Fallout 2012
Traditional media such as tv and
radio, newspapers and magazines can target geographical areas and demographics
on a broad scale. In a state such as
Colorado (considered by both campaigns to be key and open) television
advertisements can be placed in markets conducive to a particular candidate’s
message, and during programs receptive audiences will likely be viewing.
Similarly, copies of The Wall Street Journal and Rolling Stone printed for that
geographic area can include advertisements that might not be included in other
zones. Political pros over the decades have well mastered the art of studying
and targeting prospective voters in these arenas and remain very skillful at
wielding those talents.
Adapting those techniques to the
new media of the internet has in some ways been very similar. Placing
advertisements on search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Bing can be based on search keywords and
geography. Pandora has started offering
political advertising based on geography as well (http://adage.com/article/digital/pandora-opens-box-targeted-political-advertising/231098/).
Twitter started carrying political advertising as recently as last September,
and Cox Digital Solutions has reached an agreement with Gannet Co. Inc. to
furnish digital advocacy material, with agreements already in place with Yahoo
and The Weather Channel.
Of course there is now much more
information available about us all, gathered not only by the search moguls but
also by an ever growing army of merchants who not only collect and sell data
about our purchases, shopping habits and more but go through extensive analysis
on that treasure trove. For example, Kashmir Hill of Forbes recently published
an eye-opening piece on how Target modified their sales mailer to an expectant
teen girl before her father even knew about the pregnancy (http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2012/02/16/how-target-figured-out-a-teen-girl-was-pregnant-before-her-father-did/).
Anyone who has done any shopping on Amazon is excruciatingly aware of how they
their knowledge to constantly suggest other items that might be of interest to
them.
But these are still somewhat
passive outreach efforts. It is becoming increasingly possible to control the
flow of information. We use DVRs to record programming and bypass the
commercials. We use ad blockers to minimize the clutter on web sites we visit. We
can relegate annoying email flyers to the junk mail dungeon. So there remains
another challenge, a new paradigm that the politicos must now master. How to
reach voters when people control their information input? We all know that
Facebook currently rules the social network scene, where users (at least those
who block ads) only see posts from sources they choose. At the moment, Obama’s
campaign strategists seem to have the advantage there. At 27,397,480 likes his
Facebook site (http://www.facebook.com/barackobama)
is an order of magnitude over Romney’s 2,559,760 (http://www.facebook.com/mittromney).
Although I wasn’t able to find any concrete data to confirm my suspicions I
expect the standings to be about the same.
It will be interesting to observe
when the Sturm und Drang of this
election cycle has blown over how much attention will be drawn to these questions,
what insights will be gained and in which direction future elections will head.
