The Jakarta Post
May 23, 2009
Megawati and Prabowo Embrace Grassroots
by Dicky Christanto
The "People's economy" is a central and strategic issue Megawati Soekarnoputri and Prabowo Subianto are raising to increase public support for their election bid.
Megawati's Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) and Prabowo's Great Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra) are preparing to make the grassroots aware of the significance of "people's economy" during their presidential campaign.
Hasto Kristianto, deputy secretary of the Megawati-Prabowo team, said groups of party activists would be deployed to explain the pair's working programs, which emphasize the need to promote the concept of "people's economy".
Gerindra deputy chairman Fadli Zon said these groups would assist people to get familiar with the idea.
"This idea means empowering the people to attain autonomy over finance, food, national defense and strategic industries.
"There are plenty of ways available, ways that could be taken without sacrificing the lives of the people," Fadli added.
University of Indonesia political expert Maswadi Rauf said there was no other way for Megawati and Prabowo but to once again struggle to uphold people's economy as a strategic issue.
"We still face issues of corruption, poverty, lack of jobs and foreign debts, thus Megawati and Prabowo should be go all out in promoting their people's economy theory to win the election. They should do whatever it takes, including arranging some improvements," he said.
In another strategy to woo support from voters during the July 8 presidential election, the PDI-P and Gerindra plan to offer simple yet meaningful working programs during their campaign.
The two coalition partners also said they would have to improve strategies to convince voters the Megawati-Prabowo ticket would work hand-in-hand for the people, especially at the grassroots level.
"We have realized that right now we are living in the era of how to retain public image. This time we are paying serious
attention to this particular area by offering simple yet meaningful working programs," Hasto said.
"But of course we won't sell an empty and fake public image, which in the end would generate nothing but great confusion to the people," he added without elaborating.
Gerindra deputy secretary-general Abdul Harris Bobihoe said the pair's plan to publicly declare the partnership of Megawati and Prabowo for the race in Bantar Gebang, a slum area in Bekasi, two hour's drive east of Jakarta, on Sunday, is part of their strategy to get close to the grassroots.
"After the declaration event, we will move forward with more programs," Harris said.
The event is expected to involve thousands of people from all walks of life.
PDI-P politician and declaration coordinator Aria Bima, said 10,000 people were invited to the event.
Asked about the funding for the pair's presidential campaign, Arif Wibowo of the PDI-P's campaign team said the
Megawati-Prabowo ticket had collected Rp 15 billion in cash from supporters.
"But this is just an initial record of the funds, of course we expect more to be collected soon to finance the whole campaign agenda," he said.
Hasto said the Rp 15 billion fund was not enough to educate voters about the pair's programs.
"We need at least a series of advertisements in various kinds of media, tons of leaflets containing explanations of our working programs, and thousands of human resources," he said.
"I predict we are going to spend more than Rp 100 billion."
In comparison, Gerindra and Prabowo were rumored to have spent more than Rp 500 billion on advertisements for the legislative elections.
Minggu, 07 Juni 2009
Obama Spent Most of $3 Million This Year on Google
Barack Obama's campaign spent nearly $3 million on online advertising related purchases between January and April. The biggest recipient of the Democratic Presidential hopeful's online ad dollars was Google.
The search giant scored over 70 percent of money spent on online media buys for the Illinois Senator's campaign this year through April, according to information compiled from Federal Election Commission filings. More than $2.08 million was paid to Google, as listed by Obama for America in its itemized FEC reports.
After spending about $640,000 in January on online advertising, the campaign pumped its online ad budget up to $1.18 million in February. Expenditures tapered to about $905,000 the following month. Filings show spending of only around $234,000 in April. However, previous monthly reports suggest more April online ad payments will be reported in the future; Google didn't even appear in April spending data supplied by the campaign.
Some estimate as much as $3 billion could be spent by political campaigns leading up to the November election, so a few million seems miniscule. However, the FEC reports offer a glimpse into how the presidential campaign with the most cash is allocating its online spending.
Like countless commercial advertisers, the Obama camp has gravitated towards performance-based ad buys, and not only on Google. The other top recipients of his campaign's online ad dollars specialize in cost-per-action ads as well. In addition to Yahoo search ads, payments to performance ad networks including Specific Media, Pulse360, Microsoft-owned DrivePM and AOL-owned Quigo also showed up in FEC filings reflecting spending between January and April.
