Travel And Spend

Nielsen Homescan panelists who favored Obama, tended to make more frequent trips across all outlets combined and in traditional retail channels, outmatched only by McCain voters when it came to trips to Walmart. While McCain voters may have made fewer trips, they typically outspend their Democratic rivals in terms of per-trip dollars.

Holiday Retail Outlook

While “hope” was a big theme of the Obama campaign, the results show that McCain voters are slightly more optimistic about holiday spending. Sixty-three pecent of McCain voters plan to spend same or more for the 2008 season, while 38% of Obama voters indicated that they would spend less. McCain voters also expressed more optimism about spending on entertainment inside and outside the home.

View sample data from Buying & Shopping Preferences For 2008 Voters.

NBC.com, which grew 312% month-over-month, saw the largest September increase in video viewers, followed by FOX Broadcasting and ABC.com, with 165% and 105% growth, respectively, Nielsen Online reported Thursday.

“A combination of series and season premiers, political news and parodies, and coverage of the financial crisis all contributed to increased online video viewing for the television networks in September,” Jon Gibs, vice president, media analytics, Nielsen Online, noted. “Consumers are increasingly relying on the Web to catch up on content they missed when it aired on television and the networks are beginning to capitalize on this trend.”

Total video streams in a variety of entertainment categories also increased last month.

Overall, the number of unique viewers streaming video online increased 6% — from 117,916 viewers in August to 125,061 in September.  Meanwhile, total video streams increased 10% month-over-month — from 8.06 million in August to 8.89 million in September.

YouTube, Yahoo! and Fox Interactive Media were the top brands, ranked by video streams, during September.

View the full press release.

Read coverage of Nielsen’s findings in TV Week, Media Post, and Biz Report.com.

Web traffic to sites within the “Current Events and Global News” category was up 27% on Election Day, versus the previous Tuesday (Oct. 28), Nielsen Online reported Wednesday.

The candidates’ websites also drew healthy traffic on Election Day.  Obama’s site had 1.2 million unique visitors on Nov. 4, while McCain’s site had 479,000 unique visitors.

Page views and time-per-person at current events and news websites also increased 103% and 61%, respectively, on Tuesday, according to Nielsen.

Check out historical unique audience data from Election Day 2004.

View the full media alert.

Read coverage of Nielsen’s findings in Ad Age, Silicon Alley Insider, Mediaweek, Media Life magazine, and Direct News.

Live news coverage was carried on both broadcast and cable networks, including Spanish-language networks: ABC, CBS, FOX Broadcast, NBC, Telemundo, Univision, BBC America, BET, CNBC, CNN, FOX News Channel, MSNBC, and TV One.

Nielsen’s audience estimates include primetime coverage, from 8pm to 11pm, in the Eastern and Central Time Zones and live in Mountain and Pacific Time Zones.

Audience estimates for the 8pm to 12:30am time frame, which featured Sen. McCain’s concession speech and President-Elect Obama’s speech in Chicago, are also included below.

In 2004, almost 59.2 million viewers tuned in between 8pm and 11pm to watch Election Night TV coverage, as President Bush defeated Sen. John Kerry to win re-election.

On Election Night in 2000, almost 61.6 million viewers (excluding viewers of Spanish language networks) watched primetime TV coverage of President Bush and Former Vice President Al Gore’s embattled election contest.

Nielsen’s broadcast audience numbers include a combination of national and local news coverage.

View the full media alert.

Read coverage of Nielsen’s findings by the Associated Press and Reuters, as well as in The Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe, Mediaweek, and Media Life magazine.

NBC’s 8pm to 11:30pm coverage of the voting results claimed second place, and ABC’s 8pm to 9pm Election Night coverage rounded out the top three.

Election returns coverage on CBS, FOX, and Univision dominated the rest of the top ten.

Overall, ABC won the night with an average audience of just over 13.2 million viewers, while NBC took second place with almost 12.5 million average viewers. CBS and FOX claimed third and fourth places with roughly 7.4 million and 4.7 million average viewers, respectively. Univision and the CW followed in fifth and sixth places with average audiences of roughly 4 million and 2.4 million average viewers, respectively.

In the wake of winning the 2008 U.S. presidential election, Obama was mentioned in almost 20% of all blog discussions, Nielsen Online reported Wednesday.

In comparison, John McCain was referenced by just 6.3% of all blog entries posted on November 5, according to Nielsen.

Nielsen Online recently analyzed the online presidential campaign, examining online advertising by the candidates, Web traffic and online video viewing at both campaign’s sites, and blog buzz related to the election.

Online Advertising
Senator Barack Obama’s campaign ramped up its online advertising in mid-September. Image-based ad impressions by the Obama campaign grew 202% from September 15 to 22 — and by another 94% by September 29.

In mid-October, Obama’s campaign also stepped up its sponsored link advertising, surpassing McCain’s sponsored link advertising for the first time.

In contrast, Sen. McCain’s online advertising push came in the weeks just before the Republican National Convention. McCain boosted image-based ad impressions by 261% between August 11 and 22, but after announcing Palin as his running mate, scaled back his display advertising. Between August 25 and September 7, McCain’s image-based online advertising dropped by 85%.

