Why Earned Media Makes a Difference
By Charlotte Cheek
Did you know you can tell who the front-runners are in the 2016 Presidential race without looking at the voting results? All you have to do is see who is being talked about the most on the TV! There is an extremely high correlation between TV mentions of a candidate and their standing in the race. Coming in on top with nearly 350k mentions January 2015 to March 2016 is none other than Donald Trump. Hillary Clinton comes in second with 200k. The ranking goes on to Jeb Bush, Bernie Sanders, Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, Ben Carson, Chris Christie, John Kasich, and onwards. Besides Jeb Bush coming in third place with about 100k mentions, the poll results and attention given by the media line up closely.
Number of TV Mentions per Candidates (Thousands)
Regardless of your political stance, the 2016 Presidential Race has been one for the books. Politicians and their teams are pros when it comes to using the media to further their campaign. Trump, arguably the most controversial candidate, has been given an unprecedented amount of time on the television compared with other candidates. I would argue the amount of time he has spent on the television either in interviews or mentions of a recent stunt has paid off (whether you like it or not) for his campaign. For the Republicans, Trump takes up 46% of the republican media mentions. As of right now, Trump has been awarded 673 delegates making up about 55% of the 1,227 split between the three remaining candidates. Cruz holds 411. Clinton has been awarded 1,606 delegates with Bernie Sanders trailing behind with 851.
So, for every mention does a candidate gain a delegate? There seems to be a correlation! The numbers do not lie. Whether you support Trump or not, he is winning the primaries and he is being mentioned the most. Same goes for Clinton, although, Sanders is making waves in the media and polls as well. What is the take away for the rest of the non-presidential candidate population? TV helps! The more television coverage, the better. Business owners and organizations can gain a lot from getting their names mentioned in their local news.
Source: 2016 Campaign Television Tracker