Online ads 'a success for Obama'

5th September 2008

Presidential candidate Barack Obama had a more successful six months online than his rival John McCain at the start of this year, according to new figures from comScore.

Mr Obama benefited from significantly higher website traffic, online searches and ad exposure during the first half of 2008, the statistics suggested, with Mr McCain only outperforming Mr Obama in terms of online video views.

Some 92 million ad exposures were obtained by Mr Obama every month, compared with seven million for Mr McCain.

However, the latter saw 2.1 million video views during the period compared with Mr Obama's 612,000.

"While Obama's ads tend to be 'brand-building' ads encouraging people to join the movement, McCain's ads are often issue-oriented," added Andrew Lipsman, senior analyst at comScore.

According to Nielsen Online, Mr Obama saw the highest website traffic compared with other rivals during the last month of the primary season.