Ad infinitum

At first glance, it was somewhat surprising to see the NDP unveil its ad campaign to define Michael Ignatieff yesterday. But the more one looks at the decision, the more one sees reason to think the move may offer huge potential to boost the NDP's standing on the political scene.

How so? Note to start with that the campaign looks to be set up in the form of a positive feedback loop. Every time one of the radio ads plays, it'll accomplish two things: spreading the NDP's framing of Ignatieff, and sending listeners to the NDP website if they agree and want to hear more.

Meanwhile, the website is set up both to provide the party's take on what's happening, and to encourage those who agree to donate money and/or join the party - with an explicit focus on making sure the ads are more widely distributed.

So if all goes as hoped, the ads (which have received plenty of free media attention) will drive traffic to the site, which will drive greater distribution of the ads, which will drive more traffic to the site...and all this with side benefits like additional membership and donor buy-in.

And the party can choose to focus on emphasizing whichever one or more of the positive results it wants to. Indeed, for all the attempts to complain about the NDP spending money on the campaign, it's not hard to see how the party could substantially boost its bottom line if the campaign brings enough donors out of the woodwork.

Now, it may theoretically be possible to create that type of effect at any time. But there's surely no time like the present - when more eyes than usual are set on the political scene, when most progressives had united behind the very cause which the Libs abandoned, and where the Libs and Cons have both demoralized huge chunks of their respective bases. Which means that the NDP looks to have been right on target in recognizing and pouncing on a huge opportunity.

Naturally, there's room to quibble with some of the details. From my perspective, the ads seemed a bit on the boilerplate side rather than containing a lot of attention-grabbing material. And I'd still like to see the website set up to encourage more person-to-person contact and discussion rather than focusing primarily on memberships and donations.

But while there may be some room for improvement, the campaign ultimately looks to have the potential to build some significant momentum for the NDP on all fronts. And with that possibility brought to light, it would be difficult to conclude that the NDP's response was anything but the right one.