Web Traffic To Campaign Sites
Unique visitors to BarackObama.com outpaced those to JohnMcCain.com nearly two to one in September. The unique audience at BarackObama.com went from 6.1 million in August to 7.9 million in September (+31%).

During the same time period, JohnMcCain.com’s unique audience grew by 56% — from 2.7 million to 4.2 million unique visitors.

Video Viewing Via Campaign Websites
Total video streams at JohnMcCain.com surged by 175% in September — from 1.2 million streams in August to 3.2 million in September. Unique video viewers at the McCain’s site also increased 175% last month, from 475,000 viewers in August to 1.3 million in September.

In comparison, video streams at BarackObama.com saw less dramatic growth (+60%). Visitors to the site viewed 1.3 million streams in August, and 2.0 million streams in September. Unique viewers at Obama’s site also increased by 35% in September, from 824,000 viewers in August to 1.1 million last month.

Candidate Blogosphere Buzz
Online buzz about the two presidential candidates is increasing as Election Day approaches. In general, spikes in blog buzz during October coincided with the presidential and vice presidential debates on October 2, 7, and 15.

In the days leading up to and following Obama’s October 29 TV infomercial, online discussions of Obama have outpaced those referencing McCain.

Candidate Online Brand Associations
In online discussions, McCain and Obama are most closely associated with each other, followed by their running mates.

After that, McCain is most closely associated with “Sarah Palin,” “campaign,” and “debate.” Obama is also closely associated with “Sarah Palin,” as well as with “vote” and “president.”

Nielsen Online’s proprietary Brand Association Maps chart the attributes most closely associated with each candidate in online discussions. In general, BAM analysis provides an unaided, unsolicited, real-time barometer of consumer perceptions of and attitudes toward a topic discussed online.

Although McCain has tried to downplay several public relations challenges that occurred during his campaign, the terms “Katie Couric,” “Interview,” and “David Letterman” are as closely associated with him as “reform,” “economy,” and “Freddie Mac.”

Similarly, Obama’s efforts to distance himself from real estate developer Tony Rezko and Rev. Jeremiah Wright failed — in the online realm, at least. Obama is as closely associated with “Rezko,” “Plumber,” and “Wright” as he is with “economy,” “financial,” and “reform.”

View the full press release.

Read more about the media’s role in the election, in the latest issue of Nielsen’s “Consumer Insight” online newsletter.

Read coverage of Nielsen’s findings in PC Magazine, Digital Media Wire, Media Daily News, and Media Post.

The simulcast — the first of its kind since Ross Perot ran a political telecast on the eve of Election Day in 1996 — aired on CBS, FOX, NBC, Univision, BET, MSNBC, and TV One between 8pm and 8:30pm EDT.

Perot’s 1996 telecast drew almost 22.7 million viewers.

On an average Wednesday night, the networks that aired Obama’s telecast draw a combined average of 30.3 million average viewers during that half-hour daypart.

In comparison, the final debate between the two presidential candidates drew 56.5 million U.S. viewers on October 15. The candidates’ first debate on September 26 drew 52.4 million viewers; their second debate, on October 7, drew 63.2 million viewers.

View the full media alert.

Read coverage of Nielsen’s findings by Reuters and the Associated Press, as well as in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe, the Baltimore Sun, The Hollywood Reporter, Adweek, Ad Age, Multichannel News, Broadcasting & Cable, Media Life, and Media Post.

Obama’s simulcast is the first to be aired by a presidential candidate since Ross Perot ran a political telecast on the eve of Election Day in 1996.  That program was watched by 16.8% of all households nationwide.

Ross Perot also ran a series of 15 political telecasts during the 1992 presidential election.

In comparison, the final debate between the two presidential candidates received a 38.3 household rating in the top 56 local TV markets.  The candidates’ first debate on September 26 received a 34.7 household rating in the top 55 markets; their second debate, on October 7, received a 42.0 household rating in those markets.

Among the top 56 local metered markets, the Baltimore market had the largest TV audience, with a household rating of 31.3, while the Portland market had the lowest household rating: 14.2.

One rating point equals 1% of the total TV households in a given market.

View ratings for Nielsen’s 56 top local metered markets.

Obama’s infomercial aired live on CBS, NBC, FOX, UNIVISION, MSNBC, and NY1 Wednesday night.  This data does not include ratings from BET, which aired the infomercial during different time periods.

National ratings for the infomercial will be available from Nielsen Thursday afternoon.

Chief among these thrifty advertising alternatives – the auto-themed Speed Channel, which Republicans are 52% more likely to watch, compared with the average American.

In comparison, Republican voters are 48% more likely to watch FOX News and 33% more likely to watch Country Music Television. 

The takeaway: well-placed cable advertising can reach core Republican constituents at a more favorable CPM.

Nielsen’s report is based on a survey of 40,000 registered U.S. voters, conducted online on September 30. 

The report’s findings track the TV viewing habits of Republican, Democratic, and Independent voters, pinpointing which TV networks reach the largest percentages of voters of each political affiliation.

View Nielsen PreView’s report.

Read coverage of Nielsen’s findings in The Independent and The Hollywood Reporter.