[Polls Geo Marketing in Hispanic America: key to voters in their

place when campaigning]

Javier Carranza Tresoldi javiercarranza@consultant.com

ICT Consultant

Nowadays, electoral campaigns are decided with science. According to the president of
the Spanish Association of Political Consultants, Francisco Roldan, in order to win an
election you need seasoned and sharp experts. This means work, time and money and
the need to support action on three great aids: investigation, communication and
mobilization. In Hispanic America, much is spoken and known about communication
and mobilization, although little is said about investigation.

Nonetheless, many ICT (information and communication technologies) and social

networks developments are being deployed in many countries of the region in order to
investigate and to analyze the needs of their citizens in certain critical territories where
political action is needed. These tools are playing a decisive roll in social outreach mega
operations, ranging from the refered support to electoral campaigns to the execution of
social policies and programs.

In Spain, for example, information selected by municipalities on the electoral registries

are graphed and maped with detail to identify the exact location of votes in doubt, soft
votes or abstentions in local polls. In Argentina, some sort of electoral ciberactivism is
being developed. Many parties and grassroot organizations take advantage of social
networks and blogs to promote the civil empowerment; spreading, instructing and
enlisting those citizens interested in participation. In Brazil, authorities of the recent
census have created a platform where territorial delegates document and organize -
using the World Wide Web - lessons and problems found in the places they worked in.
Although it may seem just a coincidence, these initiatives are the produce of the
application of disciplines related to social science investigation, i.e. social marketing.

Social Marketing is a tool that consists, inter alia, on the application of commercial
marketing techniques to visualize and to analyze the behavior and opinions of the
targeted group, the citizens, in sequence to improve their well-being. Focusing in the
polls, the so called social marketing reveals in an objective manner the conduct,
opinions and needs of the citizens, providing vital information for the decision making
process, supporting in a better way the electoral supply.

When added the territorial dimension, the tool of the so called Polls Geo Marketing
assists specifically to recognize critical territories. It also allows being aquainted with
the quality of life of the participant base communities in the elections. The present
paradigm of information and communication demands to the modern candidates a sound
knowledge of its electoral territories and it supposes a distinct dominion of the
technologies of geo information applied to the observation of its voters.

Introducing the use and practice of geo information technologies in electoral campaigns
allows the candidates of the parties to know in a scientific fashion the territory and the
needs of voters so that participation and adhesion is assured. On the basis of the
international experience and recommendations of experts, the usual strategy consists of
diagnosing the situation on a territorial scale. Departing from a macro territorial level, a
ranking of the more conflicting and needed territories is done, soon the research method
goes to an intermediate level or meso territorial, to analyze the quality of life in lieu to
finally zoom with a magnifying glass the micro level, through geo refered surveys and
participative inquiry on the reclamations of the inhabitants.

These Geo ICT tools allow politicians to harness the electoral actions in each territory,
also helping to focus the electoral campaign, optimizing the application of the D´Hont
Law and assuring the effectivenss of the electoral strategy. The strategy as a whole
allows to implement and to consolidate a true territorial intelligence. Thus, through the
efficient use of applied Geo ICTs tools and social networks the polls process is
positively aided to ensure the success of the candidate using legitimate mechanisms of
proven effectiveness.