Researcher Borrell Associates is expecting politicians and those weighing in on one issue or another to drop over $4B for political ads this election cycle. And the good news for broadcasters is that almost none of it is headed to internet advertising.
Borrell says internet venues will attract only about $44M, which it says is less than 1% of the overall predicted take. Borrell doesn’t see a major shift in the trend going forward, either. The internet is predicted to more than double its take to crack the $100M barrier by the 2012 presidential election year, but that will still be a tiny sliver of the entire political pie.
Borrell noticed another interesting trend. The advent of the perpetual campaign is upon us, to the extent that 2009, an off year for political spending, still had a lot political spending. It says the 2009 total was higher than the total spent on a presidential contest going back within a decade.
RBR-TVBR observation: One of the great things about the internet, from a consumer standpoint, is there are so many places you can go! As an advertising medium, that’s a weakness, since few sites can aggregate the kind of general and geographically-specific audience politicians need to reach.
The internet is a great political tool for organizing believers and collecting campaign cash, but as far as being a great way to get your message out to the masses, it just isn’t there yet.
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