Archive for August, 2006
The Post continues to do my job for me! Jeffrey Birnbaum has a K Street Condidential piece today on the mechanics of using online ads to build a grassroots activist list. He ventures into the cubes at Democracy Data & Communications to watch as staff members monitor the effectiveness of particular ads on particular sites — it turns out that simple and texty often beats clever and pretty, and general-interest sites can get better results than issue-specific sites.
– cpd
August 21st, 2006
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According to Frank Ahrens at the Post, far from killing the traditional tv networks as some had predicted, TiVo and other digital video recorders may be helping to save them, in part by allowing people to view two shows at once — watching one immediately while saving the other for later.
For political media folks, the biggest takeaway is that DVRs don’t seem to be putting any particular hurt on traditional 15- and 30-second ad spots either, though they may encourage some changes in the way the ads are made. Even when viewers fast-forward, at least one study shows that they’re just as aware of which brands are being advertised as those who watch the ads in their entirety.
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August 20th, 2006
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Pretty comprehensive and worth checking out. Nice Phil Noble quote — his second today, since he was also in the earlier Boston Herald story. The CNN version: Political candidates court MySpace voters. (Note: I originally credited the article to CNN, not realizing it was from the AP.)
– cpd
August 18th, 2006
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Besides shooting off his or her mouth, it looks like the easiest way for a political candidate to get in deep macaca is to have “inappropriate” photos posted online. The Boston Herald has an example, though this one seems pretty ridiculous to me.
But, digital photos and digital video are easy to shoot and easy to post, and politicians are going to have to live with the fact that images they can’t control are going to end up online. At the rate things are going, pretty soon no human being with an actual life is going to be able to run for office.
– cpd
August 18th, 2006
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Yep, today is the one-month anniversary of the launch of everyone’s favorite online advocacy how-to site, e.politics. Woo hoo! In honor of the occasion, let’s bust out some numbahs, Harper’s Index-style:
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August 17th, 2006
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[Click here for more about political microtargeting.]
If you’re a regular e.politics reader, you know I’m crazy for microtargeting and niche marketing. The Washington Post turns out to have some frankly amazing tools for zeroing in your message on particular categories of readers.
You want to reach Hill staff? Boom, the Post can put your ads in front of every person coming from the house.gov and senate.gov domains. How’s THAT for targeting? But wait, there’s more…
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August 17th, 2006
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Hey kids, e.politics is now using FeedBurner to manage its RSS feed. If you’re an RSS subscriber and have any problems (i.e., the feed is inaccessible or doesn’t seem to be updating), let me know.
FeedBurner is useful because it lets you track how many people are subscribing to your feed and which items are getting clicked on. It’s a good supplement to your normal site traffic statistics — yay, one more thing for site stats nerds like me to obsess over. Also, it makes the subscription process a little easier for newbies.
Finally, sorry for yesterday’s publishing hiatus. I was working on a big super-secret writing project — all will be revealed soon…
– cpd
August 16th, 2006
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Marketing Sherpa has a great piece on the results Sierra Club got from an email newsletter redesign — they found that improving the way the layout looked and functioned in the preview pane of Outlook and other email programs dramatically improved the click rate for individual articles.
– cpd
August 14th, 2006
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The revolution is upon us, and you have nothing to lose but your clothes. According to the LA Times, French fashion brand Shai is using porn in online video ads — and layering links to purchasing info directly into the video.
Now, I don’t really see American political campaigns paying people to get it on (though I do have a friend who got nekkid in public repeatedly for an anti-fur campaign a few years ago), but this idea of inserting links into video, called hotspotting, shows real promise. It’s apparently been around longer than I think (when I Googled it, I found articles dating back to early last year), but it seems to be expensive. Still, it’d be great to be able to insert Donate, Take Action or Join links directly into viral video bits or online campaign ads.
– cpd
August 14th, 2006
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Well, maybe not exactly famous, but certainly featured: e.politics was highlighted yesterday over at PoliticsOnline — look for the Hot Sites section under Mike Krempasky’s Very Serious Guy photograph (Mike and I argued politics in jovial fashion at South by Southwest this year — nice article, man).
Anyway, the Hot Site mention clearly derives from this press release that I sent out on Tuesday and is an excellent example of the kind of niche publication pickup that a good press release can generate.
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August 12th, 2006
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Two guest columns in as many days! Let’s spread some e.politics love and hear from my old friend Phil Lepanto over at Connections Media, who has some excellent tips for making sure that your advocacy messages don’t get caught in a spam filter:
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August 11th, 2006
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This just in: Water is wet! The sky is blue! Snakes on a Plane is the most awesomest movie title ever! And Blogs Offer Arena for Political Attacks…film at 11!
Despite its overall air of smacking you in the face with the blatantly obvious, the article does have good quotes from actual smart people and a roundup of various political blog-related hijinks. Thanks to a somewhat bemused Burt Edwards (yesterday’s illustrious guest columnist) for the tip.
– cpd
August 11th, 2006
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