• by Tameka Kee , August 14, 2008

Almost two-thirds of American voters expect political candidates to use online ads (including rich media and search) as part of their campaign strategy, but only about 10% of campaign consultants believe such ads serve as a highly effective channel for reaching voters. Meanwhile, just 5% think online ads are one of the most effective channels for reaching their candidate's loyal voter base. 

The stats stem from new research released by the E-Voter Institute and HCD Research, titled "Missing the Boat: How Political and Advocacy Communications Leaders Spend Campaign Funds," and illustrate the sharp disconnect between what voters are expecting and what campaigns are delivering when it comes to information and advertising on the Web.

The two companies surveyed over 4,800 voters nationwide, with diverse demographics, party affiliations, degrees of political activism and familiarity with/ability to use technology. Then they compared voter expectations with responses from nearly 180 political media consultants--including Democratic, Republican and Independent campaign managers, union representatives, and not-for-profit managers.

And while roughly 60% of voters surveyed said that they expected political candidates to try to reach them using Webcasts, online video and even blogs and podcasts, only 3-11% of campaign consultants said they believed those methods would be effective at reaching swing, independent and undecided voters. And even fewer (4-7%) of the consultants believed those channels would be effective for their candidates' loyal targets.

Even a no-brainer like a Web site failed to garner much confidence in terms of effectiveness at reaching both swing and loyal voters--as only about a quarter of the consultants surveyed said the Web site would be an effective tool for reaching either target. In contrast, nearly nine out of 10 voters said they expected political candidates to maintain a Web site.

What makes the disconnect even more hard to fathom, according to E-Voter Institute President Karen Jagoda, is that these consultants are actually using many of these mediums on a daily basis. For example, nearly 70% of the consultants surveyed were members of a social network, and about 40% of them said they maintained their own blogs, and had uploaded video to the Web.

But the hurdles that online media companies face in trying to snag political dollars are akin to the challenges they faced a few years ago in their attempts to snag traditional media spend.

"It seems that the traditional media people have history on their side with their ability to provide numbers about effectiveness of media buys from several campaign cycles in the past, unlike Web publishers," Jagoda said. "The consultants for the most part are also more familiar with the traditional media sellers and know how they are going to make their fees. The online world requires more time to figure out the media buy and newer ways of communicating the candidate's message--all hard work if you have never done it before."

Still, despite the lack of dollars flowing to online media, the study found that consultants' attitudes toward using Web-based campaigns are improving. For example, only 14% of consultants surveyed in 2007 believed that a Web site was one of the most effective methods for reaching swing, independent and undecided voters--and that bumped up to 22% in 2008. And 11% of consultants thought that email would be effective in 2008, up from just 8% last year. "There's a little more respect being paid to the Internet-savvy folks," Jagoda said. "They're being given a bit more freedom and leeway to do some things with campaign resources. But the dollars still aren't being spent online at nearly the rate one would expect."