Content Matters

Via PaidContent comes a summary of the political ads so far during the early primary season.  While the leading candidates in the two parties have already burned through nearly $400
million, little of that has made its way into the coffers of online publishers.

The post sources Evan Tracey of TNS Media Intelligence indicating that most of the political advertisements thus far have been relatively inexpensive buys on partisan blogs.

Most of the money from political ad spend that’s making its way onto the internet have been issue-oriented ads. And that’s going to the political blogs, which don’t rack up a lot of money.

Yet Lehman analyst Doug Anmuth projects roughly $110 million in political ads in 2008 with more than a third coming from the presidential race.  Of course, that's a drop in the bucket when compared to the nearly $1 billion dollars that will be spent by the presidential candidates overall in 2008.  While the candidates may be far ahead of where they were, internet-wise, four years ago, they are still fairly apprehensive.  Mitt Romney's recent experience where his banner ads ran on some gay and lesbian sites have made the campaigns a bit gun-shy.  And, for all the Internet hype around Ron Paul, that's been driven by grass-roots activities, not advertising.  Yet, I expect that once each party has their nominee, we're likely to see a more aggressive online advertising effort.