Broadcasting & Cable
John Eggerton
March 27, 2008
WideOrbit Launches Populist Political Ad Site
Reposted by: Broadcast Newsroom, Business Finance & Economy
The run-up to the last big primary push for the presidential candidates has brought another political ad-targeted online site into the mix and created something of a mini-campaign for clients among online ad companies.
San Francisco Software online media company WideOrbit is launching VoterVoter.com Thursday, looking to grab some election ad business by targeting "passionate citizens" and letting them sponsor TV campaign ads themselves, either ready-made, customizable, or their own submissions.
The announcement comes a day after another online ad production and media buying company Spot Runner, backed by CBS and some big ad agencies, announced it was ramping up its online political advertising business, though it was targeting campaign coffers. WideOrbit backers include Hearst--it got a new infustion from Hearst Ventures just last month--and its media buying client list includes the New York Times, NBC, Hearst-Argyle, Gannett and Meredith.
Unlike Spot Runner, which is providing TV, radio and online political advertising services, VoterVoter is focusing on TV advertising for now, though a source said it has plans to expand. VoterVoter is also targeting individuals who want to place ads directly on TV rather than the campaigns, saying it allows those individuals to avoid the $4,600 limit on campaign contributions to a candidate.
"Some individuals sponsor cocktail parties to meet their favorite candidates," said VoterVote.com founder Eric Mathewson in announcing the new service. "Now, with VoterVoter.com, passionate citizens can influence literally millions of their fellow voters by purchasing TV time.
Votervoter is an equal opportunity advertiser, planning ready-made ads in support of Senators Clinton, McCain and Obama, as well as congressional and gubernatorial candidates and issues. But like Spot Runner, VoterVoter.com will provide end-to-end services for those looking to produce and place ads, including providing demographic targeting and even filings with the Federal Election Commission.
WideOrbit says it has already generated "several hundred thousand dollars" worth of passion in the form of insertion orders in its "pre-launch" phase.
Elsewhere on the online ad placement front, Internet radio ad company TargetSpot was looking to get campaigns to jump on its online bandwagon by offering them matching funds, pledging to match up to the first $500 any money a "valid electoral committee" applies toward its online platform for purchasing radio campaign spots.
TargetSpot was pitching its new site as ideal for local campaigns.
Return To TopClickZ
Kate Kaye
March 27, 2008
Web-Based Ad Buying Systems Serve Candidates' Penchant for TV
Reposted by: Marketing Vox
Thousands of dollars' worth of TV spots in support of one unnamed presidential candidate are set to go on-air through a new Web service from ad management service WideOrbit.
The company's VoterVoter.com system was created to allow individuals to place pre-existing or custom TV spots across local and even national stations and cable networks. The service and another from Spot Runner that's aimed at political advertisers could mean ad spending through Web-based tools for buying TV ads will exceed the tiny amount candidates and their supporters are expected to invest directly in online ads this election season.
According to Eric Mathewson, founder and CEO of WideOrbit and VoterVoter.com, "several hundred thousand dollars" of TV ad insertions, all for one presidential hopeful, have been submitted through the system, expected to launch today. "But that's not by design; that's just the way it turned out," he continued. The company provides software to manage sales, trafficking and billing of ads running on hundreds of TV and radio stations, cable networks, and in mobile and out-of-home environments.
The VoterVoter site has a handful of TV spots created by independent TV producers available for anyone to choose and target based on a city, state or national level, day-part, and other demographic data. But the company is hoping many more will be added to its library by amateur producers or Hollywood types.
"I think there are people out there, particularly in the creative and advertising world... that would like to create better messaging for the candidates," said Mathewson.
Spot Runner, a Web system used to design ready-made locally-targeted television spots, is working with "a few dozen" political advertisers, including Erik Fleming, Mississippi's Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate, according to the firm's VP Communications Rosabel Tao. Many of its customizable ads are based on issues like the environment, or border security, such as one that indicates the candidate "knows how to keep our communities safe, secure... and American."
