Bernie Sanders stunned a lot of people when he defeated Hillary Clinton in the Michigan Democratic primary on March 8. Most polls had him losing by over 20 points. So how did Sanders defy expectations? Theories abound, but AOL and the mobile messaging company Revolution Messaging would like to take a bit of credit. With the help of Revolution Messaging, AOL ran mobile ads from March 3 all the way to the day of the primary. The ads targeted younger potential voters – a bloc that indeed comprised a larger segment of the electorate than expected. While there are likely multiple explanations for that, there’s no denying that advertising is a vital tool in reaching voters. And we’re in a mobile world now. “We literally are carrying these screens around all day long,” said Ariel Deitz, AOL’s Mobile Sales Director, in a conversation with Cynopsis Digital. “There’s no other other platform where you can potentially reach your voter that many times a day – and where you can highly engage with them in a real estate that’s not competitive, where they’re not being served multiple ads on a screen at the same time.” Next major primaries are on March 15; buckle up.