The Swingfluentials

Slide 1: The Swingfluentials Case Study: How FAS.research helped The Green Party win swing voters through Swingfluentials. 1 of 9 Neal Gorenflo, Vice President, FAS.research, neal.gorenflo@fas-research.com,415.867.0429

Slide 2: The Challenge  The Green Party of Vienna, Austria needed new a messaging & mobilization strategy to break out of their relatively small base of partisans (~10% of voters) into the mainstream  Bring those disenfranchised by divisive politics back into the political process & raise the level of political discourse by introducing challenging progressive ideas to the mainstream in a way that they’d be considered & discussed by moderates  The Green Party hired FAS as their lead research, message & strategy firm 2 of 9

Slide 3: Two Types of Poli-fluentials, Only One Can Influence Swing Voters* Typical Poli-fluential Swingfluential  Hub of large network  Large network, bridges groups  Little disagreement on issues  High disagreement between within group groups on issues  Partisan, reinforces messages  Moderate, translates messages  Innovators, not mainstream  Early majority, bridges into  Example: political blogger mainstream 3 of 9 * Based on empirical data from 2007 Poli-fluentials Survey conducted together with IPDI

Slide 4: What is a Swingfluential?  Moderate or agnostic  With a large political discussion network  People within their network do not agree on political issues  5% or less of voters, far fewer Swingfluentials than typical Poli-fluentials  The most important segment to influence the 40% of voters who are moderates 4 of 9

Slide 5: Find Swingfluentials to Cross the Chasm into the Mainstream Adoption Curve Mainstream 5 of 9

Slide 6: How We Found Swingfluentials  Surveyed 2,000 people in Vienna, asked about personal network size & level of agreement in their political discussion network  Matched 2,000 to voter records & commercial data to create profile of influential swing voters  Ran profile on entire electorate generating a master list of ALL swing voters & influential swing voters in Vienna  Added GIS data to show the concentration of Swingfluentials & swing voters block-by-block 6 of 9

Slide 7: How We Messaged Swingfluentials Once we found the bridges across the chasm we created viral bridging messages that could make it across. Crime + Ac c e s s to = Ze ro to le ranc e fo r the pre ve ntio n o ppo rtunity c aus e s o f c rime The above framed a progressive idea about crime prevention through expanded opportunity in terms a Swingfluential could share with conservative friends. FAS invented an assembly line approach to creating viral bridging messages on an issue-by-issue basis. 7 of 9

Slide 8: Results  Attracted 10% more voters than in the previous election, more in absolute terms that all other parties  Netted three new seats (one Federal Councilor and two City Councilors)  Won 26% of first-time voters, nearly double the party’s overall share of voters  References from Green Party leaders available upon request 8 of 9

Slide 9: Notes on Swingfluentials  The concept of the Swingfluentials was tested in the field in the Green Party’s 2005 Viennese Parliamentary campaign  The existence of Swingfluentials was verified through IPDI’s Poli-fluential study released in 2007, though we referred to this unique group as “bridging hubs” in the report. FAS collaborated with IPDI in the survey design and report writing to uncover and document this group. See chapter 5 in IPDI’s “Poli-fluentials, The New Political Kingmakers,” for more information on Swingfluentials. The report is available for free in PDF form at IPDI.org  The method of finding and messaging Swingfluentials outlined in this presentation is very high level - there is not enough detail to properly operationalize the strategy. 9 of 9