Spot Runner's Political Advertising Program enables targeting by political district in conjunction with other data such as age or household income. As with the VoterVoter service, it lets advertisers vary ad creative depending on the audience or region ads are targeted to.
Spot Runner and similar online services "can give the campaigns an advantage," said Jaime Bowers, new media director at National Media, a full service media agency for Republican campaigns. She doesn't think they pose a threat to agencies like National Media. "I think it's a completely different service," she said. "They don't substitute for the experience and wisdom of an agency."
Both ad buying systems are open to anyone, not just candidate campaigns or advocacy groups. That prospect may frighten some candidate campaigns. While the Web has been flooded with blog commentary, homemade viral videos, e-mails and other content created by individuals to influence elections, the ability for lone supporters or relatively small groups of people to easily place ads on TV takes the lack of control inherent in the Web to a new level.
To Spot Runner and VoterVoter, it's all about "democratization" of the political process. "There's always been very broad discourse on the candidates... with blogs, multiple news sources, Web sites, etc.," said Mathewson. "We're simply enabling freedom of speech rights." Still, the fact that such systems could facilitate TV ad buys by operations such as 527 groups, known for negative and influential campaigns, could create controversy.
Although he plans to promote the service to individuals at first, Mathewson didn't rule out going after organizations such as 527s. "We do have designs on a much broader swath of the political populace," he told ClickZ News.
TV spots delivered through these systems must be disclosed in the manner required of all political ads. For instance, the anti-Barack Obama ad from VoterVoter that declares, "He's change we can't believe in," also must indicate who paid for its placement. In addition to disclosure requirements, VoterVoter takes care of Federal Election Commission filings required of political advertisers. Because individuals must disclose their involvement with a candidate campaign, the firm doesn't seem too concerned about rogue political staffers placing ads through its system.
Costs vary to use both platforms, though Mathewson said VoterVoter will take the traditional 15 percent cut from TV stations running its ads, and will require a minimum expenditure of about $1,000 by advertisers. Spot Runner ad creative rates start at $499 and go beyond $15,000.
Although Spot Runner enables digital advertising, it hasn't seen much interest in Web ads from its political advertisers since introducing its system in beta last year. VoterVoter expects to roll out other media options, too, but decided TV was the logical place to start. That conclusion comes as no surprise considering the dearth of online political ad spending, and the fact that donations raised on the Web are often used to advertise on television. Reports indicate online political ad spending in the 2008 election could be as low as $20 million.
According to Tao, many political advertisers don't even buy Spot Runner ads through the Web site. "A lot of our candidates actually call us," she said.
Return To TopThe Nation
Ari Melber
March 27, 2008
New Site Airs Homemade Political Ads on TV
Reposted by: Free Republic, HowieinSeattle, MugDave, Yahoo! Tech
Forget the YouTube election. For the first time, Americans can now run their own political advertising campaigns on television, thanks to VoterVoter.com, a new business unit of a major advertising firm.
Starting around $1,000, the site lets people purchase broadcast time in any market across the country, target specific demographics, and choose an ad for their candidate or cause -- or even make their own. Then the company, WideOrbit, which currently manages about $10 billion in advertising across 900 television stations, places the ads and takes a standard 15 percent cut of sales. "This is the first focused political site that enables the purchase of air time," CEO Eric Mathewson told me. WideOrbit's current clients include NBC Universal, Hearst and Gannett. Operating as a nonpartisan business, it will run political ads from across the political spectrum. Mathewson says he already has early orders for "hundreds of thousands of dollars" in ads for one of the presidential candidates, and he expects a full range of buyers once the site goes live on Thursday. Current users kept their names private, for now, but FEC law requires that buyers' names are listed at the end of the ads when they air.
VoterVoter.com is launching with mock-ups of positive and negative ads for the three presidential candidates, and it plans to roll out ads for congressional, state and local races. The site also welcomes open source input from donors and activists. If a homemade ad is popular on YouTube, for example, Mathewson said VoterVoter can help buyers produce a similar message in the high resolution video required for television broadcasts.
