Creativity - Key to Reaching Voters

With all of the traditional consumer advertising out there and the explosion of consumer generated media, would-be presidential hopefuls are going to have a challenging time getting their message - and name - heard. According to political experts, even if you are a party front-runner such as Hilary Clinton, Barack Oboma, John McCain, and Rudy Guilani must now display creativity in their ads and strategies. With the rise of online advertising, even the current White House administration must change its tactics if it wants to reach an increasingly inattentive audience.

People have become so used to wild, crazy ad campaigns that many are tuning out traditional, "boring" methods of communication. Now, more than ever, viewers want to be engaged and entertained by advertising. Viral messaging and its distribution is key, and it all starts with creativity. If the ad is "boring", no one will talk about it and it will remain unseen.

Many candidates are now using Web video, YouTube and online chats, and how they use these resources will become crucial to their overall strategy. The Internet is great for testing ideas, whether commercial or political. It is easy to remove or change things if response is less than positive.

Use of social networking sites by candidates will say a lot about them. Posting on YouTube is risky, since viewers can post and read negative comments about the candidate. It either demonstrates a candidate’s confidence and cool factor, or their lack of foresight. Videos on personal web sites are easier to control, but this may signify a disconnect from the people.

All in all, candidates appear to be listening: "new" media spending is expected to increase from 5% to 15–20% of the campaign budgets for this election cycle.