Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Election Will Be Won or Lost Online

Howard Dean may have started the Internet age of political fundraising and grass roots support, but this year, the web has taken over all aspects of campaign communications. From bloggers who live and breathe politics and do valuable research to YouTube to campaign sites, the most influential information is being delivered online.

Every gaffe or dramatic speech is amplified through hundreds of thousands of views on YouTube. Every skeleton from a candidate's closet will often first be unearthed on a blog, and then eventually make its way to the mainstream press and TV.

Campaign sites have become money machines for Ron Paul and Barack Obama because they enable people to feel engaged.

So what can marketers glean from this?

Take advantage of the medium, and most importantly, monetize it. If websites will have a large impact on who sits in the oval office, then it can certainly help product sales and should be valued appropriately when setting ad rates. While we can get lost in the numbers about page views, the Internet is shaping opinions, getting people to spend their money and devote their attention to serious. What more can you say to people stuck in a dead tree world of its importance?

Via Adotas.

Posted By John Gartner at 10:05 AM
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