Digital Ads

Darren Samuelsohn reports at Politico:

A leading ad research firm recently estimated that more than $270 million will be spent across the country this cycle on digital campaign efforts — an 1,825 percent increase from 2010, when the first generation of tablet computers was just hitting the market.

And just wait until 2016, when online political spending could top almost $1 billion and for the first time surpass newspapers, direct mail and telemarketing. Digital spending will still lag a long way behind TV, but it’s creeping closer to cable and radio budgets.

The next big thing in political campaigns is finally here, and it represents a nice payday for the likes of Google, Facebook, Pandora and other tech giants that have become mainstays in an American voter’s daily routine.

“In one way, it’s surprising that it’s taken that long,” said Kip Cassino, an executive vice president at Williamsburg, Virginia-based Borrell Associates, the research firm that compiled the ad spending totals and predicted a growing “digital juggernaut” in each upcoming election cycle.