Latino voters will be crucial in 2012 political campaigns and Presidential hopefuls are taking special steps to win this group’s support. But, how will candidates know how to reach the Latino audience and measure the effectiveness of their efforts? Luminar, according to its press release, defines itself as “the first “big data” analytics and modeling provider focused specifically on U.S. Latino consumers.” The company provides insights that help political campaigns “develop winning strategies” by shedding light on how to effectively micro-target Latino voters. Luminar suggests that an enhanced understanding of Latino consumer habits, offers political strategists key insights to target relevant messages to Latino voters.

Luminar develops insights of Latinos’ behavior by analyzing voter files, consumer habits, media digital interactions, and transactional data. Luminar’s recent analysis of the Latino population of Denver, Coloroado, where approximately 14 percent of approximately 400,000 registered voters are of Latino descent, reveals voting patterns and purchasing insights useful to political campaigns. More specifically, Luminar found with regard to voting tendencies:

– Spanish continues to be the language of choice for the majority of Latino voters in Denver – with 44 percent of Republicans, 44 percent of Democrats and 39 percent of Independents preferring Spanish-language communications.
– Latinas in Denver represent 53% of total registered Latino voters, compared to 47% of their Latino male counterparts. However, about 62 percent of these women consider Spanish their primary language and their voting age tends to be younger than the men.
– A strong majority of Denver’s Latino voters (56 percent) are Democrats; 32 percent are registered as Independents, and approximately 10 percent register as Republican.
– 31 percent of “super voters” (those who vote in every election) are Democrats, 23 percent of Republicans and only 5 percent are Independents.

And, concerning purchasing insights:

– “Super voters” spend the most on children’s products, videos/DVDs, and music, while the “low-propensity voters” concentrate on gardening, electronics, and sports/leisure. The “mid-propensity voters” are spending a whopping 43 percent of their purchases on computing products, with travel, health, and apparel trailing behind.
– Democrats lead a majority of spending among Latino voters in Denver. In fact, Democrats are responsible for 76 percent of all purchases in the videos/DVDs category and 72 percent of all children’s products. Independents make 30 percent of all purchases in travel, and 29 percent of purchases in the electronics, sports and leisure, and auto parts categories. Republicans spend less, accounting for only 22 percent of purchases in the grocery category and 17 percent in travel.

Given the promise of Luminar’s technology, we may see not only political strategists harnessing the analytics, but also more big data modeling providers specializing in information on specific populations. Oscar Padilla, Luminar vice president of strategy shares the importance of analytics to political success: “Whether a campaign wins or loses hinges on correctly using the right analytics and data.” Franklin Rios, president of Luminar reiterates: “Political campaign managers are aware that if they want to win the election, they need to have the Latino vote. Luminar offers cutting-edge solutions that break down generalizations and provide campaigns with a detailed profile of this population, down to even an individual level.”