Mudslinging Made Easier

If the usual last-minute flurry of political TV ads seems particularly frenzied in the 1998 election, it’s largely because of an unusual computer network assembled by San Francisco company Digital Generation Systems.

Using wireless Internet technology and computer servers placed in television and radio stations around the country, DG Systems has compressed into hours an ad distribution process that once took days, enabling candidates to launch attacks and counterattacks with unprecedented swiftness.

The company has handled the dispersal of ads by Senate candidates Barbara Boxer and Matt Fong, as well as gubernatorial candidates Gray Davis and Dan Lungren. Nationwide, the company has been hired by 360 candidates, including Jeb Bush in Florida and George Bush in Texas.

“This is the first time we’ve had this network up and running for political campaigns,” said Greg Schott, vice president of marketing at the company, “and they’re using it like crazy.”

The network takes advantage of the wireless Internet technology, using the DirectPC satellite service to transmit ads stored as computer files directly to computer servers positioned in 550 television stations and 7,000 radio stations around the country.

The ads are loaded, encoded and compressed at facilities that DG Systems has in 26 major TV markets and 350 radio markets.

The network enables campaigns to distribute ads almost anywhere at any time of day, simplifying a process that otherwise requires campaigns to buy satellite time in sync with TV stations’ various downlink schedules. The DG Systems process is also cheaper: about $70 per ad transmission instead of $400 or more for satellite feeds.

DG Systems, which expects revenue of $45 million this year, has found a niche in politics but also works in other areas that depend on rapid ad roll-outs. Miramax and Warner Bros., for example, use the company to distribute movie ads tweaked according to the latest marketing research. TV networks also use DG Systems to promote news shows and other programs whose content can change until just before they air.