Microtargeting on the Campaign Trail
In 2006, campaigns used microtargeting to help them communicate more effectively with the electorate. Microtargeting identified undecided voters who needs to be persuaded as well as the tepid supporter who is needs an extra push to get out and vote. In addition to finding the right voters, microtargeting helped candidates identify the issue of greatest concern to specific individuals. Below are links to some recent articles on the use of microtargeting in the 2006 election cycle.
Party arsenals feature dueling databases
The technique, known as "microtargeting" on the right and "modelling" on the left, is a sign of how far modern political campaigning has become a marketing exercise...
Financial Times 10/13/2006
Democrats Aim to Regain Turnout Edge
This is known as microtargeting, and it turns traditional political mobilizing on its head by giving campaigns the opportunity to create virtual precincts of voters and poach on the opponent's turf.
Washington Post 10/7/2006
The GOP's Secret Weapon
... Republicans now know even which individual households they want through microtargeting — the use of computerized consumer data, from magazine subscriptions to charitable contributions, to help locate voters who are likely to vote Republican if they turn out.
Time 10/1/2006
Shop At Target? You're A Swing Voter
...you might just be his kind of voter. DeVos is using some of the same marketing and persuasion techniques used for decades by American businesses in an attempt to locate potential customers for his political campaign.
BusinessWeek 9/25/2006
Lost Horizons
... the communications and technological revolution that is sweeping American politics. This has produced once-unimaginable new ways to track down potential voters, by predicting voting habits based on where Americans live and the cars they drive and the magazines they read, and delivering tailored messages to different segments of an overly saturated electorate.
New York Times Magazine 9/24/2006
Democrats Adopting Republicans' Voter-Turnout Techniques
Republicans have used superior technology and techniques to get their supporters to vote at higher rates. Those techniques include "microtargeting," the use of early voting, and "absentee ballots to 'bank' votes before Election Day.
CNSNews.com 8/23/2006
The GOP knows you don't like anchovies
... information culled from marketing sources — including retailers, magazine subscription services, even auto dealers — giving Republicans a high-tech edge in the kind of grass-roots politics that has long been the touchstone of Democratic activists.
Los Angeles Times 6/25/2006