• by Wayne Friedman , February 9, 2012

Think you are getting a clearer political picture from TV political commercials? You might be.

Political commercials produced in HD rose to 35% of all political messages in fourth-quarter 2011, up 10 times over the same period in 2010. The data comes from a quarterly HD Advertising Trends Report from Extreme Reach, a provider of HD video advertising.

The study indicates that 76% of advertisers say commercials produced in HD make their messaging stand out, and 91% believe political commercials in HD help improve perceptions of candidates or causes.

For the last six months of 2011, 32% of political commercials were delivered to local TV media in HD, up from 3% for the same period a year ago.

"Political campaigns are won and lost based on a candidate’s ability to foster a meaningful connection with their public,” said John Roland, CEO of Extreme Reach.

Extreme Reach says new cloud-based technology for commercial distribution enables advertisers to deliver HD commercials to broadcasters within minutes, rather than days. And for competitive political ads, that kind of speed for rebuttal is helpful.