Digital age: New face of US Presidential campaign

One has always heard of staggering amount of money spent by political candidates in high profile election campaigns, however, their spending on digital or online campaigning always used to be minimal or significantly lower than the actual money spent on the ground. However, this US Presidential elections the digital story is set take a quantum leap and a whopping $1 billion (Rs6,700 crores approximately) is expected to be spent by candidates and parties on their online campaigns.

Even though, it is no longer a new phenomenon, one the most striking feature of the ongoing US presidential election campaigns is the use of the digital space or world by the candidates to influence voters and to get even with their rivals. It was the current US President Barack Obama who successfully used the online space to win both his elections in 2008 and 2012.

In 2008, Obama spent approximately $22 million on his historic online campaign, and in 2012 he more than doubled it to $47 million. The writing was on the wall because Mitt Romney (Obama's closest rival in 2012) had spent a measly $4.7 million on his online campaign.

According to experts, looking at the way politicians and political parties are aggressively using the digital space for campaigning, the amount of money spent for campaigning for the US President's seat this year will easily cross $1 billion. From $22 million in 2008 to $1 billion in 2016 is going to be a manifold increase in spending.

According to digital experts, candidates and political parties have realised the importance of digital campaign. Speaking to dna, Nate Byer, strategy director of Blue State Digital, said, "Social media is faster, ephemeral and more expensive than ever."

dna visited the Blue State Digital office situated in Washington DC to understand how the online campaigns for US presidential elections are being run. The visit was arranged by the foreign press centre of the US department of state, as part of a tour called 'Nuts and Bolts of a US Election'. It is an attempt to familiarise the foreign media on how the US Presidential elections are conducted.

Blue State Digital was running current US President Barack Obama's successful online campaign in 2008 and 2012. "The digital channel allowed the campaign to speak to a demographic which was unreachable on traditional campaign channels," Byer said. "It enabled a two-way conversation between Obama and people," he added.

Obama experienced instant results from his digital campaign. "The biggest advantage was the power of social connection. It helped to find an authentic voice and create a community of supporters," Byer said. "Twitter was a rapid response tool for the Obama campaign," he added.

Emphasising the increased importance of social media and online campaigning for the 2016 elections, Byer pointed out that candidates and parties need to understand lightening speed in which the social media functions.

"Blink and you will miss it," says Byer.

"It is a very powerful too. One should be authentic and there should be a conversation. And above all, content has to be awesome," Byer quips.

In 2016, candidates and parties have gone digital aggressively. "There is no cap on the amount of money a politician can spend on a campaign," says Kenneth P 'Ken' Vogel, Chief Investigative Reporter at Politico.

Professor Marjorie Hershey, from University of Indianapolis, said, "73% Americans are now on social media and that's an upward trend that shows no signs of stopping. The last US election was prominent for its innovative and effective use of social media campaigning. With all this year's prospective candidates spending time and money on digital campaigns, though, voters now expect engaging social content as a given."