registered as "other" or "not disclosing an affiliation" (see Table 3). "The fact that so many Web users are registered to vote suggests that online campaign efforts will drive results at the polls," said Gibs. "Campaigns are no longer dabbling online -- we expect a candidate's Web presence to be an integral part of both campaigns." Table 2: Voter Registration among U.S. Adults Online Voter Registration Composition Percent ------------------ ------------------- Registered to Vote 89 Not Registered to Vote 8 Did not respond 3 Source: Nielsen Online Table 3: Party Affiliation among U.S. Adults Online who are Registered Voters Party Affiliation Composition Percent ----------------- ------------------- Registered Republican 36 Registered Democrat 35 Registered Independent 17 Other/did not disclose party 12 Source: Nielsen Online Online Buzz: Blogs vs. Boards With the official race to the White House underway, political discussions online are on the rise. Obama's buzz volume on blogs, with mentions in 0.75 percent of consumer discussions during June 2008, was nearly double that of McCain's at 0.39 percent. Interestingly, a larger volume of discussion around Barack Obama (0.89 percent) takes place on message boards and forums where, compared to blogs, consumers experience a greater sense of virtual community. Consumer discussion around McCain is more common on blogs. Table 4: Buzz Volume on Blogs and Boards as a Percent of Discussion, June 2008 Candidate Barack Obama John McCain --------- ------------ ----------- Percent of Discussion - Blogs 0.75 0.39 Percent of Discussion - Boards 0.89 0.34 Source: Nielsen Online Top Blogs Among the nearly 80 million blogs tracked by Nielsen Online's BuzzMetrics service, the following are the blogs that mention Senators John McCain and Barack Obama during June 2008, ranked by volume of messages mentioning the candidate. Table 5: Top Blogs Mentioning John McCain, Ranked by Number of Messages, June 2008 Top Blogs URL --------- --- The Huffington Post Full Blog Feed http://www.huffingtonpost.com/theblog http://dailykos.com http://dailykos.com Think Progress http://thinkprogress.org Crooks and Liars http://www.crooksandliars.com http://www.themoderatevoice.com http://www.themoderatevoice.com News Hounds http://www.newshounds.us FullosseousFlap's Dental Blog http://flapsblog.com Taegan Goddard's Political Wire http://politicalwire.com http://americanthinker.com http://americanthinker.com Hullabaloo http://digbysblog.blogspot.com Source: Nielsen Online Table 6: Top Blogs Mentioning Barack Obama, Ranked by Number of Messages, June 2008 Top Blogs URL --------- --- The Huffington Post Full Blog Feed http://www.huffingtonpost.com/theblog http://dailykos.com http://dailykos.com http://americanthinker.com http://americanthinker.com http://www.themoderatevoice.com http://www.themoderatevoice.com Taegan Goddard's Political Wire http://politicalwire.com Crooks and Liars http://www.crooksandliars.com News Hounds http://www.newshounds.us FullosseousFlap's Dental Blog http://flapsblog.com Think Progress http://thinkprogress.org http://paxalles.blogs.com/paxalles http://paxalles.blogs.com/paxalles Source: Nielsen Online About Nielsen Online: Nielsen Online, a service of The Nielsen Company, delivers comprehensive, independent measurement and analysis of online audiences, advertising, video, consumer-generated media, word of mouth, commerce and consumer behavior, and includes products previously marketed under the Nielsen//NetRatings and Nielsen BuzzMetrics brands. With high quality, technology-driven products and services, Nielsen Online enables clients to make informed business decisions regarding their Internet, digital and marketing strategies. For more information, please visit www.nielsen-online.com. About The Nielsen Company: The Nielsen Company is a global information and media company with leading market positions in marketing information (ACNielsen), media information (Nielsen Media Research), online intelligence (NetRatings and BuzzMetrics), mobile measurement, trade shows and business publications (Billboard, The Hollywood Reporter, Adweek). The privately held company is active in more than 100 countries, with headquarters in Haarlem, the Netherlands, and New York, USA. For more information, please visit, www.nielsen.com. Editor's Note: Please source all data to Nielsen Online. Contact: Media Contacts:
Suzy Bausch
(415) 617-0181
Michelle McGiboney
(408) 941-2930
pr.us@nielsen.com
Source: The Nielsen Company
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