I received this email from a tech-and-politically savvy friend. I thought it was worth passing along, especially since I've observed the exact same thing.
This isn't the sort of thing that by itself will make or break a campaign, but it's an indicator of how hard the campaigns are trying - or perhaps how many bases they've covered. Soon to be governor McDonnell's (Bleh!) campaign has done a great job with Google ads. I've seen his ads pop up in Gmail and many other places. Just today, while doing IT work, I was on a site looking up coding syntax and up pops a Google based McDonnell ad, reminding me to vote TOMORROW. Not only are the Google ads popping up everywhere I go (either calculated by my gmail content (some political) or by my location), but the ads are also timely and obviously changing.
None of this is rocket science - but it does take someone to invest the time, effort, and $$$$ to make the Google ads work right. Something that McDonnell's campaign has done and Deeds falls woefully short on.
It wasn't long ago that the Dems were kicking online ass. This time it looks like we got our asses handed to us.
UPDATE: While it's true that the Deeds campaign has done some high-quality, even sophisticated stuff online, the quantity has been miniscule compared to the Deeds' campaign's overall media expenditures. In addition, as the
Richmond Times-Dispatch reported yesterday "McDonnell had outspent Deeds more than 5-to-1 through Oct. 21 on Web, e-mail and blog-related expenses, which include online advertising." That's inexcusable; McDonnell's campaign hasn't outspent Creigh's campaign overall by even
close to 5-to-1, which means that proportionally, the McDonnell campaign has blown Creigh's campaign away in new media. Why?!?
