Mexico's Presidential Election Drives Millions to Political Websites in June comScore
go to original August 15, 2012

comScore, a leader in measuring the digital world, today released a study of visitation to political sites in Mexico leading up to the country's July 1 presidential election. The report found that more than 3 million people visited Political sites in June, representing 1 in every 7 online users in the country. President-elect Enrique Pena Nieto's site reached 533,000 visitors, leading as the top website among candidates.

"In June, we saw a growing number of voters turn to the Internet for candidate information before heading to the polls,  proving once again the rising importance of the online channel in the daily lives of Mexicans," said Ivan Marchant, comScore country manager for Mexico. "Although TV has always been the most prominent medium for political advertising, politicians are realizing that digital needs to be an  important part of their overall campaign strategy — especially with key audiences and constituencies spending more time with digital content than ever before."

1 in 7 Mexicans Visited Political Sites in June

In June 2012, 3.2 million Mexicans age 15 and older accessed Politics sites from a home or work computer, an increase of 10 percent from the previous month, as voters prepared to go to the polls on July 1 to elect a new president. Political news sites led as the top destinations with AnimalPolitico.com reaching 820,000 visitors, up 10 percent from May, followed by ADNPolitico.com with 628,000 visitors (up 25 percent).

President-elect Enrique Pena Nieto's official site, Enriquepenanieto.com, reached 533,000 unique visitors, up 40 percent from May, while runner up Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's official site, AMLO.org.mx, reached 112,000 visitors, up 21 percent from the previous month.

Voters were more likely to access candidate sites directly compared to the associated political party sites. Among major political party destinations, PartidoVerde.org.mx led with 107,000 visitors in June, followed by PRI.org.mx (68,000 visitors), PAN.org.mx (55,000 visitors) and PRD.org.mx (52,000 visitors).

3 of Every 5 Visitors to Politics Sites are Male

A demographic analysis of visitors to the Politics category revealed a strong skew in visitation and engagement for males and older audiences. In June, males comprised 58.3 percent of visitors to the Politics category, with males being 15 percent more likely to visit political sites than an average Internet user (index of 115). Similarly, males comprised 57.8 percent of all content pages consumed on political sites (index of 104).

Given Mexico's young Internet audience, people age 15 to 24 comprised the largest share of visitors to the Politics category at 35.1 percent, but this audience was less likely to visit political sites than an average Internet user (index of 93) and significantly less likely to consume content with a page view index of just 45. Older individuals showed both strong visitation to, and engagement with, political sites relative to their younger counterparts. People age 45 to 54 were 12 percent more likely to visit political sites and more than twice as likely to consume political content as an average Internet user (index of 217). People age 55 and older were 39 percent more likely to visit political destinations and similarly were twice as likely to consume content on these sites.

These findings, among others, are featured in the 2012 Mexico Digital Future in Focus. The report examines how the prevailing trends in social media, online video, digital advertising, mobile and search are defining the current marketplace and what these trends mean for marketers in the future . To download a copy of the report, click here.

About comScore: comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR) is a global leader in measuring the digital world and preferred source of digital business analytics. For more information, please visit www.comscore.com

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