While it appears the bulk of Obama's online ad budget was spent on Google and other performance-based media, a small portion did flow towards direct buys on Web sites including Politico ($36,000), CNN.com ($24,000), and Gothamist ($2,800). Those most likely involved CPM-based display ads.
Microsoft also was listed as a recipient of online ad payments, though it is unclear whether those listings refer to MSN's display ads, sponsored search results, or both. The company received about $83,000 for online advertising between January and April according to FEC filings. Online video ad network Broadband Enterprises also garnered $80,000 from Obama's campaign in March. Missing from the reports are the names of other prominent ad networks like AOL's Advertising.com and Valueclick.
And while the news and political sites and blogs hoping to gain from election year spending are barely represented in Obama's reports, many obtained money indirectly through those Google and other ad network buys.
While Yahoo has served an abundance of online display ads during the primary season, the FEC reports indicate the company saw just a sliver of Obama's ad dollars so far this year. Compared to Google's millions, it appears about $180,000 was spent on Yahoo search ads; meanwhile payment notes indicate approximately $172,000 went towards display ads seen on Yahoo's site.
Indeed, it is not clear how much spending on Yahoo and Google went towards sponsored search ads as opposed to display ads, though there are indications. There seems to be an enormous disparity in money spent on Google AdWords sponsored links versus display ads in its content network. Itemized payments show only about $18,000 was paid to "Google Image Domain" -- possibly meaning Google's AdSense display network. In comparison, about $2.06 million was paid to "Google Inc," possibly for ads seen on Google's own site. Neither the Obama campaign, nor Yahoo and Google responded to ClickZ's inquiries regarding Obama's FEC reports.
Among social networking sites, Facebook appears to be the winner, scoring about $47,000 in online ad dollars from the Obama camp. Some of those line items were payments of less than $100, indicating some Facebook purchases may have been made by state or local branches of the campaign. MySpace collected about $11,500 from Obama for America through April, while Community Connect, publisher of ethnic and lifestyle-oriented social networks, took in about $5,000.
Online local media outlets were also beneficiaries of Obama's still active primary battle for the Democratic nomination. The campaign paid about $250,000 to local online media buying firm Centro through April, though some of that money most likely went towards creative services. The company designed and placed expandable video-enabled banners aimed at Texas and Ohio primary voters in late February.
| Estimated Online Ad Expenditures by Obama for America -- January 2008 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Media Firm | Amount Paid | |||
| All | $640,000 | |||
| $507,000 | ||||
| Yahoo | $77,000 | |||
| Right Media | $23,500 | |||
| Microsoft | $22,000 | |||
| Pulse360 | $4,000 | |||
| Quigo | $2,500 | |||
| Source: FEC data compiled by ClickZ News | ||||
| Estimated Online Ad Expenditures by Obama for America -- February 2008 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Media Firm | Amount Paid | |||
| All | $1.18 million | |||
| $890,000 | ||||
| Yahoo | $173,000 | |||
| Pulse360 | $32,500 | |||
| Quigo | $22,500 | |||
| Microsoft | $15,000 | |||
| $9,000 | ||||
| Source: FEC data compiled by ClickZ News | ||||
| Estimated Online Ad Expenditures by Obama for America -- March 2008 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Media Firm | Amount Paid | |||
| All | $905,000 | |||
| $687,000 | ||||
| Broadband Enterprises | $80,000 | |||
| Yahoo | $50,000 | |||
| Microsoft | $40,000 | |||
| $17,000 | ||||
| Source: FEC data compiled by ClickZ News | ||||
Other Related ClickZ Campaign '08 Stories:
Obama's Web Ads May Have Helped Big North Carolina Win
Web Ads from Left and Right Advocacy Groups Signal More to Come
Obama and Clinton Led Display Ad Drop in March
UPDATE: This story has been updated to reflect corrections to some originally reported numbers. Mainly, the total spent by Obama for American between January and April 2008 was changed from $3.47 million to nearly $3 million. Other updates: Google's portion of total spending was changed from $2.8 million or 82 percent to $2.08 million or 70 percent; total payment made to Google, Inc. was changed from $2.8 million to $2.06 million; Obama's February online ad expenditures were changed from over $1.9 million to $1.18 million; March spending changed from $888,000 to $905,000; spending on Microsoft was altered from $73,000 to $83,000; total paid in March to Google was changed from $679,000 to $687,000; total paid in March to Yahoo incorrectly shown in the chart as $100,500 was changed to $50,000.
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