Clinton on CNN Only, McCain on Conservative Sites and Networks in April
UPDATE AdRelevance data show the two presidential campaigns ran thousands of Web ad impressions during the month of April, but took very different approaches.
UPDATE:In November 2007, Nielsen Online AdRelevance, formerly Nielsen/NetRatings AdRelevance, provided ClickZ News with revised data on political advertisers for the months of April through September 2007. The amended information affected several stories, including this one, published by ClickZ during that time period. Detailed corrections can be found below the following original story.*
Original Story:
Beyond the exploratory committee phase, Presidential hopefuls Hillary Clinton and John McCain appear to be in the online ad exploration phase. Nielsen/NetRatings AdRelevance data show the candidates’ campaigns ran thousands of Web ad impressions during the month of April. A look at ad creative, site targeting and landing pages offers a glimpse into the different approaches each campaign is taking in these very early days.
According to AdRelevance, the Hillary Clinton for President Exploratory Committee ran 395,000 ad impressions in April 2007 on CNN.com, targeted to News, World and Politics content. Meanwhile, John McCain 2008 ran over 11.5 million impressions that month, through ad networks as well as targeted to niche audiences on financial sites and conservative opinion and community site Townhall.com.
Besides running far more ad impressions, the McCain campaign also appears to be far more experimental than Clinton’s when it comes to ad creative. While the Clinton campaign ran four different Flash-based ad creatives in three different units, the McCain effort tried at least 14 unique Flash-based and simple GIF creatives in a variety of sizes, from buttons to leaderboards.
The Clinton campaign ads had one of two calls to action. “Sign the Petition,” was an invitation to sign a petition to end President Bush’s veto threat against Iraq War-related legislation. The softer “Join the Conversation” led to a page prompting users to register and learn more about the Democratic Senator’s campaign.
Ad calls to action for Republican Senator McCain took a variety of tacks, urging users to “Take the survey,” “Join John McCain,” “Support John McCain,” “Sign the Petition today,” “Learn More,” and even “Click Here.” Some ads led to a survey related to government “pork barrel” spending, and others drove traffic to a petition to stop such wasteful government spending. Additional ads drove users to a petition for U.S. troops to stay in Iraq, and or sent users to a donation page or the campaign site’s homepage.
The McCain campaign also experimented with a wide range of approaches, from tough to silly. Some ads declared, “Failure in Iraq is not an option,” and others that ran on financial sites goofed, “$100 million tax dollars for citrus assistance? Orange You Outraged?”
Here’s a more detailed look at ads run by the two campaigns in April:
| April 2007 Ads by Hillary Clinton for President Exploratory Committee |
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|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ad Copy | Call to Action | Ad Sizes | Number of Impressions | Sites/Networks |
| “Sign the petition to stop the Bush veto of the will of the people. Start bringing our troops home.” | “Sign the Petition” | 160×600 Skyscraper, 336×280 Large Rectangle, 728×90 Leaderboard | 95,000 | CNN/News, CNN/Politics |
| “Your signature can be as powerful as President Bush’s. Tell Bush: listen to the people on Iraq Sign the Petition. End the Veto threat.” | “Sign the Petition” | 160×600 Skyscraper, 336×280 Large Rectangle, 728×90 Leaderboard | 84,000 | CNN/News, CNN/Politics |
| “Want to change the White House? Give ’em Hill! HillaryClinton.com” | “Join the Conversation” | 160×600 Skyscraper, 336×280 Large Rectangle, 728×90 Leaderboard | 96,000 | CNN/News, CNN/World |
