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An interactive map on iSideWith.com, showing how one user's beliefs match with other users by state
iSideWith has helped nearly 13 million voters discover the candidates best aligned to their political beliefs. Launched in early 2012, the online political quiz offers a place for voters to get quick and comprehensive information on their local, statewide and national political candidates. And with quiz takers answering 35 out of 42 questions on average, co-founder Taylor Peck knows he’s built something that is highly engaging and primed for something bigger. Fittingly, the startup is moving into the next stage, launching features to expand the conversation.
iSideWith is launching a new ‘Candidate Log In’ feature, that will open up a new channel for candidates to communicate with voters and to find voter opinion data.
“By analyzing iSideWith voter data, candidates can track their constituent’s beliefs, gain insight into local voting trends, and drive support directly from voters in their district,” said Peck. “If candidates are transparent with their political beliefs, we can help them target geographical areas where their message resonates and create a massive amplifier for them.”
By transparent, Peck means, candidates will have to take the iSideWith political quiz themselves. In exchange for giving candidates a channel to communicate with voters, iSideWith will be nailing down politicians on the issues.
“You’d be surprised how many politicians don’t take a position on major issues,” said Peck. “They are going to avoid positions at all cost.”
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However, by taking the quiz candidates can expect to find places to connect with voters. “In areas where their message doesn’t resonate we can give them real data on how they can connect with these voters and amplify issues that they agree with them on,” said Peck.
“It’s a very, very targeted advertising platform that we have,” said Peck. “We want to have a tool for candidates to go in and create their own ads, then runs ads to voters in their own district.”
iSideWith tracks users by IP address, then compares their location to census data that is used to infer demographics. For a candidate hoping to persuade a small subset of voters this data can’t be found anywhere else.
“On our results page you can zoom in on how people are answering our questions by race, income level and various other demographic categories,” said Peck. “We can allow a candidate or a political party to go in and they can say I just want to run an advertisement to voters in Orange County that disagree with a specific water bond question.”
The kind of tight targeting could allow politicians to make more specific arguments about the issues, instead of wide-appeal populist appeals.
iSideWith expects there are a lot of people who would pay for engagement with its audience. In 2014, spending on elections is estimated to be $3.67 billion. Those billions, however, aren’t spent well. In recent years, several studies have shown political advertising often doesn’t reach its intended audience. One study, which Peck cites, claims only 22 cents of ever dollar spent on political advertising reaches its intended audience. In contrast, iSideWith already has a highly politically engaged audience of prospective voters, 13 million of them, ready to go.
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