If at first the Federal Elections Commission (FEC) bans your type of advertising, try another medium. This may be what campaigns look to do during the last 60 days before the general election and 30 days before a primary.

The new campaign finance law restricts television advertising financed by hard money--capped at $2,000 per person--in the 60 days before an election. So the soft money giants, who are prepared to provide donations into the six- and seven-figures, are left out of the mix on television. These groups are looking for a different way to spend their war chests, and the Internet might be one of them.

Though the groups cannot buy television ads for two months before Election Day, they can buy ads on the television stations' Web sites up until voting begins. These ads can piggyback on the televisions station's viewing audience. Although they may not reach the same broad audience, ratings numbers indicate hundreds of thousands of people visit the sites each month.

This and future election cycles may see candidates bombarding the Web sites of television stations in their districts with pop-up, banner or take over ads, which temporarily grab hold of the entire screen.

Newspaper Web Sites Versus Local Television Station Web Sites: Demographics

For June 2004 Neilson NetRatings tracked the number of hits in the top 25 media markets for various television station Web sites. In New York, the number one market, NBC got the most visits at 413,000. In Philadelphia, the NBC affiliate in the fourth-largest market had 701,000 visits.

Web users across the country use their local television station site to read news, which could be particularly important in swing states such as Florida. Miami-Dade is the 17th largest media market, and 940,000 people visited the local ABC affiliate's site, more than in any other market.

Newspaper sites such as washingtonpost.com or nytimes.com have already featured ads from campaigns. But a candidate in a district near Washington, D.C. or New York City might not want to spend thousands on an ad on one of the these prestigious new sites. It might be more cost effective and garnish more votes to use a local television station's site instead.

These newspaper sites often draw visitors from across the country, not just from that district or area. This is where television station Web sites come in, because the political ads will be tailor made for people who can actually vote in the election being discussed. A person in Nevada looking for the weather in their area could go to their local TV station's Web site and see a candidate's political advertisements.

"On newspaper sites, greater than 50 percent is from out of the market," said Derrick DeCarlo, vice president of Internet initiatives at Local Solutions Network, an online marketing firm. "... Whereas on local news sites the bulk of our users are local, over 90 percent."

Despite these numbers, Evan Tracey, chief operating of TNSMI/Campaign Media Analysis Group, a firm in Alexandria, Va., which provides media research, said the audience is similar on both newspaper sites and local television sites.

"Local newspapers versus local television in a lot of ways probably attract similar viewerships," he said.

Newspaper Web Sites Versus Local Television Station Web Sites: Targeting Capabilities

Both newspaper and local news stations have the same ability to target based on demographics, time of day or section of the site. But there may be different reasons for a candidate to advertise on a newspaper site versus a local television site.

Forthcoming research conducted by online politics specialist (and Campaigns & Elections columnist) Michael Cornfield and Evaliant Media Resources, an affiliate company of TNSMI/CMAG, shows that for the first seven months of 2004, President George W. Bush advertised more on local television stations than did U.S. Sen. John Kerry, the Democratic presidential nominee.

This may be due to a difference in fund raising tactics compared with messaging tactics. Bush is emphasizing spreading his message through Internet advertisements. Kerry, meanwhile, is following the lead of his presidential primary rival, former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, and is using the Internet primarily to raise money.

The audience of local television station Web sites is similar to that of the broadcast stations. Also, site visitors are likely viewing local weather, sports and crime news, not politics. So the Kerry campaign focuses on sites where they believe they can target potential donors or volunteers more effectively. There is also the possibility of alternative media sources where a campaign can target based on ideology.

Even the Bush campaign, which has done more local television station advertising, took advantage of alternative media for an ad featuring Laura Bush. The ad was placed on sites whose demographic is heavily female. The ad enticed site visitors to click on the link and view an ad on www.georgewbush.com, the campaign's Web site.

The Future of Internet Advertising

Empirical evidence is lacking in the Internet advertising world. The medium is too new and is being tested only this election cycle.

Even success rates for online advertising campaigns are few and far between. This election cycle the Internet will be used largely for fund raising and will begin to develop as a medium for message and persuasion, Tracey said.

"We'll see record spending on Internet advertising this year," Tracey said. "It will still pale in comparison to what we see on TV and radio. But it will say that the Internet is here to stay."

DeCarlo said marketing professionals might overestimate the complexity of advertising on the Internet.

"It comes back to sales and marketing 101," he said. "When we are talking online, because of the technical aspect of Internet, their mind just goes into a whole different direction."

DeCarlo would like to see advertising on television station Web sites take off. He said there is a reason it is still limited.

"The account executives don't go out to the candidates to sell them [online ads], DeCarlo said. "... Unless a candidate said 'I want to be on the TV station Web site' they really aren't actively selling it."

COPYRIGHT 2004 Campaigns & Elections, Inc.
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