Update 10-31-00: As election day creeps near and Washington dangles as one of the deciding states in the presidential election, The Democratic National Committee is utilizing Internet technology to generate last minute interest.
Next Generation Network’s E*billboards are being used by the DNC to shore up constituencies and get out the vote in Washington state.
The campaign, which began on October 24th and runs through Election Day, features a total of seven ads targeted at audiences throughout Seattle and Tacoma.
“As polls indicate, the presidential race is up for grabs. Campaigns need to target voters with clear, effective messages which is why the DNC has turned to E*billboards at this critical time,” says Tom Pugliese, CEO of NGN. “Because screens can be purchased by site, by zip code, by political jurisdiction or on the basis of audience demographics, they maximize the effort and results.”
The DNC’s E*billboard campaign focuses on continued economic prosperity, education and families. Each ad will run 350 times a day at each of the 36 locations throughout Washington and result in over 302,400 impressions a week.
E*billboards feature full-motion, full-color displays, that deliver targeted news, information, sports and weather as well as community bulletins, entertainment and advertising. E*billboards by Next Generation Network currently reach over 200 million consumers a month in more than 6,523 locations such as coffee shops, lobby shops, convenience stores, gas pumps, transit hubs and elevators in 33 major markets in the United States, Europe and Australia.
10-30-00: As the election draws near, and we are amiss in a sea of Political ads on the television, new research from Seattle-based AdRelevance, a Jupiter Media Metrix company, shows that both the Bush and Gore campaigns have elected to make little use of the net when it comes to advertising. In fact between July and October Republicans and Democrats logged in excess of only 17 million ad impressions, while non-party affiliated organizations ran campaigns totaling more than 100 million impressions.
“Presidential elections may be the talk of the Net, but online advertising is not quite the talk of candidacy campaigns this election season,” says Charlie Buchwalter, vice president of media research for AdRelevance. “It’s important to note, however, that while candidates have virtually elected not to advertise online – news organizations and political sites aren’t so weary. In fact, the latest AdRelevance data reveals that well-branded and well-known traditional media companies are carrying the lion’s share of non-party affiliated political advertising.”
Of those 17 million party-affiliated impressions, the majority was conducted during party conventions, with the Republicans also running a small online campaign prior to and during the presidential debates in early October.
According to the new research, the Republicans relied on a targeted campaign using over 20 unique banner ads to reach their audience on more than 35 sites, while the Democrats used a broad reach model, relying on one banner on Yahoo!
“The AdRelevance findings on the use of online advertising in the political sphere corroborate what we have seen elsewhere – the online ad industry is still in its infancy,” says Buchwalter. “This is the first presidential election where online marketing is playing a role, and we can only anticipate that its importance will grow in elections to come. The fact that political online advertising is hot among non-party organizations is good news for America’s fastest growing medium!”
