We are one week from Election Day 2016 and the race to the Affiliate Marketing White House could not be any closer. If you missed the introduction to this three-week blog series leading up to Election Day, check out the Affiliate Marketers for President article from last Tuesday.
In the four weeks leading up to the Presidential Election, we are keeping a close eye on revenue resulting from Affiliate Marketing promotion in each state. The electoral map below represents online revenue attributed to LinkConnector merchants and affiliates between 10/10/16 and 10/30/16—a three-week timeframe. Total revenue numbers determine a winner in each state, and the state’s electoral votes are awarded to the appropriate party.
As you can see above, the Affiliate Party gained significant ground this past week and is in the lead (260-200 over the Merchant Party) with one week to go before the Election. However, neither party is projected to have the 270 electoral votes needed for a victory yet. So, the winner of this race will ultimately be decided by the revenue this week in a few battleground states that are still too close to call. Most influential of the remaining battleground states are North Carolina (15) and Virginia (13). Let’s take a closer look at some of the activity that could give either party the advantage in the final week:
- REEDS Jewelers and Global Golf could contribute in the final week as we near closer to the holiday shopping season—but are we close enough to the season of giving for these two merchants to come out ahead of affiliates in NC?
- ID.me and imwave are two strong Virginia-based affiliates that could help the affiliate party to take the lead in the final week.
- Will Minnesota be able to maintain its lead into November with one of its largest contributors (HalloweenCostumes.com) now past its peak holiday? Election costumes, Thanksgiving costumes and Cosplay sales might help keep this state in the race.
- Affiliates have the lead in California (55), but JustFab.com could make this a tighter race in the final week with fall season shopping in full swing.
- Affiliates have gained a slight lead in Illinois, New Jersey and Missouri—all of which were too close to call during the first two weeks. We are interested to see if merchants will pull ahead in Illinois in the final week. SunFrog Shirts and U.S. Auto Parts are two merchants to watch in this state.
Stay tuned for the final results—we’ll see you at the polls on Election Day!