Field Notes Inside an Integrated Communications Agency

The biggest question looming in the wake of Barack Obama's historic victory is this:

What the heck is he going to do with all those email addresses?

No one knows exactly how many millions of email addresses the Obama campaign captured during his run for the presidency. But his emotional appeal to the electorate, coupled with a low-cost, instantaneous connection to millions of supporters, has the potential to fundamentally change the way public affairs is practiced in the United States.

Think about it. The U.S. House of Representatives is debating, for example, President Obama's immigration reform proposal. Congresswoman Virginia Foxx, one of Capitol Hill's most strident anti-immigrant voices, gets a half-million emails in support of Obama's plan from her own congressional district.

No industry group, trade association, non-profit entity or even political party has ever assembled such a massive public affairs asset as Obama's list. Millions on the list made the deepest investment one can make in a political campaign – they gave money. They are much more likely to heed an appeal from the new president to contact their member of Congress to urge the Change We Need.

Even an army of lobbyists can't compete with a message from a voter back in the district. The Obama administration's ability to demonstrate that the sender of the email does, indeed, live in Congresswoman Foxx's district and will, in fact, vote against her at the next election, portends a new era of grassroots public affairs.

I've been involved in political campaigns for years. In the days and weeks after Election Day, the mismatched campaign headquarters furniture is shipped off to someone's basement – or carted to the landfill. Files are dumped. And the hard-earned lessons are washed away in a sea of champagne or a trail of tears.

My prediction is the Obama campaign will be different. The campaign has been disciplined in every respect. It will find new ways to use its millions of email addresses. Count on seeing unprecedented grassroots support for the new administration's programs and in ways that no one has yet conceived. Change is on the way.

I have to admit, television is my guilty pleasure. Every night, after a long, grueling day at work, I make up some excuse as to why I cannot go to the gym and camp out on the couch for a little bonding time with Oprah. And yes, I love our DVR and its ability to magically skip over commercials and the unfortunate times when Dr. Oz pulls out a diseased liver to share with the audience. I realize, that the fact I own a DVR may be considered by some in my field of media buying to be sinful, but I see the contrary. In the same way I skip through the garbage I do not want to see, I can rewind and watch anything intriguing as many times as I want. Over the years I have enjoyed my ability to mentally note who is advertising in programs across all networks, including my favorite shows and the ones my husband forces me to watch.

Well you know what? I miss my commercials! I am longing to subject myself once again to the hundreds of messages marketers bombard me each day from the safety of my living room. Political ads are seriously making me insane. Don't get me wrong, I love a good political rivalry as much as the next person, but the current ad volume is just too much for me to handle. I tried to watch the 6pm news the other day and in one commercial break every single ad was political—not kidding. After awhile they all look like they run together; I could hardly tell where one ended and the next began. I'm pretty sure a lot of people end up tuning them all out after a while.

On top of the fact that the ads are starting to annoy me personally, I am really getting the brunt of it while at work. I may spend my evenings watching television, but I spend my days placing our client's ads on that same television. Small problem—there is a finite amount of inventory to purchase in television programming. Laws guarantee politicians running for office the ability to place their ads anywhere they want for the right price. When they all go crazy buying time all over the place guess whose commercials get kicked out—anyone who stands in their way! That would include the ads I place for our clients. So what happens then? I have to move my commercial somewhere else (more work) and then I usually have to move it again (even more work.) Luckily this only happens for a few weeks every two years.

On a related note, I have to just point out the irony in the sheer volume of political dollars being allocated to media spending.  According to TNS Campaign Media Analysis Group, political ad spending is currently on target to reach $2.5 billion. Am I the only one who would fall in love with the first candidate to pledge their campaign media budget to saving our economy?