Advertising best practice, evidence and insights

What we know about opinion polling, political research

Article • WARC Best Practice, June 2019

Explores the historical link between political research and opinion polling and suggests alternatives to the latter, which should however be approached with caution.

Political movements in an election year – and what it means for brands

Article • Amanda Ginzburg, WARC COVID-19 Series, April 2020

In a charged political environment, brand involvement can be fraught with risk, but there are meaningful ways brands can be involved.

The neuroscience behind political advertising

News • 04 February 2020

As a key US election year ramps up, candidates are putting out more and more sophisticated advertising than ever before, but new research indicates how neuromarketing techniques can optimise ads for a political audience.

Super Bowl fans reject political campaign ads

News • 31 January 2020

Super Bowl 2020 kicks off this Sunday and, as usual, numerous brands will vie for attention of football fans, but a new survey suggests campaign teams fighting the presidential election would be advised not to advertise during the game.

Brands in the age of anger: The use and power of qualitative research

Research Paper • Graeme Trayner, ESOMAR, Fusion, 2019

Looks at how brands can use qualitative research to navigate the current age, defined by populism and rage.

I don’t know if I am allowed to say this but…': Accessing genuine feelings and opinions in the age of political correctness

Research Paper • Peter Totman, ESOMAR, Fusion, 2019

This paper explores the degree to which political correctness may affect the authenticity of responses in qualitative research, in particular among a working-class audience who voted for Brexit in the 2016 referendum in the UK.

Semiotics fused with digital media analytics, why wouldn’t you? The new age of qual and quant

Research Paper • Preriit Souda and William Landell Mills, ESOMAR, Congress, 2019

Amaranth Insight and PSA Consultants developed a study on British politics to demonstrate how changes in online sentiment, framed by semiotic interpretation, can be shown to affect real world outcomes.

Riding the Wave of Electoral Volatility

Article • Benedict Pringle and Iain Bundred, WPP Atticus Awards, Winner, 2018

Business leaders can benefit from understanding the drivers of electoral volatility and learning lessons from groups that have successfully motivated the public in a time of instability.

Marketing Brexit: An exploratory study of young voter engagement in relation to the EU referendum

Research Paper • Christopher Pich, John Harvey, Guja Armannsdottir, Mojtaba Poorrezaei, Ines Branco-Illodo, and Andrew Kincaid, International Journal of Market Research, Vol. 60, No. 6, 2018, pp. 589-610

This article presents a study of young voter engagement in relation to the EU referendum—a democratic vote on the United Kingdom's membership of the European Union.

Exploring constituency-level estimates for the 2017 British general election

Research Paper • Ron Johnston, David Rossiter, Todd Hartman, Charles Pattie, David Manley and Kelvyn Jones, International Journal of Market Research, Vol. 60, No. 5, 2018, pp. 463-483

Most opinion polls conducted during British general election campaigns report on each party's estimated national vote share.

Split Brits show 'contented resilience'

News • 29 August 2018

LONDON: The United Kingdom may be a divided nation – and not just in relation to Brexit – but a new report finds that Britons are generally more optimistic than five years ago.

Advertisers are 'shouting at an audience who can't hear'

News • 20 August 2018

LONDON: The Brexit vote revealed a divided UK, one which is replicated to a large degree in how agency employees view the world compared with the people they are creating advertising for, according to the head of group insight at Trinity Mirror.

Facebook's part in Mexico's fake news purge

News • 28 June 2018

MEXICO CITY: Showing it has learned from the misinformation campaigns that captured public attention in 2016, Facebook is determined to play its part in helping Mexico to run a free, fair, and truthful election.

Too much news, say Americans

News • 07 June 2018

WASHINGTON, DC: Two thirds of Americans say they feel exhausted by the news, a sentiment more evident among Republicans than Democrats, according to Pew Research Center.

Issues remain for online political advertising

News • 06 June 2018

NEW YORK: With the US midterm elections moving a step closer in the wake of yesterday’s primaries, questions remain about the probity of online political advertising, with the Honest Ads Act representing one possible answer to these problems.

Can The Honest Ads Act save online political advertising?

Article • Stephen Whiteside, WARC Exclusive, May 2018

The Honest Ads Act represents an attempt by US legislators to tackle some of the major shortcomings in the regulations that cover political advertising.

What marketers can learn from political campaigns

Article • Chuck Kapelke, ANA Magazine, May 2018

Looks at the lessons and insights from the world of political marketing, which can be useful for corporate brand managers.

Brexit: Lived experience and the problems of polling

Article • Sam Peña-Taylor, Event Reports, MRS Impact, March 2018

The political and diplomatic storm that is the UK’s exit from the European Union has rocked an insight industry whose political arm failed to foresee the decision.

Mind-reading a friend: A better way to ask the polling question?

Research Paper • John Aitchison, International Journal of Market Research, Vol. 60, No. 2, 2018, pp. 190-197

This article reports on differences observed when asking a simple polling question in a traditional way—that is, asking respondents for predictions about their own voting behavior versus asking respondents for predictions about a friend's voting behavior.

Usage and performance of bellwether polls for election forecasting

Research Paper • Elizabeth J. Wilson and David A. Paleologos, International Journal of Market Research, Vol. 60, No. 2, 2018, pp. 132-146

A non-traditional methodology of polling in small areas, called bellwethers, improves the accuracy of forecasts drawn from a large area.

Investigating political brand reputation with qualitative projective techniques from the perspective of young adults

Research Paper • Christopher Pich, Guja Armannsdottir and Louise Spry, International Journal of Market Research, Vol. 60, No. 2, 2018, pp. 198-213

Capturing and understanding the images and reputations external stakeholders assign to brands can be confusing and challenging.

Disunited States: The fault line between liberals and conservatives in the US shapes everything from their attitude to advertising, to their propensity for technology

Research Paper • Katie McQuater, Market Research Society, Impact, February 2018

This article outlines consumer behaviour and how that relates to socio-political divisions that have risen to the forefront of US society following the 2016 presidential election.

How persuasive are political campaigns? Not one bit

Article • Stephen Whiteside, WARC Exclusive, November 2017

Political campaigns invest significant resources in attempts to persuade voters to pick one candidate over a competitor from a rival party, but the impact of these efforts appears to be negligible at best.

How innovation could enhance the impact of political campaigns

Article • Stephen Whiteside, WARC Exclusive, November 2017

Political campaigns typically struggle to persuade voters about how to cast their ballot, but innovation in this area could help increase the impact of their activities.

Tech giants offer 'Band-Aids'

News • 01 November 2017

WASHINGTON DC: Representatives from Facebook, Google and Twitter have expressed contrition at how their platforms were used to spread misinformation during the 2016 presidential election and promised to do better in future.

Political audiences