The Air War vs. the Ground Game: An Analysis of Multichannel Marketing in U.S. Presidential Elections

This study jointly examines the effects of television advertising and field operations in U.S. presidential elections, with the former referred to as the “air war” and the latter as the “ground game.” Specifically, the study focuses on how different campaign activities—personal selling in the form of field operations and mass media advertising by the candidates and by outside sources—vary in their effectiveness with voters who have different political predispositions. The voting choice model takes into consideration voter heterogeneity and analyzes comprehensive data that include voting outcomes, detailed campaign activities, and voters’ party affiliation for three presidential elections (2004–2012). The results reveal that different campaign activities have heterogeneous effects depending on voters’ party affiliation. Field operations and political advertising from outside groups are more effective with partisans, whereas a candidate’s advertising is more effective with nonpartisans. These findings can help strategists better allocate resources across and within channels to design an effective political marketing campaign.