Company News and Culture / March 28, 2012 / By Erin Martin

Seven Video Ad Best Practices for Political Campaigns

As originally posted on MaxPoint Interactive‘s blog on March 28th, 2012

“Win Elections: Best Practices in Using Online Video Advertising for Your 2012 Campaign”
By: Anupam Gupta, CEO, Mixpo, Inc.

The top 10 Super PACs in the US have spent over $50 million in advertising on behalf of 2012 campaign efforts.  It remains to be seen how much of total campaign spending will be devoted to online, but rest assured it will eclipse the percentages spent in 2008 when allocations were in the sub-10% range.  Video ads were in their infancy in 2008. Today the story is wildly different.

In December (2011), the US internet audience watched 23.2 hours of video online on average representing 43.5 billion video views.  Meanwhile, one of every 5 American adults now owns a tablet computer, and 40% use it while watching TV (by the way, multi-screen exposure increases recall).  If broadcasters and programmers want to reach and engage with current and potential viewers, their program promotions have no choice but to be online – it’s where audiences live.

At the end of the day, online video advertising doesn’t have to be a drag on campaign resources.  Campaigns and Super PAC operations are often harried, particularly as elections draw near.  That said, campaigns can keep it simple, easy, and not stressful.

In its most basic form, online video advertising simply means taking a :15 or :30 TV spot and putting it online.  Take it up one level and it means adding interactivity on top of the video ad that appears as the ad plays like forms for volunteer sign ups, links to Facebook, additional video clips, and polling.  Sound like a lot of work?  It’s not.  Today’s video ad platforms can enable campaigns to add compelling interactivity in a matter of minutes.  Video ad creation can also be outsourced to broadcasters, publishers, and platform vendors that can provide superfast turnarounds.

If your campaign (or Super PAC) is going to invest in online video advertising, here are seven key tips to keep in mind:

1. It’s easier than you think.  There are plug-and-play web-based platforms out there that can help you ramp your video ad initiatives overnight and take advantage of best practices – all without incurring hassle.
2. Make sure you can measure campaign impact.  Every video ad network and portal as well as Facebook provides campaign reporting.  Clicks, percentage of video watched, etc.  But, campaign personnel need to be able to wake up in the morning and have one unified view of campaign performance across all campaigns media buys – aka “site by site performance.”  If a campaign is getting five different reports from five different media placements, it’s not easy to gauge performance.  Be sure to use a video ad platform that will give you all the reporting you need, all in one place, and in a way that will inform decision making.  It’s also important to have detailed reporting such as whether or not the interactive elements in the video ad are resonating or not.  Are viewers clicking on your Facebook link?  Good video ad platforms provide this level of detail.
3. Don’t forget about mobile.  7% of all web traffic occurs on mobile devices whether its smartphones or tablets.  Some video ads will “break” on devices, including the iPad.  It’s important to use a video ad platform that will avoid breakage; that will run the same ad successfully on any screen or OS.
4. Target, target, target.  Best in class video ad platforms, like MaxPoint Interactive, can enable you to target your impressions down to the neighborhood-level so that you’re not wasting impressions.  Some platforms can even change the message in your video – or even show different videos – based on who is watching and from where, what their political affiliation is, their gender, their age, and so forth.
5. Buy early.  In-stream video ad inventory can run tight at key election inflection points as can inventory on local sites where the amount of available impressions is less than on national sites.  Also, consider not only purchasing in-stream video inventory but also in-banner video inventory.  250×300 in-banner video ads are particularly effective, and a good video ad platform can take a single video ad and run it simultaneously as either in-stream or in-banner just like it should be able to run the same video ad on any screen.
6. Buy local.  Premium local media sites – such as local newspapers, TV stations, Cable, and Radio station sites – drive higher engagement than national sites targeted to the same geographic area.  Consider a mix of national and local.
7. Less is more. To achieve highest average percentage of the video viewed, keeping the video ad’s length shorter vs. longer is good – ideally no more than :30. Include links to additional videos for voters who want to dig in further.

About MaxPoint Interactive:

MaxPoint helps retailers and brands drive local in-store traffic with their innovative Digital Zip™ technology, delivering the most effective and scalable neighborhood-level digital campaigns. Maxpoint can pinpoint qualified customers interested in purchasing your product with more precision than using traditional zip codes, ultimately offering accurate neighborhood-level targeting with national reach and local results. Founded in 2007, MaxPoint has offices in New York, Chicago, Austin and Raleigh-Durham.