The Conservative Party have taken out paid for online advertising with Message Space to promote their Maths Campaign, featuring Carol Vorderman.
Paid for political advertising is a rarity in print media in the UK and this is the first time I have seen a paid for party political banner impression. The creative is very basic, essentially a flyer for the campaign stuck on to a web page with a link. Whilst such banners, as featured above, are more restrictive than rich media online spaces, animation and a greater level of energy and engagment are certainly possible.
It is interesting that the Tories have used Message Space, the public affairs online media specialists. One might wonder why given that floating voters who might be persuaded one way or another by a banner advertisement are unlikely to be frequent visitors to websites such as LabourHome or Guido Fawkes.
The reason is that this part of their strategy will be to try and convert online supporters, who read and engage in the Message Space portfolio of political sites, into digital activists and advocates – online foot soldiers at the next election.
