Politics and Elections Blog
Trends, tools and news from the Google Politics & Elections team
Learnings for the 2016 Campaigns
Friday, May 1, 2015
It’s less than 600 days until the 2016 election, but many campaigns are already assembling their digital strategy for next November. We wanted to showcase a few forward-thinking approaches from last year’s midterm election, so campaigns, committees, and agencies can incorporate these learnings into their 2016 plans.
Content for a digital audience
Though 2014 campaigns could reach specific voter audiences, many times, all groups saw the same repurposed television commercial and not a tailored message for the specific digital audience.
In her reelection race for South Carolina Governor, Nikki Haley and her agency
IMGE
, created and promoted a made-for-digital video called “
Amanda’s Story
,” which highlighted Governor Haley’s anti-bullying efforts. IMGE used TrueView ads to promote the video, targeting it to mothers with school-age children.
Read More.
Similarly, in the various senatorial and congressional races where they were involved, the
US Chamber of Commerce
, with the help of the agency
Revolution
, ran TrueView ads to reach audiences that would be most persuaded by their video content. For Thom Tillis’s North Carolina Senate bid, the Chamber targeted users that were interested in NASCAR with a video of Richard Petty endorsing Tillis.
Read More.
NextGen Climate Action Committee
and
Bully Pulpit Interactive
used video ads to deliver the right message to the right audience, and they used custom surveys on YouTube to ensure that their message stuck. In key midterm statewide races, survey results confirmed that NextGen Climate's message resonated with the audience that viewed their ads.
Read More.
Leveraging all of Google’s tools
There is a full suite of Google products that campaigns can use — Google.com Search, Google Display Network, YouTube reserve, YouTube TrueView, DoubleClick Bid Manager (DBM). Here are some innovative way campaigns and agencies used and combined these core products in the 2014 midterm races.
To aid in Governor Dannel Malloy’s reelection campaign for Connecticut Governor, Connecticut Forward, an affiliate of the
Democratic Governors Association
, and
Rising Tide Interactive
efficiently used both YouTube reserve video ads and programmatic to easily pivot their video messaging to complement offline strategy. In expensive TV markets with heavy saturation, Connecticut Forward ran digital-specific video creative to reach audiences with a different message than what was airing on TV.
Read More.
Throughout
Scott Walker
’s reelection race for Wisconsin Governor, his campaign followed the ROI. They adapted their search strategy once they noticed a high volume of out-of-state donations and to improve their targeting accuracy, they created mirror Google audience targeting profiles, based on their own psychographic profiles of Wisconsin voters.
Read More.
From
first squeal
, Joni Ernst’s campaign and their agency
Targeted Victory
piggy-backed on the success of their video branding. They drove search traffic from Squeal-related keywords to campaign donation pages, and they created a remarketing list from users that interacted with the Squeal video on YouTube.
Read More.
Now-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s reelection bid for Kentucky Senate leveraged a combination of Google products, right up through Election Day. With the help of their agency
Harris Media
, McConnell’s campaign used custom mobile and desktop Get-Out-the-Vote (GOTV) units and magnified their GOTV efforts with a smart search and display strategy.
Read More.
What 2016 holds
Online marketing was a ubiquitous part of 2014 election campaigns, and digital’s impact will continue to grow in the coming 2016 races. As campaigns and agencies continue to innovate in the political digital space, we’ll be here to highlight those advancements. Stay tuned!
Posted by Lauren Benson and Coco Pannell, Google Politics & Elections Ads Marketing
The United Kingdom's 2015 General Election
Tuesday, April 28, 2015
Make up your own mind
In just under two weeks, millions of people in the U.K. will head to the polling stations for what could be the most unpredictable General Election in decades. With the two major parties neck-and-neck in the polls, and minor parties getting more attention than ever, the result is far from clear, and voters are increasingly searching online for information they need before they cast their ballot.
While Google doesn’t endorse any party, we want to make information more accessible and organized for voters so they can make up their own mind.
So we’ve built a number of tools to help—from finding a list of your local candidates to catching up on the latest trending election videos.
Ok Google, who’s on my ballot?
For the first time ever in Europe, you can just ask Google to discover information about your local candidates—all you need is your postcode. Ask a question like “
who is on the uk ballot
” or say “
uk election candidates
” to find out who is standing for office in your area, and click to get more detailed information on that candidate.
YouTube—a dedicated hub
During the campaign,
YouTube’s Spotlight
channel has provided 24/7 coverage of the UK election, making it easier to discover breaking election news, political party broadcasts and live-streamed leaders’ debates all in one place.
Channel 4 News’ Jon Snow is anchoring the channel, publishing a new video every weekday at 8am to guide viewers through the key issues, the different parties and how the electoral process works. So be sure to check back regularly!
The channel will also feature your favourite YouTube stars as they get a chance to grill the party leaders.
Keep your finger on the pulse—find out who won
On Election Day, if you use Google Now, you’ll get regular updates about the results as the votes are counted. You can also use Voice Search to ask “who won the uk election” and an easy-to-read display will keep you informed on all the latest constituencies as they report.
So use Google to stay up to date, informed—and to make up your own mind!
Posted by Verity Harding, Public Policy Manager Google UK
Ok Google, how do I vote?
Thursday, October 9, 2014
On November 4, Americans will cast ballots for 435 members of congress, 36 senators, 39 governorships, and thousands of other races locally. While every election is important, the voting process can often feel complicated, with the information about how to head to the polls spread across multiple official sources.
Get ready to vote with Google.
