Politicians will increasingly use the internet as a direct marketing and branding channel, relying on podcasts, blogs and attack videos distributed via email, as well as looking at Friendster and Facebook as ways to reach voters, writes writes Eric Frenchman in the MarketingProfs Daily Fix, citing a Sunday New York Times article that focuses mostly on blogs and websites.

He says political candidates will likely take a broader approach, and therefore face the same issue as private-sector advertisers - mixing of ads with uncontrollable content, for example. Nevertheless, they will expand their use of the internet for efficient media buying, raising donations via search and banners ads, building email lists, and branding messages.

Frenchman writes that "all those search campaigns are being measured on an ROI basis and banner ads that you see are being tracked for email sign-ups, traffic, and donations. Well, at least they should be. The future is now for candidates using the internet as the direct marketing channel that brands too."