• Fortune, Monday, March 3, 2008 11 AM

Web media guru Rishad Tobaccowala, chief innovation officer of the media buying division of Publicis Groupe, says much of Barack Obama's success over Hillary Clinton has come down to his superior online strategy. Tobaccowala calls Obama the "digital candidate" versus Clinton, the "analog candidate."

Why? "His Web site is amazing," the ad exec claims. "It's completely and continually updated. It feels alive and energetic." Obama has also been able to galvanize the grassroots community through the effective use of email marketing. For example, when Clinton donated $5 million of her own money to her campaign, emails went out to Obama's most active supporters telling them they had to match that total quickly. Within 24 hours, the Illinois Senator raised $8 million.

That said, the vast majority of campaign ad spending is still offline. The Silicon Alley Insider (link: http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/2/obama_starts_buying__some__web_advertising) claims that Obama spent just $163,188 of his $18 million January budget on the Web. However, ahead of the tightening races in Ohio and Texas, ClickZ (link: http://www.techpresident.com/blog/entry/22399/clinton_web_ads_dry_up_as_obama_showers_texas_and_ohio_with_video_ads) says the Democratic frontrunner ramped up spending at the end of February, buying banners ads with video on local TV and newspaperWeb sites across Texas and Ohio.

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