A Framework for Applying Analytics in Healthcare: What Can Be Learned from the Best Practices in Retail, Banking, Politics, and Sports

4. Politics (Presidential Election Campaigns)

After Eisenhower, you couldn’t win an election without radio. After Kennedy, you couldn’t win an election without TV. Obama showed us the same thing for social media. But in 2012, it’s the data that will make the difference.

—Strata Conference, Get the (Data) Vote Out, June 20, 2012

Introduction

Political campaigns have a very concise performance metric: Win the election at all costs. And the costs were high in 2012 for the presidential campaign. It is estimated that more than $2 billion was spent by the campaigns directly,¹ with hundreds of millions more spent by super PACs and other committees.² Much of the effort was targeted on the million or so swing voters from eight “tossup” states at a cost ...