Memorandum

To: Smith Campaign

From: Veronica Penate, Campaign Consultant
Date: April 17, 2016
Re: Campaign Recommendations
I meticulously examined the 2012 presidential elections and have made some observations that
have stood out as far as what made Barack Obama so successful and the way that he ended up
being elected for his second presidential term. Within the years some situations change, therefore
this campaign doesnt have to be a replica of Obamas but it is something we must learn from.
The best strategy to use is to take what worked for Obama and evolve it to current issues and
situations. In the following paragraphs I will be going in depth of what is advised that you do and
do not do in your presidential campaign.
To begin with, the significance of social media and the digital world is something that must not
be overlooked. The investment in a social media campaign can be very beneficial in the 2016
elections. We live in a world where technology is something that the typical American is highly
exposed to. Nearly half of the U.S. population has a Facebook amongst other social media
outlets. Social media is a great way to interact with the U.S. population and a great place to
campaign. While examining the 2012 elections I came across the article "Obama Spent 10 Times
as Much on Social Media as Romney and a big difference between the two respectable
candidates was evident in this article. Barack Obama spent 47 million in digital spending while
Mitt Romney only spent 4.7 million. This is a drastic difference because by investing so much in
digital spending Obama was able to capitalize on social media users who agreed with his rhetoric
because of the fact that so many of them reposted articles, videos, and other things onto their
own pages. By doing so Obamas advertisements reached their friends, and then most likely some
of the friends reposted and exposed a different group of friends to the advertisements, and so on.
While analyzing the same topic, the article "Social Engagement: What Happens When You 'Like'
Barack or Mitt" explained in depth how a person sharing a post and exposing their friends to it
might influence their friends thoughts on a political candidate. According to the statistics in this
article 45% of younger generation, people who ware between 18 and 39 years admitted to being
influenced or being steered towards a candidate because their friends posted something about
them on social medial. With this being said, the digital world is something that is continuously
expanding. It is definitely something that is more applicable now than it was in 2012. Therefore
digital spending needs to be an area of focus in order to appeal to the people of the United States.
The money invested in social media advertising and digital spending is something that is going
to provide you with extra advertising due to the fact that many United States citizens will repost
the content and share it with their friends.
Furthermore, I am now moving on to my observations of what makes a successful political
campaign commercial. It is important to maintain a positive and hopeful image in political
campaign commercials for U.S. voters to see and represent you with. A way to do this is to
highlight the things you will do to make things better while still addressing the issues. After
closely examining political commercials from both Barack Obama, and Mitt Romney an
enormous difference between the two was that Mitt Romney intended to inflict fear of Obama

