Edwards on YouTube

As democratic presidential announcements begin to pile up in a campaign cycle that is expected to reach $1 billion, the prospects of reaching voters online is putting campaign assets to more creative uses - not just the classic TV mudslinging that dominated the 2004 campaign between Bush and Kerry.

Barack Obama, John Edwards and Hilary Clinton selected the web to announce the launch of their presidential campaigns: Edwards used YouTube, Clinton her website and Obama hired internet-TV services provider Brightcove to seed his video onto websites of his choosingm offering viral options to viewers, according to AdWeek.

Not to be outdone, Republican John McCain has exploremccain.com up, which invites people to create their own site to promote the Senator and help raise money for the campaign.

"Creativity is huge, and it is a major strategy difference," said Roy Spence, CEO of Omnicom Group's GSD&M, who is providing strategic counsel to Clinton's campaign, among other Madison Avenue heavyweights that make up Clinton's ad team.

Media buys are also getting creative - and controversial in Clinton's case. She promoted her series of podcasts via the top political blogs, left-wing and right-wing. However, once the podcasts ended, she asked that the right-wing blogs pull the advertising, essentially paying them not to run her ads, according to MediaPost.

New media's share of presidential-campaign ad spend is expected to rise from around five percent in the 2004 campaign to 15-20 percent this year, according to Matthew Dowd, chief strategist for George W. Bush's 2004 campaign, AdWeek writes.