Online Advertising: The David and Goliath of our time?

by Rosemari


“If we had to do it over again,” reflects Josh Koster in his article Long-Tail Nanotargetting about Al Franken’s online advertising budget in 2008, “we would have spent more on Google and Facebook and much less on local newspaper placements.”

The power of online advertising is the honed by the ability to pinpoint your target audience. Online advertising not only allows you to get the most bang for your buck, it also gives you a greater opportunity to engage with individuals who have the most potential to buy your product, vote for your candidate, support your cause, listen to your band’s music, attend your event, and organize your rally.

You may not have the biggest budget or the widest audience, but it the right online tools and savvy, you can make a serious impact. The power of microtargeting online can be the catalyst for a David-and-Goliath style smack down. And that’s super exciting. 

Peter Greenberger’s article The Digital Playbook: Can online ads move polls numbers, draws similar conclusions based on a case study from RESOVE: The National Infertility Association. Grennberger’s article compared the impressive ROI RESOLVE’s online approach had to their public service announcement (PSA) for the same campaign that lamentably left their target audience with no measurable impact. 

Koster’s anecdote about removing Lou Dobbs from CNN’s roster was particularly inspiring and a testament to the importance of online strategy for impacts in mainstream media and our society at large. It made me feel like the playing field had finally been leveled.  The best ideas (and not the biggest budget) win! Or do they?

Before I get out my pom-poms, Koster reminds me, “like all digital success stories, [Al Fraken’s] case study is not about reinventing the wheel, but about modernizing a strategy that has always worked.” And while David may be the first jump on the online advertising bandwagon, history tells us that Goliath is not far behind.