In 2012 Presidential Campaign, the Web Sat at the Table

One of the top stories on this Election Day is the unprecedented amount of money that has been funneled into campaigns. For marketers the juiciest subplot has been the portion of it that has been allocated to digital versus traditional media.

According to FEC filings, in September of 2012, President Barack Obama spent $2.5 million dollars on on-line advertising and Mitt Romney spent $3 million – numbers that don’t reflect spend in paid search and social.

AdWeek’s Washington Bureau Chief Katy Bachman nailed the shift in her story today:

“If 2008 was the year politicians woke up to the Internet, 2012 may well be known as the election when online political ads became a budget line.”

In her piece, she talks about how candidates have used video ads for branding and fundraising and she interviewed Centro CEO Shawn Riegsecker about the lack of on-line video inventory in the closing days of the election.

Read the full article: “Race Tightens, and So Does Ad Inventory” from AdWeek.