In the News (Week of January 27th)

This week’s news revealed a few interesting trends--one of which is the changing nature of political advertising. In the AdAge article, Dish and DirecTV Combine Addressable Ad Efforts for Political Campaigns, Jeanine Poggi discusses the combined efforts of the satellite giants encouraging political campaigns to buy addressable TV advertising. DirectTV and Dish are hoping to attract political advertisers to use their shared household targeting capabilities. “Campaigns can focus their message to a precise set of potential voters and eliminate the spending waste,” said Keith Kazerman, senior vice president of ad sales, DIRECTV in the release.

Kazerman makes a good point: effective targeting removes excess spending. We all know how important funds are when it comes to political campaigns, and being able to narrow the pool of swing-voters is a valuable development. However, what TV cannot do is connect a defined number of voters with a predictable result. Digital approaches like email and online display can be tested, measured, refined and precisely targeted to deliver the right messages to the right audiences at a fraction of the cost of television.

Our Smart Zones technology applies location, demographics and historical data to IP address ranges. Audience predispositions can be pulled and scored using publicly available offline data to predict sentiment, likelihood to vote and engagement levels at a neighborhood or business level. This approach brings the advantage of reaching voters with a qualified message whenever he or she is online. The ability to identify and reach voters with appropriate messages in real time at a cost that is dramatically lower than television makes online display an appealing and effective addressable advertising technique for political campaigns.

As 2014 progresses we can expect to see a lot more discussion of how campaigns are using technology to better communicate with their supporters, as well as with potential voters. The massive adoption of digital by political campaigns that began in 2008 is only going to accelerate so hold on to your hats.