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Microtargeting is the use of online data to tailor advertising messages to individuals, based on the identification of recipients’ personal vulnerabilities. Such tactics can be used for promoting a product or a political candidate.
Direct marketing Direct marketing is a form of communicating an offer, where organizations communicate directly to a Target market, pre-selected customer and supply a method for a direct response. Among practitioners, it is also known as ''direct response ...
data mining Data mining is the process of extracting and finding patterns in massive data sets involving methods at the intersection of machine learning, statistics, and database systems. Data mining is an interdisciplinary subfield of computer science and ...
techniques that are used often involve predictive
market segmentation In marketing, market segmentation or customer segmentation is the process of dividing a consumer or business market into meaningful sub-groups of current or potential customers (or consumers) known as ''segments''. Its purpose is to identify pr ...
(aka
cluster analysis Cluster analysis or clustering is the data analyzing technique in which task of grouping a set of objects in such a way that objects in the same group (called a cluster) are more Similarity measure, similar (in some specific sense defined by the ...
). Microtargeting's tactics rely on transmitting a tailored message to a subgroup on the basis of unique information about that subgroup. Microtargeting is increasingly used by
political parties A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular area's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific ideological or p ...
and in election campaigns, including
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, the
United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
Republican and Democratic political parties, as well as candidates who track individual voters and identify potential supporters. They use various means of communication such as direct mail, phone calls, home visits, television, radio, web advertising, email, and text messaging, among others, to communicate with voters, crafting messages to build support for fundraising, campaign events, volunteering, and eventually to turn them out to the polls on the
election An election is a formal group decision-making process whereby a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold Public administration, public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative d ...
day. Microtargeting can also be used, sometimes by foreign actors, to spread
disinformation Disinformation is misleading content deliberately spread to deceive people, or to secure economic or political gain and which may cause public harm. Disinformation is an orchestrated adversarial activity in which actors employ strategic dece ...
about political candidates and events among target groups. For example, during the 2016 U.S. election, Russian disinformation campaigns targeted
Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...
followers and now-defunct Cambridge Analytica exploited their data. Concerns about the legality and restriction of microtargeting have been raised in both Europe and the United States.


History

Although some of the tactics of microtargeting had been used in
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since 1992, it really started to be used nationally only in
2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and Its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 60 ...
.Chad Vander Veen, Zeroing In
www.govtech.net, Jan 2, 2006
, accessed November 1, 2006.
In that year, Karl Rove, along with Blaise Hazelwood at the
Republican National Committee The Republican National Committee (RNC) is the primary committee of the Republican Party of the United States. Its members are chosen by the state delegations at the national convention every four years. It is responsible for developing and pr ...
, used it to reach voters in 18 states that George W. Bush's reelection campaign was not able to reach by other means. The results were greater contacts with likely Bush voters. For example, in
Iowa Iowa ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the upper Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west; Wisconsin to the northeast, Ill ...
the campaign was able to reach 92% of eventual Bush voters (compared to 50% in
2000 2000 was designated as the International Year for the Culture of Peace and the World Mathematics, Mathematical Year. Popular culture holds the year 2000 as the first year of the 21st century and the 3rd millennium, because of a tende ...
) and in
Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...
it was able to reach 84% (compared to 50% in 2000). Yochi J. Dreazen, Democrats, Playing Catch-Up, Tap Database to Woo Potential Voters, ''The Wall Street Journal'', October 31, 2006, A1. Much of this pioneering work was done by Alex Gage and his firm, TargetPoint Consulting. Also in 2004, Jeff Ballabon, a senior executive at niche content publisher and Internet giant Primedia, Inc., owner of
About.com Dotdash Meredith (formerly The Mining Company, About.com and Dotdash) is an American digital media company based in New York City. The company publishes online articles and videos about various subjects across categories including health, hom ...
, independently engaged in a form of microtargeting for the Jewish vote. "According to people familiar with the campaign, he advised the White House on how to reach each of the dozens of distinct Orthodox communities-Syrian and Hungarian, Hasidic and Haredi." Ballabon's efforts also succeeded, with ''
The Forward ''The Forward'' (), formerly known as ''The Jewish Daily Forward'', is an American news media organization for a Jewish American audience. Founded in 1897 as a Yiddish-language daily socialist newspaper, ''The New York Times'' reported that Set ...
'' reporting that Ballabon "basically created a new demographic this election cycle...he helped put his fellow Orthodox Jews on the map as a separate Republican Party constituency. He — or rather, President Bush — was rewarded royally when as many as 80% of Orthodox Jews nationally gave their vote to the GOP ticket." Democrats did limited microtargeting in 2004, with some crediting microtargeting for Kerry's win in Iowa in 2004. Some news accounts credited Republican superiority in that area for victories in that election cycle. Democrats later developed microtargeting capabilities for the 2006 election cycle. "It's no secret that the other side epublicansfigured this out a little sooner", said Josh Syrjamaki, director of the Minnesota chapter of America Votes in October 2006. "They've had four to six years' jump on us on this stuff...but we feel like we can start to catch up."Dan Balz, Democrats Aim to Regain Edge In Getting Voters to the Polls, ''Washington Post'', October 8, 2006, accessed November 7, 2006

