Although the national race for the White House seems to stand at a virtual dead heat according to many polls, when it comes to smartphone owners it’s really not even close.
Mobile advertising technology company Velti, with the help of Harris Interactive, conducted a survey of 800 iPhone/Android users and found that they currently swing heavily for President Obama. When asked who they would vote for if the election were held today, 49% said Obama. Only 31% said that they support Mitt Romney.
And among those iPhone/Android users that say they support the President, there was a few key discrepancies. First, the males who support Obama are more likely to be young (18-34), as opposed to middle aged (35-44). Obama looks to have the young female iPhone/Android users even more on lockdown, with 60% of those aged 18-34 giving him their support.
“The results of this survey demonstrate that the smartphone market is becoming a whole new demographic that candidates must take into consideration when building a comprehensive campaign strategy,” said Krishna Subramanian, CMO, Velti. “Clearly, mobile advertising is emerging as an influential medium and a distinct audience. We are just beginning to see a more strategic use of this platform, such as Mitt Romney’s iAd campaign, and believe that others will follow suit. More importantly, the survey results reveal that greater intelligence in understanding the behavior of this emerging demographic can be a critical differentiator in brand awareness and consumer behavior across any number of markets and applications.”
I guess the takeaway for the Romney campaign is that they need to do some work among these smartphone owners. The only group of iPhone/Android users that supported Romney over Obama were retirees.
Check out some more interesting results from the study below: