Zogby International, a leading political pollster, has partnered with mobile search and advertising services firm JumpTap to debut a mobile ad campaign surveying likely voters on the presidential election.

The campaign will also poll likely voters on the key issues ahead of the presidential election that will seat either Republican Senator John McCain or Democratic Senator Barack Obama in the White House. The campaign broke midweek.

"Americans are more engaged in this election than any other in recent history," said Julie Ginches, director of marketing communications at JumpTap, Cambridge, MA.

"This was the ideal mobile ad campaign, a chance to engage an audience on a very relevant and personal topic and further demonstrate that the mobile phone is an ideal medium to reach them and elicit a high level of response," she said.

A mobile banner ad campaign with the surveys is running across key mobile Web sites. Results will be posted on JumpTap and Zogby's traditional Web sites.

The campaign targets mobile subscribers nationwide over the age of 18, both male and female and across all household income levels.

"From a polling perspective we are interested to see if and how, a) users on various publisher sites vote in a distinct way, b) different handset users have a certain political preference, and c) mobile polling patterns compare to traditional polls -- voter preference based on state, age, race, and issues," said Paran Johar, New York-based chief marketing officer of JumpTap.

"The results of the poll are not meant to endorse or support any candidate," he said. "This is purely an effort to demonstrate the value of the mobile audience and what their responses might be."

Polls on pols
Zogby, Utica, NY, designed the polling questions. JumpTap created and planned the actual ads. Both will analyze the results of the polls.

"We want to explore the new tools that people use to communicate, and this helps us reach that goal," said Zogby spokesman Fritz Wenzel. "Zogby International is always trying to communicate with people the way people want to communicate and, increasingly, that means reaching out to people on the move, on their mobile phones," he said.

"That is what people do today, and we want to reach them in a way that is not invasive or that intrudes on their lives. Our goal is to meet people where they live with questions that make a difference in their lives."

Zogby claims to be one of the most accurate pollsters nationwide, especially making the right calls in the last three presidential elections. The company uses telephone and online methods, including an in-house call center in upstate New York.

A company with a global presence, JumpTap claims to reach more than 170 million mobile subscribers through partnerships with 18 wireless carriers and other content publishers. The company recently won $26 million in a new round of funding.

"Mobile has been a very powerful messaging tool in this year's presidential campaign," Mr. Johar said. "We have seen record numbers in text messaging and elaborate mobile sites.

"In an effort to better leverage mobile in this presidential election, we have partnered to conduct a mobile ad campaign-driven election poll," he said. "We both wanted to showcase the power of mobile as a messaging and response platform, and also demonstrate that the mobile audience will engage with relevant content.

"From a mobile advertising perspective and for JumpTap, a key goal of this effort is to increase advertiser awareness of the high level of user engagement and unique audiences that mobile represents.

"We seek to substantiate that relevancy in the mobile marketing channel encourages a high level of user engagement and a willingness to respond to relevant content and messaging."