Canned Air - Political Ads

Although Phyllis Randall did not win, she did everything she fought tooth-and-nail for the votes of her district. And that included running a television advertisement. Considering the relatively small amount of money involved in that campaign, it was a pleasant surprise to see Phyllis go on-air. In this morning's LoudounExtra, we find out how.

Rather than create an ad from scratch, Ortego and Briggs were among a dozen candidates across the country — including two in Northern Virginia — who used commercial templates produced by Spot Runner, an Internet start-up in Los Angeles. For $499 plus the cost of airtime, Spot Runner will plug in your photo and personalized narration into a generic ad and air it on television in about a week. By comparison, traditional ad agencies can charge thousands of dollars, and the creative process can take months.
Candidates have had mixed results.

Last week in Northern Virginia, Republican Del. Robert G. Marshall (Prince William) won reelection. Democrat Phyllis Randall lost in her run for the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors.

But it was worth a try, considering the price, Randall said.

“We didn’t have a whole lot of money since I spent so much time door-knocking and didn’t do much fundraising,” said Randall, who raised $20,000 to $25,000 for her campaign.- LoudounExtra

It is somewhat ironic that the advent of inexpensive, targeted (though generic) television advertising comes as the impact of television advertising is declining. It is my belief that the victories achieved in Loudoun this year were the result of out-hustling the other side, not media (be they signs, or print and television ads).

The victories in 2007 are the dividends of 2005 and Gov. Dean's 50-state strategy. Chris Bowers goes into more detail.

While I am not convinced by the amounts of money she lists as independent expenditures by the DCCC in the districts in question (her figures seems very low), overall, the message is clear: the paid organizers in these key districts led to a substantial increase in the Democratic vote share over 2002. Some may question whether a gain of three to eight percentage points is worth the huge amounts of money the DNC spent to employ these organizers, but I think it definitely was. I believe that field organizing has much longer-term effects than television-based forms of voter contact, which will benefit Democrats in the targeted areas for many election cycles to come almost no matter who the future Democratic candidates in those districts may be. - MyDD

Perhaps the advent of low-cost, mass-customized political advertising is a response to market pressures. Campaigns may be coming to realize that their money is better spent, dollar-for-dollar, organizing volunteers and meeting voters, so the cost/value ratio of television advertising needs to change in order for the television business to continue making money in the political game. This trend will not come to fruition in the 2008 cycle (which will see the first billion-dollar campaigns in history driven in large part by ad buys) but the idea of narrowcasting television advertising and enhancing direct voter contact has been gaining greater currency, and since that was the essence of the tactics used in Virginia's victories this year (whether intentional or not) that trend will only continue.