Campaign Advertising Scorecard

In advance of the national conventions, the Nielsen Company released an overview of the presidential campaign so far this summer, providing a closer look at the candidates' online presence and buzz, their advertising campaigns, as well as TV viewership for past political conventions. Among the key findings:

1) Online Audience and Videos Viewed: In July 2008 the number of video streams on JohnMcCain.com more than doubled, possibly due to press coverage around Sen John McCain's ad that compared Sen Barack Obama to Paris Hilton. Despite being behind in total video streams in July, BarackObama.com's unique audience was twice as large as JohnMcCain.com's in both June and July 2008.

2) Top Blogs: The Huffington Post blog includes the most mentions of both Barack Obama and John McCain (June thru Aug 17), while Sen Obama maintains the lead in overall buzz volume on blogs and message boards.

3) Advertising Online: In July, the "Obama for America" image-based online advertising campaign was five times bigger than the previous month -- 417 million impressions in July 2008 vs. 80 million online impressions in June 2008.

4) Top States for TV Advertising: During June and July 2008, both Sens Obama and McCain targeted their local TV spots at key battleground states including Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.