VS. Who REALLY Owns the Web?

Transcription

1 VS. Who REALLY Owns the Web? A closer look at the online battle for The White House

2 1. Overview The battle between John and Barack is a war of words. What makes this election different is how far and fast those words can go. The Internet accelerates the reach of the candidates messages through online news media, and blogging amplifies the voices of both sides supporters. Attributor is tracking how and s messages move across the Internet and, for the first time, has measured the size of the online audience reading these messages. This is the first of a series of regular insights Attributor will be sharing between now and November 4 th. What we did: Key Findings: Used the Attributor platform to capture each candidate s key issues and speeches as stated on their official web sites: and Tracked the distribution of each candidate s words across 25 Billion+ pages, including blogs and social networks, looking for unique web pages containing matches of their speeches and official position statements. Analyzed and categorized the individual sites and pages containing the candidates messages. Using our Audience Finder Technology, estimated the reach of each candidate s messages across the Internet. is holding his own online. The overall audience viewing each candidate s message was virtually the same with each totaling over 65 Million page views. s campaign messages are more likely to be picked up from his position statements (64%) than his speeches (36%) s messages are picked up more often through his speeches (71%) than his issue statements (29%). Despite allegations of media favoritism, s words are featured 112% more often on news sites than s. In July there were over 2 Million views of s messages on news sites. is dominating the blogosphere with over 12 Million views of his messages occurring on blogs in July. Twice as many bloggers repeat his messages than those of. owns a similar advantage on social networking sites like Face book and MySpace. 2

3 2. Most Popular Issues and Speeches Figure 2a: s Hottest Content Most Popular Issues as of 7/31/8 Most Popular Speeches as of 7/31/8 Iraq Economy Family Technology Energy A More Perfect Union Berlin: A World that Stands as One Final Primary Night The America We Love AIPAC Policy Conference 1.1 Energy made its way into the Top 5 issues this week, beating out Health Care. s most popular issues this week (7/24 7/31) were Economy (same as last week), Iraq, and Energy. s A More Perfect Union speech finished the week as his most popular speech (up from last week) and his speech in Berlin shot to the Top 5 only a few days after it was delivered. It was by the far the most popular speech this week. Figure 2b: s Hottest Content Most Popular Issues 7/31/8 Most Popular Speeches 7/31/8 Economy Lexington Project (Energy) Sanctity of Life Protecting 2 nd Amendment Rights Health Care Reform Energy Security Energy Security and National Security La Raza Convention Lexington Project A Leader We Can Believe In 2.1 The Lexington Project continued to rise as one of s top issues, taking over the number two spot as Sanctity of Life fell. s top issues during the week very similar to were Economy (same as last week) and Energy. s Lexington Project speech rose this week from fifth to fourth in his top speeches. 3

4 3. True or False? Attributor Investigates Election 28 s Conventional Wisdom Conventional Wisdom: The news media is in love with Barack and gives his messages a disproportionate amount of coverage. Attributor Says: False Number of Matches News Site Matches 7/17 7/24 7/31 Perhaps this is true when it comes to television or print. But when it comes to coverage of each candidate s position statements and speeches, is trouncing, and his lead is growing. He s out matching almost 4 to 1 on the major networks websites (Fox, NBC, CBS, ABC, and CNN). When local and national newspaper and magazine websites are factored in, still outdoes almost 3 to 1. 4

5 Conventional Wisdom: s youthful support translates into higher support across social networks. Attributor Says: True Social Network Matches 2 Across Facebook and MySpace, outmatches by more than 2 to 1. However, s lead on the social networks is diminishing. In the last week, the gap narrowed by 8%. Number of Matches /17 7/24 7/31 Conventional Wisdom: s grassroots efforts have resulted in a substantial lead across the blogosphere. Attributor Says: True 25 Blog Site Matches Unique Blog Sites has an 86% edge in people incorporating his messages into their blog posts. Last week, s Berlin speech fueled a 1% jump in commentary across the Blogosphere. 5

6 Conventional Wisdom: s message is best delivered through speeches, while s strength is with his position on issues. Attributor Says: True 's Message Makeup 's Message Makeup Issues 29% Speeches 71% Issues 64% Speeches 36% s speeches are being picked up on the Web much more than his position statements. The opposite is true for. 6

7 Conventional Wisdom: By virtue of his appeal to a younger demographic, is reaching a larger audience online. Attributor Says: False it s virtually a dead heat Our Audience Finder technology shows that s advantage across the blogosphere and social media gives him a slight advantage over overall in July. is staying close via his advantage in traditional news sites. Whose Messages Were Viewed Most Across the Web? 7,, Est. Monthly Page Views 65,, 6,, 55,, 5,, Est Monthly Blog Page Views Whose Messages Were Viewed Most Across Blogs? 14,, 12,, 1,, 8,, 6,, 4,, 2,, 7

8 Est. Monthly Page Views on News Sites Whose Messages Were Viewed Most Across News Sites? 25,, 2,, 15,, 1,, 5,, About Attributor Attributor is a privately held technology company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Its content tracking and programming platform enables publishers to build value with their content wherever it appears on the Internet. With Attributor, publishers can now program when, how and where their content is presented across the Web and social networks. Advanced fingerprinting algorithms, a large scale crawling infrastructure and detailed contextual analysis provide publishers with Web wide visibility of their articles, images or videos. Customers like the Associated Press, Reuters and CondéNet, can identify new sales leads and revenue sharing opportunities, monitor licensed uses and derive more links and better search engine placement. More information can be found online at About Audience Finder Audience Finder is a proprietary tool that enables publishers of all types to quantify the reach of their content across the Web and social networks. Audience Finder leverages the Attributor platform which tracks text, images and video content across billions of web pages and hundreds of advertising networks to estimate and capture publishers webwide advertising revenue opportunities. To learn how Audience Finder can improve your content monetization, please contact an Attributor sales representative at Media Contact Rich Pearson Attributor rich(at)attributor(dot)com 8