Obama :::Rock the vote in-game

BRAND OWNER:Obama
CATEGORY:Government/Public Sector
REGION:USA
DATE:Oct 2008 - Nov 2008

For Barack Obama to win the 2008 election, he needed to secure a majority of young voters in key battleground states. The Rock the Vote campaign sought to engage and incite young Americans under 30 to register and vote.
In-game advertising has become an effective way for brands to reach coveted young audiences. Among the hard to reach 18-34 male audience, console and PC gaming is strongly preferred as their favorite leisure activity.
While playing videogames, engagement is extremely high and multitasking is almost non-existent compared to watching TV or surfing the internet.
Brand Obama partnered with Microsoft in-game advertising specialist Massive to reach the Xbox Live community.
Rock the Vote was able to successfully call this social community to action through relevant political issues that they care about. Gamers could get voter registration forms sent to their email, vote in an online presidential poll, download themes and gamer pics to show their allegiance for favored candidates.
Obama ran his “Rock the Vote” campaign in 11 Xbox 360 titles across 10 battleground states using geo targeting, time date targeting and content targeting. Gamers who were online in those states saw key messages in realistic settings while playing the video game titles running the campaign. ‘Early Voting has begun’ and ‘Vote Early’ were on billboards, stadiums and outdoor locations.
Additionally, the Xbox LIVE community was polled on their candidate of choice. Nearly 100,000 participants cast their votes, with Obama trending 12 percentage points ahead, providing a unique insight into young voters minds and served as one of the largest unofficial polls in the nation.
The campaign was a first for a political party and succeeded in targeting a hard to reach audience that spends more time gaming than on other media. Some 80,000 voter registration forms were downloaded through Xbox LIVE and Xbox.com and 100,000 Xbox LIVE member were polled voting preference and often acted as the bellwether of national polls.