In an era when hundreds of thousands of people donate to candidates and millions more debate politics online, VoterVoter could find a receptive market in donors and activists willing to pool their resources for a greater impact on campaign messaging. And when buying ads directly, donors are not restricted by the FEC's $4,600 limit on donations to individual presidential candidates. Political advertising often captivates activists -- netroots groups and the John Edwards Campaign have previously run contests to broadcast grassroots ads. Just this week, MoveOn.org launched an "Obama in 30 Seconds Ad" competition, promising the winner's ad would "air on national TV." If VoterVoter catches on, volunteers, bloggers and donors could skip the contest and air their ads directly. (Screenshot included)
Return To TopPersonal Democracy Forum
Micah L. Sifry
March 27, 2008
VoterVoter Launches: Could This Be the ActBlue of Political Ads?
When we launched Personal Democracy Forum back in 2004, we posted a modest manifesto. It starts:
Democracy in America is changing.
A new force, rooted in new tools and practices built on and around the Internet, is rising alongside the old system of capital-intensive broadcast politics.
Today, for almost no money, anyone can be a reporter, a community organizer, an ad-maker, a publisher, a money-raiser, or a leader.
If what they have to say is compelling, it will spread.
Well, one more piece of that vision has come to fruition. Now, thanks to a new nonpartisan service called VoterVoter, you can not only be an ad-maker who spreads your ideas on the net. You can get your ad on television, without having to learn how to navigate the complicated world of TV ad-buying, targeting and placement.
Historically this was too difficult for an individual to do, says Eric Mathewson, the founder and CEO of VoterVoter, who spoke with techPresident yesterday. He's right. But that's changing. VoterVoter will take a user-generated ad, or work with the maker to get it into high-resolution video required for TV. It is also going to post all the ads that people are making, and enable anyone to sponsor an ad, choose where they want to place it, and help sponsors target by geography or viewer demographics. Any assertions made in an ad has to be documented, but other than that VoterVoter will impose no restrictions on what users can upload or sponsor.
The minimum required to sponsor an ad is $1,000, and the price increments rise rapidly from there, with VoterVoter taking a standard 15% fee. The company is a subsidiary of WideOrbit, an advertising firm that manages $10 billion in advertising., and this new service is built on top of its existing relationships with about 1,000 TV stations in the U.S. Mathewson clearly has his eye on a wealthier clientele, noting that individuals in California alone spent $40 million on political ads in the last cycle. Observing that such people are limited in what they directly give to campaigns, he expects that many users of VoterVoter will be independent players or institutions looking for a new efficient way to get their messages on TV.
That may well be, but I suspect VoterVoter's real potential for growth will be in supporting the myriad of self-organizing political groups populating the blogosphere and videosphere. With a few tweaks to its platform, VoterVoter could become the ActBlue of political advertising. It would have to make it easier for individuals to visibly pool their money thru the site (rather than requiring one entity to pay upfront), and it would have to make visible usage statistics, so everyone could see which ads were popular and where they were being placed. But with those functionalities, it could help foster a lot more participation in one of the last preserves of the professional political consulting class. Imagine a group of bloggers who were trying to make a difference in a Congressional race, frustrated with their candidate's official advertising, or wanting to hit her opponent with an independent attack ad. VoterVoter will make it a lot easier for online political activists to play the old media game, or perhaps introduce a whole new vernacular to political advertising on TV.
In our conversation yesterday, Mathewson admitted that he had not even heard of ActBlue, but quickly understood its significance. We've talked about making this service accessibly to groups, in the future. And over time we will show more data about the ads themselves, he told me.
This could get very interesting.
Return To TopPolitico
Anne Schroeder Mullins
March 27, 2008
Get ready to see some homemade ads on TV
Reposted by: Wonkette
As of today, VoterVoter.com is helping you get more airtime for your chosen candidate. Basically, VoterVoter is going to air homemade ads on TV. Huh? Homemade political ads? On TV? But how? And why? Here's why: "In an era when hundreds of thousands of people donate to candidates and millions more debate politics online, VoterVoter could find a receptive market in donors and activists willing to pool their resources for a greater impact on campaign messaging. And when buying ads directly, donors are not restricted by the FEC's $4,600 limit on donations to individual presidential candidates," writes The Nation. Ah, the loophole. Or, in VoterVoter's words:
Q: Why use VoterVoter instead of contributing the money directly to a cause or candidate?
