Media & Marketing:Unlike in Ireland, politicians in America can advertise their wares on television. But does a heavyweight advertising campaign mean success for the candidates at the poll? Not always.
Barack Obama has outspent all his Democratic rivals and, while big was better in Iowa, it didn't work for him in New Hampshire.
For Tuesday's primary in New Hampshire, candidates from both parties spent more than $26 million on television spots and voters were subjected to 30,000 political advertisements.
TNS Media Intelligence, a firm that tracks political advertising, calculates that Hillary Clinton spent $4.3 million on television advertisements to reach New Hampshire voters, while Obama's TV ad spend was $4.4 million.
According to Nielsen Media Research, Obama broadcast 8,500 advertisements in Iowa ahead of that state's caucus last week. Clinton bombarded the Iowa airwaves with 6,200 television and radio ads, while the John Edwards campaign stumped up for 2,600 ads.
However, it seems that no matter how much money a candidate spends on advertising, if the message doesn't resonate with the voters, the candidate will still get beaten, as has happened twice in a row for Republican Mitt Romney
In New Hampshire, Romney's campaign outspent John McCain on television commercials by two to one - $7.2 million to $3.5 million - but it wasn't enough to secure victory, despite the fact the multimillionaire candidate started advertising in New Hampshire 10 months ago.
Ahead of the Iowa caucus, Romney was responsible for 7,400 advertisements in the state but was beaten by former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, who operates on a shoestring budget.
Commentators observed that the Romney's heavy rotation advertising was so ubiquitous that it turned voters off. Pollster John Zogby told Advertising Age: "You can advertise too much. People get tired of seeing the same old face, and Romney went negative. Iowans didn't like it."
Obama's strategy of reaching out to young voters has largely influenced his campaign's television media-buying strategy where he is the most frequent advertiser on Ugly Betty, Private Practice, Grey's Anatomy, Dirty Sexy Money and The Women's Murder Club.
Clinton, who was hoping to garner a lot of votes from women, has weighted her television media advertising spots towards midday programming such as Martha Stewart and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?
TNS Media estimates that the television advertising spend in Iowa and New Hampshire totalled $70 million, with Obama splurging $14 million, Clinton $12 million and Mitt Romney $22 million.
The spend in other states is unlikely to be as big; as Iowa and New Hampshire can set the agenda for the rest of the campaign, voters there get special marketing attention.
To date, Clinton and Obama have each raised an estimated $100 million to spend on their campaigns. Fundraising is not just a way that candidates demonstrate their viability; it is vital to pay for the huge costs of running a campaign.
According to the Center for Responsive Politics in Washington, which monitors campaign spending: "Running for president is a bit like running a medium-sized business for two years and the overall race amounts to a decent-sized industry.
"How candidates spend the money entrusted to them by donors can say as much about the campaign as where the money came from."
In terms of the latest available spending figures relating to the Obama campaign, media spend and other marketing activity was just a small part of his overall campaign spend in 2007, though that is rapidly changing as the primary polls take place.
American election law provides that presidential candidates can secure matching funds from the public purse for their campaigns - but only if they limit their spending to certain thresholds.
Since 2000, more and more candidates have opted out of the system and proceeded to raise and spend money beyond the public system's spending limits.
Clinton, Obama and Romney have chosen to bypass the taxpayer-financed presidential campaign fund, a move that allows them to raise and spend money without limitation.
Presidential candidates use "bundlers" to raise money for their campaigns. These are fundraisers whose success at bringing in specific amounts of money is tracked by the candidate they are supporting.
Clinton's bundlers are known as "Hillraisers" and there were 320 at the last count, who collectively have raised $78 million for the former first lady. Most of the money that is paying for their presidential marketing campaigns comes from three sectors - lawyers, finance and property.
