Digital Advertising and the 2012 Presidential Campaign

We all remember 2008 when President Barrack Obama’s campaign used social media so effectively in the pursuit of victory. His team was able to target, engage, and connect with the voting public in a way that nobody had seen before . Fast forward to 2012, the Internet is a much smarter machine with more effective uses, like digital advertising. 

BroadbandBreakfast.com recently wrote an in depth article outlining several topics on how the different parties are using digital media in their campaigns, along with how they may continue to leverage these tools in the future. BroadbandBreakfast.com had a panel discussion on the subject with professionals at RealClearPolitics.com, ClickZ, Targeted Victory, Google, and Facebook. 

The panelists started with a common understanding that online political persuasion ads are becoming a key part in campaign strategy, especially in the first election cycle. Where you see lots of TV ads now, these platforms will sell out fast and more campaigns will move their investments online. Rob Saliterman, a Senior Account Executive for Elections and Issue Advocacy at Google explained that campaigns will begin to realize the return on investment in digital advertising.

We wanted to highlight a couple sections that caught our eyes:

The Elephant and Donkey

Romney’s campaign looks like they’re starting in the right path with high interaction taking place on his Twitter and Facebook presence. Although Romney’s efforts in digital media look more promising than McCain’s four years ago, Obama has had a head start and will continue with the momentum. Saliterman said that he wasn’t surprised by Romney’s efforts in digital media. His business background and data driven decisions allow him to understand the value in online advertising. Engagement is key for both Romney and Obama when it comes to social media, while also addressing those who are not online.

Heavyweight Media and Mobile

Political campaigns can run flashy video and other forms of advertisements to get mass media outlets to feature stories or show videos on television newscasts. Also, viral videos on the web can get a lot of media outlets to talk about the same story for days. Web tools like social media can propel these videos into viral state. The amount being spent on mobile is perhaps the least, but the numbers are said to pick up leading to election day. The effectiveness of mobile advertising can be measured by paying attention to conversion rates. Some click-throughs on mobile Facebook ads have reached upwards of 15% which is extremely valuable for the campaigns.