A: VoterVoter allows you to select the specific advertisement you want to support and the amount that you want to spend. Because you are not contributing to a campaign but are making your own choice on how to spend your money, your independent expenditure is not limited. If you were to contribute your money to a candidate, you would be limited by Federal Election Commission guidelines, which currently limit contributions to $2,300 per election cycle.
As they say, stay tuned.
Return To TopShellyPalmer.com/ MediaBytes
Shelly Palmer
March 27, 2008
2008 03-27 MediaBytes: YouTube Insight - Comcast - BitTorrent - CBA - VoterVoter
YOUTUBE has added Insight, a new feature that tracks when and where videos are being watched. Insight breaks down views by both geography and time, giving video publishers some powerful new performance data. The tool has a number of practical applications, including market-testing TV ads to determine locations with high receptivity. Most importantly, it will provide more data on what makes a video popular on the top video-sharing site.
COMCAST and BITTORRENT will collaborate to make the P2P software run more smoothly on the Comcast network. Comcast will stop throttling traffic for all users of any specific application (such as BitTorrent) and focus only on users that consume a large amount of bandwidth. BitTorrent will also tweak its code to work more effectively on Comcast's network. Comcast plans to have its new policies in place before the end of the year.
THE COMMUNITY BROADCASTERS ASSOCIATION has filed a court action to prevent the marketing of DTV converter boxes that block analog signals. The federal coupon program currently only supports boxes that are all-digital, which means that consumers who make the switch will be unable to access local low-power stations that are still broadcasting in analog. The CBA claims this violates the FCC's 1962 all-channel receiver act and creates a major threat to its stations. The group asked the FCC to rule on the matter last year but has not received a response. The issue will now head to court.
WIDEORBIT has launched VoterVoter.com, a powerful new tool that allows ordinary citizens to purchase political advertising on television. Users can create their own video ads, use ones that others have uploaded or choose standard spots offered by VoterVoter. WideOrbit will place the ad based on the desired demographics and locations, taking the standard 15% cut. Purchases are not subject to FEC donation limits. The site launches today with a focus on the presidential election. However, WideOrbit plans to add support for congressional, state and local races.
VERIZON has asked the FCC to force cable operators to accept disconnect orders directly from a customer's new video provider, just like they require for phone companies. Currently, cable operators will only accept disconnect orders directly from the customer, which Verizon says slows the process and hinders their ability to gain new customers for its FiOS TV service. The NCTA's VP of communications called the request a fairy tale complaint and a lame attempt at seeking a regulatory handout.
MOTOROLA has officially decided to spin off its troubled mobile pone unit, creating a separate publicly traded company.
Return To TopABC News Channel 36
Ted Fioraliso
March 27, 2008
Do you think you can make a better political ad than the ones the presidential candidates are running?
It's called votervoter.com
Founder Eric Mathewson knows the media business. He invented advertising software used at almost a thousand media outlets nationwide, and he's a stockholder in our parent company.
"Votervoter.com allows an average person to purchase TV time directly to benefit a cause or a candidate they're really passionate about," said Mathewson.
On votervoter.com you can sponsor or create your own political ads. If you like an existing political commercial, votervoter can recreate it with a similar message and get it on the air.
"I think this is a good effort. It's taking YouTube and Myspace video to the next level of trying to get these personally-produced activist-originated videos airtime," said Elmira College political science professor Jim Twombly.
He says he has a few concerns.
"The access that private individuals now have to larger media is significant and further de-democratizes the whole process," said Twombly.
Media outlets set the ad prices, and votervoter.com charges a 15% commission.
"Is it really a question of because you have more money than I do, you get to have more of an influence in the political process. Some people would argue that's not fair," said Twombly.
So, what do you think? Is this an unfair advantage for the rich, or a chance to give ordinary citizens more of a say in the political process?
