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Political Season is a gift from the advertising heavens every two years in the USA. This year will bring more than the traditional bevy of radio and TV ad dollars with it though. Many forecasters are also predicting record high spending in online advertising by political candidates.
In particular, the new media ad revenue is expected to come in the way of geo-targeted ads, Google adwords, Facebook ads/social media marketing, and ads on local media websites.
E-mail marketing in particular has struck a cord with campaigns that depend on street teams and guerilla marketing.
Joe Rospars, President Barack Obama’s new-media director during the 2008 presidential election, told Ad Age, “Pound for pound, [e-mail is the] most powerful tool in the box. E-mail continues to be the core way in which money is raised and volunteers are driven to go to events.”
Obama was the first winning Presidential candidate to devote more than 4% of the campaign’s media budget to digital media. Since his win in 2008, online ads have been a point of interest for candidates. Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell committed 7% of his total spending to digital ads (and he won). Massachusetts’ Scott Brown also placed 1 out of every 10 dollars spent on campaign advertising into online ads, and his campaign succeeded in taking a Senatorial seat previously held for 47 years by Ted Kennedy.
Peter Pasi, Executive Vice President of Republican online consulting firm Emotive LLC told techpresident.com earlier this year, “This cycle, we don’t have a major Republican candidate who isn’t asking about Facebook or isn’t doing it.”
With campaign season quickly heating up, local media outlets should be asking the question internally, “What do WE have to offer local elections in the way of online marketing tools?”
From the local school board seats and mayoral races to judges and congressmen, this Fall brings lots of opportunity for local marketers who can help candidates gain a competitive edge.
Outline your online marketing tools for local candidates. Not to worry; if you don’t get local political ad dollars on your local media website(s), AOL, will be happy to accommodate political ad buyers in your market! Not to be outdone by local media, pureplay ad monster AOL announced a new political advertising service three weeks ago. Buyers can place ads on search engines, social media, or display ads through AOL’s new service.
AOL allows candidates to create, manage, and track their online campaigns through a simple browser-based control panel. Candidates can select the geography where they would like their ad targeted by zip code, state, DMA, or congressional district.
Also, because of the broad nature of AOL’s content network, which reaches 158 million unique visitors every month, buyers can refine their target audience by lifestyle (such as status-conscious consumers or university students) as well as demographics (including age, gender, and ethnicity). They even offer help from a dedicated sales representative.
If you are running a local media website—whether it’s a radio station site or local news site, you have a specific local audience. Pull analytics reports on your website to highlight the specific local audience and reach you have to offer political buyers. If you don’t have geographic-specific reports, consider using a free tool like Google Analytics.
There are content opportunities too. Consider hosting an online debate/town hall meeting for local candidates as a way to introduce them to your company (and its marketing capabilities) while creating a unique platform for the community to meet their prospective public servants. A simple setup in your station’s conference room—or a cool green-screen background could yield some high-impact, highly trafficked website content for your station. List voting resources on your website and offer links to local voting assistance organizations for your audience.
What is your company doing to accommodate local candidates? Happy voting!
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