Looking At The Obama Campaign Through The Digital/Traditional Ad Spend Prism

Barack Obama’s campaign depended a lot on traditional media — such as last week’s highly-rated infomercial. With that in mind, BusinessWeek’s Jon Fine opened his Ad:Tech NY panel on media spending asking agency buyers what that says about the supposed importance of digital in this presidential race and what implications. “The campaign got all millions of dollars in donations online, but they took that money and shoveled it to TV,” Fine said. Donna Speciale, president of investment and activation at Publicis’ MediaVest USA, called for rejecting the notion of a zero-sum game between digital and traditional. “Can’t we just say that TV remains very important and that traditional and digital work best when used together? The either/or concept doesn’t apply in most cases.”

Following the money: In spite of tries to play down the traditional/digital dichotomy, Speciale noted that there will be clear losers and winners in this deteriorating economy. Surveying the landscape, Speciale said: “The local market, doing lousy for the last two years, are going to be decimated without the political campaigns. Print is suffering because of the lack of flexibility due to their long lead times. Marketers need their money in their hands right now and so that has been propelling the drive toward digital. More after the jump

There is no “right metric”: While digital is benefiting, the balance is still very small compared to TV and print. Bob Thacker, SVP for marketing/advertising at OfficeMax, pointed out that “Mega brands aren’t spending at all on new thinking. These brands are dinosaurs. We’re more of an armadillo. Or perhaps a cockroach.” Without a standard metric, advertisers say they won’t increase their digital spend, said Quentin George, president of Global Digital Strategy/Marketing Innovation at IPG’s Universal McCann, invoking a familiar argument. Matt Spiegel, CEO, digital, Omnicom Media Group Digital: “There are so many data points. Behavioral data is most important. And we don’t tap into it as much as we should. But the real point is that digital has so much accountability. I’m of the school that while we need to compare apples to apples, I don’t think we need one single metric, like a Nielsen for online.” Speciale: “People keep talking as if digital ad spend remains too low. I don’t think so. We have added money in this space so quickly. Compare that to where cable was when it first took off. You couldn’t get clients to spend anything there. So I don’t see the problem.”

Mobile ad spend set-back: Fine: “Mobile has been a failure in the U.S., in terms of ad dollars. Any disagreement?” Not a one. Speciale: “In this economy, mobile is the priority for marketers. It’s still regarded as experimental. Spiegel: “Mobile will change how we market to consumers, especially overseas. But do I expect a substantial rise in mobile ad dollars in the US next year? No, but it will affect the way marketers and agencies think.”

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