Monday, September 15, 2008

Cafepress capitalizes on election craze

A passionate voter puts their money where their vote is, and Cafepress.com is the perfect example.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the site, Cafepress sells t-shirts,hats and merchandise that is designed by registered users. Some of the most popular apparrel is politically-based, and the sales surge Cafepess enjoys each election season inspired the Cafepress Meter, which tracks sales according to each candidate.

In reflection of the Republican party's recent resurgence, the demand for McCain and Palin products surged 20% in one week, while Obama's numbers, have fallen 20%. These number's directly reflect the latest trends in the national polls, which have the two candidates neck-and-neck.

Cafepress' stats that if you look beyond traditional methods of tracking, you might find more precise data. One quote from a New York Times' article illustrates my point:

 In 2004, you could really tell Bush was running against himself because most of the political designs were either pro- or anti-Bush, rather than focusing on the Democratic contender John Kerry. And today, 71 percent of Obamacentric designs are positive (as opposed to 29 percent negative), a number that dips to 64 percent for McCain - a kind of do-it-yourself favorability rating from the creative underclass.

Data such as Cafepress's can serve as valuable insight for political aides and advisers, who are trying to gauge public opinion and tweak the image of their respective candidate. John Kerry's campaign clearly lacked the identity and charisma that Barack Obama has boasted throughout the year. Initially, John McCain's campaign suffered from the same lack of energy, but as the recent data illustrates, the addition of Sarah Palin to his ticket has produced a significant buzz.

By Matt O'Hern at 03:14 PM | Comments (0)

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