• by Christopher M. Schroeder , November 9, 2004

Well, all good things come to an end.

The most recent, most-important-election of our life time is in the history books now. And the pundits are having their field day teaching us all the lessons we should have known before the people spoke.

In our worlds of interactive content and advertising, some lessons seem to be arising as well. Gavin O'Malley, in his splendid summary here on MediaPost (MediaDailyNews, November 3, 2004), notes that while tremendous traffic went to a host of news, pundit, blog, and campaign sites, few dollars were spent in interactive advertising.

"Indeed," he notes, "neither political party seemed to think the Web worthy of significant investment, despite the fact that yesterday's presidential nail-biter generated record online traffic to political and news-related sites."

With some estimates of less than $10 million in ad spending went online versus over $1.45 billion in television, cable, and local radio, the evidence seems clear. "Campaigners are ultimate Luddites," O'Malley quotes Charlie Buchwater of Nielsen//NetRatings, "... planners didn't feel confident putting real money back into [the Web]." The lesson here: political pros are risk averse traditionalists who will, in time, in a world of Personal video recorder (PVRs) and mass audience concentration on the Web, come around as their colleagues in the business advertising world have.

Maybe.

But I'd suggest there are three other good-news/bad-news lessons here that may have relevance on all interactive advertising.

First, this election was the most direct and directed marketing campaign in history. All close elections are about finding and reaching targeted demographics and geographies, but this election was by far and away the most sophisticated, innovative and technologically advanced. This was not merely about broad messaging, but about how a candidate had specific messages for specific voters.

Herein lies the good news: the Internet can target with greater accuracy than cable, and lesser cost than direct mail. Messaging to many, to a certain to a demographic, to certain individuals - this is the trifecta of marketing only the Internet allows, and is already being embraced by business marketing in order to create great value.

Second, all calculations on political Internet "advertising" misses all the money and effort spent on Internet "marketing" by the candidates and supporters themselves. John Kerry and Howard Dean before him, raised a fortune in $100 campaigns all driven by their Web sites. Volunteers were solicited, ads were created, voters mustered all through significant Web efforts. The cost of these efforts might have been dwarfed by the money spent on television, but the RETURN on investment dwarfed all else.

And here is the potential bad news for Internet advertising - political campaigns, like many businesses now, have found that having a great online destination is key to driving actions and controlling your brands. Buy some smart search terms, and you'll drive the audience. Will these "destinations" cut down the dollars they spend on media, traditional, and interactive?

Third, this election should teach us all a bit of humility in reminding us of the importance of not breathing our own fumes. A Democratic leader told me last Wednesday, "We need to get better at reaching communities with Wal-Marts, and focus less on reaching communities with Starbucks."

A senior ad exec told me, "it didn't escape my notice in that Electoral College map that my ad agency offices are all clumped in the blue states, and maybe we need to get out of the office more and remind ourselves of what is important to our viewers."

We all know that a once-in-a-generation opportunity has presented itself in our ability to raise awareness, create dialogue, and help people be informed online. Even the biggest marketing skeptics are coming around, if for no other reason than they are learning they have no choice (please note the AAF November 4 study, which underscores how marketers are reacting to a coming world of PVRs and the Internet.

But looking at this campaign, the political world may not be as far behind as you think - they may have just taught us something about the future.