Voters Who Engaged With Candidates Online 50 Percent More Likely to Vote, Says Survey

Citizens who engaged with president-elect Barack Obama and Senator John McCain on Eventful.com were 50 percent more likely to vote than the general population, according to survey results released today by the company. In addition, 82 percent of supporters who engaged the candidates through Eventful participated offline by attending rallies, fundraisers, phone-banks and canvassing. Along with MySpace, Facebook and YouTube, Eventful was a primary online vehicle for campaigns to connect with voters, said Eventful in a release.

The campaigns were able to translate online passion into increased real-world action in terms of voting, donating and volunteering for the candidates, according to the release. Engagement with supporters though Eventful was particularly effective at reaching first-time voters, with 19 percent of Eventful users voting for the first time compared to 11 percent of the overall electoratea.

The survey was distributed to political supporters who engaged with the candidates via Eventful's Demand service, which enables people to influence where their favorite performers, candidates and celebrities appear for live events. Practically all the Democratic and Republican presidential candidates used Eventful Demand to engage with supporters and determine where to route campaign appearances, said the company.

President-elect Barack Obama was the most "demanded" candidate, with over 140,000 people requesting him to appear in their hometowns. The Obama campaign used Demand very effectively, sending millions of e-mails to communicate with supporters in local markets, drive attendance at events, solicit volunteers and ultimately get people to the polls. Over 70 percent of the people who received Obama's e-mail communications through Eventful opened them, compared with industry-standard e-mail open rates well below 10 percent.

Of the 2,883 respondents who demanded candidates through Eventful, 97 percent voted, compared to estimated overall voter turnout of between 60-65 percent (a 50 percent increase), and 19 percent were first-time voters, compared to 11 percent in the general population (a 73 percent increase).

In addition, 82 percent of Eventful users participated or volunteered in at least one campaign activity:

• 41 percent went to a rally or event attended by the candidate
• 13 percent attended a fundraiser
• 45 percent went to a house party, debate-watching party or other political gathering
• 16 percent canvassed door-to-door
• 25 percent made phone calls for a candidate
• 56 percent made a donation to a candidate
• 13 percent collected voter registrations

Eventful was particularly effective at engaging young voters aged 18-29, who are notoriously difficult to bring into the political process, said the company. Among young voters who used Eventful, 35 percent were first-time voters, 48 percent made a donation, 39 percent attended a rally with the candidates, 20 percent made phone calls for the candidates and 14 percent canvassed door-to-door.

"We live in exciting times, when new technology is reshaping the way that people participate in the political process," said Jordan Glazier, CEO, Eventful. "These survey results strongly suggest what we have long believed, that Eventful and other online tools are effective at harnessing online passion and translating it into real-world action.