Anushka Steephen
ADV 206
4/10/2015
Term Paper

Term Paper

Audit of the Industry

Digital media strategies are a crucial component of political campaigns. Established political elites use database and Internet technologies to raise money, organize volunteers, gather intelligence on voters, and do opposition research. Increasingly, digital technologies are used to organize political information in the public sphere, and unlike those used in traditional media, these interactive tools allow for both the production and consumption of political content. Digital technology may influence the 2016 United States Presidential Election more than any other in history. The latest mobile apps, Reddit AMAs, and Google+ Hangouts have demonstrated how closely tech is integrated into the political landscape (Williamson). Working with a political advertising agency is a powerful way for any candidate to improve their position on the local, state, and national level when it comes to start campaigning. It may seem like a political advertising agency would be a big spend geared more toward national level campaigning such as a congressional or presidential election, these agencies can serve any level of government right down to small municipalities (Bold). With their vast resources and experience, they put strong gloves in the corner of the candidate can generate the right spin and positive publicity when it’s needed the most. Candidates often go after more common media to reach consumers but a political advertising agency will use al forms of outreach and media solutions to reach voters thanks to experience both in traditional media and internet marketing. In order to reach every corner of a market and gain the great “market share” in terms of demographic markets, it’s important to leverage each of the dominant media (Petronzio). Attacking each of these forms of outreach would take far too much time for a candidate, especially when the campaign grows in scale. By utilizing the services of a political advertising agency, a candidate can actually focus more on the campaign and less on the consistent need for marketing (Collins). Candidates need to align themselves with a political advertising agency that not only specializes in political campaigns but also one that has experience in social science and understands the way voters communicate with one another. Ultimately, a candidate should choose an agency that understands how people connect and how targeted traditional and online advertising can drive voter results in favor of the candidate (Cooperstein). Candidates should also evaluate the political advertising agency’s ability to hit specific demographics with a relevant message while also getting back favorable results. The 2012 United States Presidential Elections was the first presidential election to test the impact of a 2010 Supreme Court decision that allows companies and unions to spend unlimited sums on election ads. The bulk goes to local television advertising. Cable companies such as Comcast are courting campaign dollars by promising even more precisely aimed ad placement than is possible on local TV. As a result, cable operators have quadrupled political advertising revenues since 2004, to $464 million and doubled their share of the pot (Brown). As campaigns harness ever more data, they grow better at micro targeting: tailoring messages to specific groups of voters, which works moderately well with traditional media. The great potential for micro targeting is online. By the end of the 2012 presidential election, spending on online political ads will have increased more than tenfold since 2004 and will account for around 6% of advertising revenues (VandenDolder). Google search ads used to account for the bulk of online advertising dollars: it was a straightforward way for campaigns to provide information about their activities to those searching for it. But now social media firms such as Facebook and Twitter area also