/ref> In India, firms like EdwardGlobal were first to combine Microtargeting with Geofencing. From 2010 to 2012, the United States Agency for International Development, United States Agency for International Development (USAID) operated the social media network ZunZuneo in
Cuba Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country, comprising the island of Cuba (largest island), Isla de la Juventud, and List of islands of Cuba, 4,195 islands, islets and cays surrounding the main island. It is located where the ...
in a microtargeting effort to identify those in support and opposed to the Cuban government so a "Cuban Spring" could be promoted on the platform. In the
2016 United States presidential election United States presidential election, Presidential elections were held in the United States on November 8, 2016. The Republican Party (United States), Republican ticket of businessman Donald Trump and Indiana Governor, Indiana governor Mike P ...
, Cambridge Analytica played a role in first promoting
Ted Cruz Rafael Edward Cruz (; born December 22, 1970) is an American politician and attorney serving as the junior United States senator from Texas since 2013. A member of the Republican Party, Cruz was the solicitor general of Texas from 2003 ...
and, eventually,
Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who is the 47th president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served as the 45 ...
. However, the claims of Cambridge Analytica's influence, made by its managers, have not been proven, and Cruz's opponent
Ben Carson Ben Solomon Carson Sr. (born September 18, 1951) is an American retired neurosurgery, neurosurgeon, academic, author, and government official who served as the 17th United States secretary of housing and urban development from 2017 to 2021. A pio ...
was ultimately unsuccessful even though he, too, involved Cambridge Analytica in his campaign.


Method

Microtargeting is a form of targeting that uses recent technological developments to gather large amounts of online data. The data from people's digital footprints is analysed to create and convey messages that reflect an individual's preferences and personality, as a means of influencing their behaviour. Research has shown that such digital footprints can be used to accurately and unobtrusively predict psychological traits and states of large groups of people. Microtargeting is a modification of a practice used by commercial direct marketers. It would not be possible on a large scale without the development of large and sophisticated
database In computing, a database is an organized collection of data or a type of data store based on the use of a database management system (DBMS), the software that interacts with end users, applications, and the database itself to capture and a ...
s that contain data about as many voters as possible. The database essentially tracks voter habits in the same ways that companies like Visa track consumer spending habits. The Republican National Committee's database is called Voter Vault. The Democratic National Committee effort is called VoteBuilder. A parallel Democratic effort is being developed by Catalist, a $9 million initiative headed by Harold Ickes, while the leading non-partisan database is offered by
Aristotle Aristotle (; 384–322 BC) was an Ancient Greek philosophy, Ancient Greek philosopher and polymath. His writings cover a broad range of subjects spanning the natural sciences, philosophy, linguistics, economics, politics, psychology, a ...
. The databases contain specific information about a particular voter (party affiliation, frequency of voting, contributions, volunteerism, etc.) with other activities and
habits A habit (or wont, as a humorous and formal term) is a routine of behavior that is repeated regularly and tends to occur subconsciously. A 1903 paper in the ''American Journal of Psychology'' defined a "habit, from the standpoint of psychology, ...
available from commercial data brokers. For instance, the company Cambridge Analytica added the OCEAN">data brokers">...
available from commercial data brokers. For instance, the company Cambridge Analytica added the OCEAN psychological profile (openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism) analysis to other private and public data, and developed the ability to “micro-target” individual consumers or voters with messages most likely to influence their behavior. For example, a voter with high neuroticisim, may be more susceptible to fear-based messages. Such personal information is a "product" sold to interested companies. These data are particularly illuminating when portrayed through a geographic information system (GIS), where trends based on location can be mapped alongside dozens or hundreds of other variables. This geographic depiction also makes it ideal for volunteers to visit potential voters (armed with lists in hand, laid out in the shortest route—much like how
FedEx FedEx Corporation, originally known as Federal Express Corporation, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate holding company specializing in Package delivery, transportation, e-commerce, and ...
and UPS pre-determine delivery routes). These databases are then mined to identify issues important to each voter and whether that voter is more likely to identify with one party or another. As described by Cambridge Analytica’s CEO, their key was to identify people who might be enticed to vote for their client or be discouraged to vote for their opponent. Political information is obviously important here, but consumer preferences can play a role as well. Individual voters are then put into groups on the basis of sophisticated computer modeling. Such groups have names like "Downscale Union Independents", "Tax and Terrorism Moderates," and "Older Suburban Newshounds." Once a multitude of voting groups is established according to these criteria and their minute political differences, then the tailored messages can be sent via the appropriate means. While political parties and candidates once prepared a single television advertisement for general broadcast nationwide, it is now not at all uncommon to have several dozen variations on the one message, each with a unique and tailored message for that small demographic sliver of the voting public. This is the same for radio advertisement, direct mail, email, as well as stump speeches and fundraising events. Radio advertisement, while often reaching a broader audience, can microtarget using specific timeslots, stations and programmes.


See also

* Data broker * Geo-fence * Narrowcasting *
Social media use in politics Social media use in politics refers to the use of online social media platforms in political processes and activities. Political processes and activities include all activities that pertain to the governance of a country or area. This includes Pol ...


References

{{reflist


External links


Romney's Data Cruncher
– ''Washington Post'' (Online) – July 5, 2007.
Karl Rove's Split Personality
– ''Vanity Fair'' (Online) – December, 2006.

– ''Washington Post'' (Online) – August 28, 2005. Political terminology of the United States Political campaign techniques Market segmentation