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Secret to Success This Electoral Cycle: Money, Data, Adaptability — and a Narrative
By Ken Wheaton on October 4, 2011
With the 2012 electoral cycle already well underway, campaign managers overwhelmed by a wealth of new media options, thousands of bytes of data, billions of dollars in advertising spending and multiple third-party players should remember this: “Story telling in political advertising is more important than ever.”
That was Catherine “Kiki” McLean, senior partner, global head of public affairs and managing director for Porter Novelli Public Services, at an afternoon Advertising Week panel discussion about political advertising. Ms. McLean, who worked on Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, joined Purple Strategies’ Rob Collins, Smart Media Group’s Kyle Roberts, ASGK Public Strategies’ Eric Sedler and Time Warner Cable Media President Joan Hogan Gillman.
The panel kicked off not with an obsession over what Facebook will mean for the candidates or how Twitter will change everything, but rather with four old-fashioned TV ads, chosen by panel members based on their strengths and, in one case, its weakness. The unfortunate ad was for Maryland gubernatorial candidate Bob Ehrlich, who lost his last try for office.