Digital Advertising Develops Presidential Candidate Brands and Engages Voter Groups

With each successive political cycle, digital media continues to ramp up and play a more prominent role in campaign outreach operations. While TV and radio ads still dominate campaign expenditures, digital media tactics are increasingly being used to influence the media narrative and voter perceptions. In recent years, the Obama campaign has been at the forefront of this movement, going on a targeted digital offensive long before other candidates did. Early in 2011, the Obama campaign began delivering a massive number of online display ads across the web each month and it has trended steadily upward since. In January, the campaign delivered 778 million ads and followed that up with 835 million in February, representing millions of dollars of online advertising each month.

While the Obama campaign was blanketing the web with ads in 2011, the Republicans were almost nowhere to be found. In fact, the Obama campaign outnumbered the combined effort of the four leading Republican campaigns with any notable online ad presence by a ratio of 10 to1 in the past six months, reflecting a significant difference in advertising strategy between Obama and the rest of the candidates. In February alone, Obama had a share of voice in display advertising of 86 percent compared to the rest of the candidates, who opted instead to use the more traditional channels of TV and radio advertising to influence the hearts and minds of voters, especially in the critical days before voters cast their ballots in the primaries. As a result, Republicans seem to largely be underplaying the digital advertising channel, at least at this stage of the campaign.

Without the need to fight in a primary, the Obama campaign’s online strategy reveals that it is likely more interested in long-term voter engagement and brand-building. An analysis of some of the most heavily-placed ads by the Obama campaign over the first few months of the year reveals a few themes emerging: (1) general brand-building, (2) issue definition, and (3) voter & constituency engagement. The ads below highlight each of these appeals to supporters. More recently, ads targeted to specific voter groups have appeared. These include Women for Obama and even Pet Lovers for Obama.

Analysis of the top 3 web publishers of display ads for each of the leading Republican candidates reveals an interesting mix of strategies. Over the past six months, Mitt Romney for President advertised mostly on Facebook, with 58.2 percent of its ads coming over the social network – the highest percentage seen for any candidate so far. Newt 2012 delivered nearly 30 percent of its display ads through the Drudge Report and more than 20 percent through the Fox News Digital Network – both sites known to have conservative leanings. Meanwhile, Rick Santorum for President delivered the highest share of its display ad impressions on TheBlaze.com, Glenn Beck’s political blog owned by Clear Channel. These differences in strategy suggest that Santorum and Gingrich have been focusing primarily on primary voters, while the Romney campaign may have always had its eyes looking ahead to the general election.

With the primaries now in our rear view mirror and Romney the presumptive Republican nominee, we’ll be keeping a close eye on the Obama and Romney campaigns’ use of display advertising in the coming months. With more money than ever before expected to reach the candidates’ campaign coffers, we can expect to see it kick into high gear in the months ahead.