That’s why we are launching a number of new tools to equip voters with the information they need to vote on the issues they care about this November. What is my registration deadline? How do I vote? What forms of identification do I need? All a voter needs to do is ask Google.
For the first time ever, a simple search for [
how do i vote
] or [
register to vote
] will give you all the information you need - personalized by state - to vote in person, vote by mail, and make sure you are registered to vote.
Voters can even get reminders on key election information straight from the Google App.
What’s trending this election season?
As election day approaches,
YouTube.com/Elections
and
Google.com/Elections
will provide real-time feeds for all the latest news and analysis, live candidate debates, and trending videos on the key races and top issues from across the country.
By visiting
Google.com/+GooglePolitics
voters can see all Google Trends infographics -- a pulse on what Americans are searching in the final 26 days of the election.
Google Search and the Google Politics & Elections teams are working to make things simpler, by bringing technology to the elections process to encourage transparency, engagement, and informed participation. With so much at stake on November 4th, including the balance of power in Congress, it is crucial that voters have access to all the information they needed to exercise their power to vote at the polls.
Make sure to check back over the coming weeks, as we’ll continue to release new tools to make sure all Americans can discover and connect with our democratic process.
Be informed. Spread the word. Get ready to use your power.
Posted by Anthea Watson Strong, Elections & Civic Engagement Program Manager
Counting the Votes in Brazil
Monday, October 6, 2014
As the polls closed and votes were being totaled yesterday in Brazil, we introduced two new features to our Google Politics & Elections program in Brazil keep everyone updated on the results - both on Election Day and as we head into an October 26th runoff.
Live Results Map
: an interactive map allowing users to view results for president, governor, senator and the number of seats for Congress won by each party, both nationwide and by state level.
Presidential results on search
: for the first time in Brazil, if you do a simple search for words related to elections and results, we will give you the results for the presidential run.
The information is based on data coming directly from the Electoral Supreme Court (
TSE
), our partner in this project.
Since we launched our
Brazil Elections platform
in the beginning of September, thousands of Brazilians have visited the site and used our tools in an effort to stay informed.
Many of them have used the “
Know Your Candidates
” explorer to dig deeper into information on over 20,000 candidates running for office this year - in all 26 states and the Federal District. They’ve have watched YouTube news pieces from Estadão, navigated Media profiles from more than 30 partners and stayed updated on the latest election news from Google News.
All these resources have made the platform a rich source of information. We hope the new results tools live now will help everyone continue to stay updated and informed as Brazil finds out who their next leaders will be.
Posted by Steven Samorodin, Google Politics & Elections Engineering Team
Launching YouTube for Government
Thursday, October 2, 2014
Posted by
Brandon Feldman, YouTube News & Politics
From live streams of the
State of the Union
and
legislative hearings
, to
explainer videos
on important issues and
Hangouts
with constituents, YouTube has become an important platform where citizens engage with their governments and elected officials.
In order to help government officials get a better idea of what YouTube can do, we are launching
youtube.com/government101
, a one-stop shop where government officials can learn how to get the most out of YouTube as a communication tool.
The site offers a broad range of YouTube advice, from the basics of creating a channel to in-depth guidance on features like live streaming, annotations, playlists and more. We’ve also featured case studies from government offices around the world that are using YouTube in innovative ways.
If you're a government official, whether you are looking for an answer to a quick question or need a full training on YouTube best practices, we hope this resource will help you engage in a rich dialogue with your constituents and increase transparency within your community.
Following Scotland's Referendum Vote
Tuesday, September 9, 2014
On Thursday, September 18, 2014, Scotland’s five million residents will be faced with a defining decision for their country: Should Scotland be an independent country?
For the first time in the United Kingdom - and for this vote only - 16 and 17 year olds will be able to sign up to the electoral register and have a voice in this historic moment.
With under two weeks left until polling day, we want to help you stay up to date on all the latest news surrounding the vote.
That’s why we’ve launched the Google Elections site dedicated to the Scottish referendum.
Visit:
google.com/landing/scotland
where you’ll find news articles, Google+ Hangouts, and YouTube Videos on the upcoming vote as well as profiles of some of the key players.
Follow the politicians on Google+, join in the online Hangouts, and have your say on the dedicated online communities. Because this site is for you to stay informed on all the key issues and to allow you to interact with the people deciding your future.
Posted by Kate Sokolov, Google Politics & Elections Team
2014 Google Personal Democracy Fellows
Wednesday, May 21, 2014
Posted by Anthea Watson Strong, Google Social Impact team
Google and Personal Democracy Media have teamed up to offer fellowships for women working in civic technology to attend the 11th annual
Personal Democracy Forum
, June 5-6, 2014 at NYU’s Skirball Center.
This year’s theme is “Save the Internet | The Internet Saves,” and focuses on the ways people can work together to keep the Internet open for free speech, and how the Internet itself helps make society and civic life more open, participatory, and innovative.
For the 2014 Google PDF Fellowship, we have selected 15 women who are working to keep the Internet open and working on ways the Internet makes democracy stronger -- or both!
We’re excited to announce the 2014 Google Personal Democracy Fellows, and we’re expecting great things from the 15 women selected for the Fellowship.
Congratulations to the 2014 Google Personal Democracy Fellows, and thank you to everyone who applied!
Serah Kiburu
Wendy Fong
Tiffany Chu
Joylita Saldanha
Ellie Marshall
Alessandra Orofino
Anna Mazgal
Emma Mulqueeny
Clemence Pene
Jamiah Adams
Paola Villarreal
Katrin Verclas
Sarah Kaufman
Rebekah Monson
Emma Ruiz
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