being president while Obama intended to portray the hope and the positive things he would do if
he became president. While examining Obamas The Choice and It Begins With Us political
campaign commercials it became evident that even though Barack Obama did mention his
opinion about Mitt Romneys plan and why it wont work, he spent most of his time discussing
his own plan and why it is the best one for the people of the United States. This is very important
because even though Mitt Romneys rhetoric was for the American people to fear voting for
Obama, he failed to highlight what he would do differently enough. In his political campaign
commercials Not I Cant and Too Many Americans, Mitt Romney spent more time telling
people why they shouldnt vote for Barack Obama than telling them why they should vote for
him and trust in him.
Seeing the outcomes of the 2012 elections and Barack Obamas success it is evident that the
people are more interested in how their next president is planning to make things better than the
presidential electors highlighting greatly on each others flaws. This doesnt mean that you must
dismiss addressing what you disagree with about the other presidential candidates, it just means
that you must keep in mind to overall highlight what you will be doing differently and why it
will work while maintaining a positive image that United States voters correlate with hope. Its
important that you focus on your campaign and your ideas for the United States more than you
focus on the other candidates ideas and why they wont work. Create a balance in which you are
aware of the other candidates while making your own plans the priority because that is the only
way that you will be able to truly make a connection with the American people.
TheimageyouportrayofyourselftoAmericanvotersiscruciallyimportant.Thereforeitisalso
criticallyimportanttoknowwhotheUnitedStatesvotersare.Tobeginwitheducationand
incomelevelhasbeencorrelatedwiththeAmericanvoters.Particularly,highereducatedcitizens
tendtovotemorethancitizenswithlowereducations.Educationcorrelateswithincome,inmost
cases,themoreeducatedyouarethehigheryourincomeis,thereforecitizenswithhigher
incomesvotemarethanthosewithlowerincomes.
Furthermoreotherfactorssuchasage,ethnicityandrace,andgenderalsohavebeencorrelated
withtheAmericanvoters.TypicallythepercentageofWhiteNonHispanicvotersislargerthan
Hispanic,andAfricanAmericanvoters,thisdoesntmeanthatyoumustonlyfocusonWhite
NonHispanicspeoplesissues,specifically because the trends are continuously changing as the
percentage of higher educated Hispanic people and African American people rises. As far as age
goes, the number of older voters is also greater than the younger population, although the
research from the importance of a digital campaign does portray that the younger number of
voters can grow significantly. Finally, gender is also a factor that helps us predict who will be
voting, the greater population of voters has statistically proven to be men, this might have to do
with the fact that women earned the right to vote later on in history and many still dont practice
their right today.
By knowing who your United States voters are the next step is to analyze swing states with the
knowledge of who the American voters are we are able to analyze these swing states in more
depth and are able to see what issues must be highlighted at each state. To give you an example
of how to analyze swing states I went ahead and analyzed Nevada and Ohio for you. Because of
their difference in population we would expect to see differences within the two, but surprisingly

these differences are minimal. According to the U.S. Bureau Census the median household
income in Nevada is $52,205 and in Ohio it is $48,849 when it comes to economic issues it is
also important to know that 15.6% of Nevada residents are below poverty lever and closely
15.9% of Ohio residents fall below poverty level. Looking at the economic similarities it is likely
the economic issues in both states are similar.
Correlating with the similarities in income within the two swing states education is another
similarity within them. According to the U.S. Bureau Census in Nevada 84.9% of residents have
a secondary education or higher and 22.5% residents have a postsecondary education or higher.
Similarly according to the U.S. Bureau Census in Ohio 88.8% of residents have a secondary
education or higher and 25.6% of residents have a postsecondary education or higher. This
information shows us that there is a direct connection between income and education while
highlighting the trend that higher educated and people with better incomes tend to vote more
than others. Additional information gathered about these two swing states is the ethnicity/race of
their residents. The majority in both states is White alone, Nevada I 76.2% White alone and Ohio
is 83.0% White alone, whereas minorities including African American and Hispanic or Latino in
Nevada and Ohio are the remaining.
Finally, while evaluating the voter population in Nevada and Ohio I was able to get a specific
number of voters from the U.S. Bureau Census. In total, during the 2012 presidential elections
there were 1,056,516 female voters in Nevada and 4,404,469 female voters in Ohio. There are
also 1,053,737 male voters in Nevada and 4,404,469 female voters in Ohio. Although this
doesnt correlate with the previous statement made that male voters tend to vote more than
women do it does give us a great insight on why these states are swing states. According to the
U.S. census these two states are close to 50/50 when it comes to the difference in gender with the
population this means that womens rights are something that must be highlighted in the states to
be relevant to the majority of voting citizens.
It is important that you know that statistically 52% women vote democrat and 40% vote
republican, and when it comes to men 43% vote republican and 48% vote democrat. Knowing
what party specific groups of people vote for is essential to your campaign because you are able
to see clearly to what states you will be appealing to and which ones you will need to campaign
harder in. Swing states are especially important because it is hard to predict what party they will
be voting for. Therefore it is important to study the population like Nevada and Ohio were
previously studied to know what you have to do in order to gain their citizens votes.
I hope you find these recommendations and information of great use to your political campaign. I
am confident that if you lead your campaign with these steps and knowledge you will succeed
and you will connect with American voters. Remember the importance of the people because
they are the ones who will make you president and get you into the white house.
cc: Professor Hamman