Tech-Savvy Presidential Candidates: George W. Bush

Medium: Database Marketing

Presidential candidates have long tailored their messages to influential swaths of voters, but before 2004 the dicing was too coarse to reach such specific groups as Midwestern SUV-driving dads or female small business owners. By 2004, Karl Rove and other Bush advisors, armed with software that mined vast databases of voters' age, income, family size, voting history, home value, and buying habits, zeroed in on people likely to be swayed by their ads. “Microtargeting” of groups like African-Americans in Ohio and Hispanics in New Mexico helped tilt the election in Bush's favor.