With midterm elections approaching, publishers and advertisers alike are wondering if this season’s political ads will reach their intended, increasingly niche targets.
To empower accurate planning and buying, GfK MRI has released 29 political targets based on its rich, top quality data on US consumers. Incorporating US voter roll data, the segments allow advertisers to target people by voting behaviors, party affiliation, ideological identification, and their stance on social issues.
Click here to request a full list of the MRI voter segments
At a time when professional sports have become political footballs, MRI used the new segments to look at the party affiliations and beliefs of “super fans” – those who place themselves at or near the top of a 10-point “fandom” scale for 14 sports.
Among NFL super fans, MRI found remarkable parity politically; 27% of the Social Conservative segment consider themselves NFL super fans, compared to 26% of the Social Liberal target. In addition, the All Democrat Household and All Republican Household segments are equally likely to be NFL followers, at 26% for each.
Scroll down for table with additional data
MRI also found that the level of NBA fandom among the Social Conservative group (9%) is below the average (12%), and well under the proportion for the Social Liberal segment (14%). College football, however, has the opposite skew, with 20% of Social Conservatives being super fans, versus 16% of Social Liberals.
Looking at its Voted in 2016 Election segment, MRI found that “super fans” of golf were most likely to have taken part in the last presidential election, with 48% casting ballots. Followers of the Olympics (45%) and Major League Baseball (44%) were not far behind.
<caption>Table 1. MRI’s political targets and their sports ‘super fandom’</caption>
| Overall US average | Social Conservative | Social Liberal | Al Republican Household | All Democrat Household |
|---|
| NFL super fans | 26% | 27% | 26% | 26% | 26% |
| NBA super fans | 12% | 9% | 14% | 8% | 14% |
| College football super fans | 17% | 20% | 16% | 19% | 16% |
| NASCAR super fans | 6% | 7% | 7% | 7% | 7% |
MRI’s Survey of the American Consumer® represents the gold standard in traditional planning and consumer insights. As part of the Survey, MRI conducts over 24,000 in-person, in-home interviews each year, capturing an unequaled range of information on US consumers’ media use, buying habits, lifestyles, and attitudes.
The Survey is accredited by the Media Rating Council (MRC), which conducts annual audits of MRI’s methodology, fieldwork, analytics, and data handling systems. On behalf of clients and the industry, the MRC assures that audience measurement services are valid, reliable, and effective.
MRI works with Datalogix and Oracle/BlueKai to make its unmatched offline data available to enrich digital and cross-media campaigns. Most recently, it announced partnerships with Acxiom.