| “Hillary would love a word with you. Iraq. Healthcare. Energy. Katrina. Children. Jobs. America.” | “Join the Conversation” | 160×600 Skyscraper, 336×280 Large Rectangle, 728×90 Leaderboard | 109,000 | CNN/News, CNN/World |
| Source: Nielsen/NetRatings AdRelevance, 2007 | ||||
| April 2007 Ads by John McCain 2008 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ad Copy | Call to Action | Ad Sizes | Number of Impressions | Sites/Networks |
| “Surrender is not an option.” | “Sign the Petition today” | 234×60 Half Banner, 120×90 Button, 300×250 Medium Rectangle, 728×90 Leaderboard | 6,072,000 | Valueclick, TownHall.com |
| “America Deserves Experience. America Deserves Straight Talk. McCain.” | “Join John McCain” | 300×250 Medium Rectangle, 728×90 Leaderboard, 336×280 Large Rectangle, 160×600 Wide Skyscraper | 1,130,000 | Google, TheStreet.com |
| “America Deserves Leadership. America Deserves Straight Talk. McCain.” | “Join John McCain” | 160×600 Wide Skyscraper | 144,000 | |
| “Sick of wasteful spending? Take our survey.” | “Click Here” | 234×60 Half Banner, 120×90 Button | 875,000 | TownHall.com, Investor related site |
| “It’s time for straight talk on spending. McCain.” | “Support John McCain” | 300×250 Medium Rectangle | 131,000 | |
| “The future starts April 25, 2007. McCain for President.” | “Learn More” | 234×60 Half Banner | 532,000 | TownHall.com |
| “McCain” (Logo) | “Support John McCain” | 300×250 Medium Rectangle, 728×90 Leaderboard, 160×600 Wide Skyscraper, 468×60 Full Banner | 1,076,000 | Advertising.com |
| “It’s time for straight talk on Iraq.” | “Support John McCain” | 728×90 Leaderboard | 409,000 | |
| “One tough guy. One great leader.” | “Join John Mccain” | 300×250 Medium Rectangle | 46,000 | |
| “McCain. Ready to Lead. McCain.” | “Join John Mccain” | 300×250 Medium Rectangle, 160×600 Wide Skyscraper, 468×60 Full Banner | 498,000 | Advertising.com, Google |
| “Failure in Iraq is not an option.” | “Support John Mccain” | 160×600 Wide Skyscraper | 182,000 | |
| “What are you doing this week? John McCain is running for President. McCain for President.” | “Learn More” | 120×90 Button | 99,000 | Investor related site |
| $60.4 million tax dollars for salmon fisheries? Something smells fishy. Outraged by Pork?” | “Take the survey” | 300×250 Medium Rectangle, 728×90 Leaderboard | 11,000 | Investor related site |
| $74 million tax dollars for peanut storage costs? That’s Nuts! $100 million tax dollars for citrus assistance? Orange You Outraged? $60.4 million tax dollars for salmon fisheries? Something smells fishy. Outraged by Pork?” | “Take the survey” | 300×250 Medium Rectangle, 336×280 Large Rectangle | 4,000 | TheStreet.com, Investor related site |
| Source: Nielsen/NetRatings AdRelevance, 2007 | ||||
*UPDATE:In November 2007, Nielsen Online AdRelevance, formerly Nielsen/NetRatings AdRelevance, provided ClickZ News with revised data on political advertisers for the months of April through September 2007. The revised information shows that in April, in addition to campaigns for Hillary Clinton and John McCain, Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney ran nearly 693,000 ad impressions on National Review Online and FoxNews.com that month.
The ads refer to Romney as “Governor,” indicating they may have been geo-targeted to Massachusetts residents, or residents of New England states who are more likely to know Romney as a former governor, in an effort to build grassroots support in the early days of his primary campaign.
Information provided originally regarding Web ads run by Clinton’s and McCain’s campaigns was correct, according to AdRelevance.
| April 2007 Ads by Romney For President |
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|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ad Copy | Call to Action | Ad Sizes | Number of Impressions | Web Sites |
| “Help Governor Romney Build a New American Dream. Strong. New. Leadership.” | Join Team Mitt | 300×250 Medium Rectangle, 728×90 Leaderboard | 693,000 | National Review, FoxNews.com |
| Source: Nielsen Online AdRelevance, 2007 | ||||
