Romney Web Ads Back with Gusto in September
BY Kate Kaye | Tuesday, October 23 2007
Cross-posted at ClickZ.
Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney was back online in a big way last month, aiming to rally supporters and establish a platform of popular conservative issues like government spending and border security. Romney For President ran over 22 million Web ad impressions in September, according to Nielsen/NetRatings AdRelevance. Meanwhile, perennial online advertiser John McCain 2008 reduced its display ad impressions from 191,000 in August to 25,000 impressions in September.
John McCain 2008 has gone from running millions of ads and multiple creatives in previous months to honing in on one main "No Surrender" slogan in September, intended to exhibit the candidate's unwavering stance on the War in Iraq.
According to the AdRelevance data, Romney For President ran Web ads in May and June, but took a break in the summer months. As the McCain campaign did earlier in the primary season, the Romney campaign appears to be testing various messages and ad formats. It experimented with standard display formats and expandable PointRoll units in the spring, but dropped the rich media in September, sticking with simpler animated units.
The Romney camp also introduced new messages, urging people to "Join the Rally," and recognizing grassroots support helping the campaign in Iowa.
Top sites for McCain ads included National Review Online, Dictionary.com, and conservative news site Newsmax. Romney ads also appeared on Newsmax, in addition to BellSouth's ISP site, FanFiction.net, iWon, FoxNews.com, and on New York Times Business, Sports and International site sections.
AdRelevance did not detect ads from any other presidential campaigns in September.
September 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" 300x250 Medium Rectangle, 160x600 Wide Skyscraper, 728x90 Leaderboard 24,000 ValueClick, Google "America Deserves Experience. America Deserves Straight Talk. McCain." "Join John McCain" 300x250 Medium Rectangle 1,000 Google Source: Nielsen/NetRatings AdRelevance, 2007
September 2007 Sites and Impressions by John McCain 08 Site/Sub-Site Impressions National Review 6,000 Dictionary.com 5,000 Newsmax 4,000 ezboard 3,000 Thesaurus.com 2,000 Answers.com 2,000 Merriam-Webster 2,000 CBS Sportsline MLB 1,000 Source: Nielsen/NetRatings AdRelevance, 2007
September 2007 Ads by Romney For President Ad Copy Call to Action Ad Sizes Number of Impressions "Join the Rally Today. Mitt Romney." n/a 728x90 Leaderboard, 160x600 Wide Skyscraper 10,322,000 "Are you ready to Rally? You Signed Up America. You kept the bus rolling to Ames." "Join the Rally Today" 728x90 Leaderboard, 300x250 Medium Rectangle 8,296,000 "Change Begins with Us." "Start Now!" 300x250 Medium Rectangle, 728x90 Leaderboard, 120x600 Skyscraper, 468x60 Full Banner 2,095,000 "Republicans Have to Get Our Own House in Order. Stop wasteful spending. Secure the boarders. Insist on high ethical standards. Change Begins with us. Change Washington. Mitt Romney for President. Strong. New. Leadership." "Start Now!" 300x250 Medium Rectangle, 728x90 Leaderboard, 160x600 Wide Skyscraper, 120x600 Skyscraper, 468x60 Full Banner 1,744,000 Source: Nielsen/NetRatings AdRelevance, 2007
Note: Data were not available regarding sites where specific Romney For President ads ran.
Top Ten September 2007 Sites and Impressions by Romney for President Site/Sub-Site Impressions BellSouth Internet Service 4,011,000 FanFiction.net 3,723,000 MSN Hotmail 1,889,000 iWon 1,383,000 AOL.com 1,016,000 FoxNews.com 709,000 New York Times 500,000 AOL.com News 412,000 iWon Email 383,000 iWon News 383,000 Source: Nielsen/NetRatings AdRelevance, 2007