The 2008 presidential election is already making history. And I'm not just talking about the tickets that will result in electing either the first African-American president or the first female vice president.

We are also seeing record levels in political advertising, especially for online ads. Nielsen reported that both the Obama and McCain campaigns increased their online spending as they entered into the heart of the election season and all indications point to online as the big winner in 2008.

Compared to traditional media, the dollar amounts for online advertising may seem small.

While analysts such as Leland Westerfield at BMO Capital Markets, see investments in online advertising climbing by more than 50 percent this year, the $15 billion ad spend on emerging media represents only 2 percent of the total ad-spending forecast by Universal McCann's Robert J. Coen.

However, being part of a business that's growing by as much as 50 percent at a time when the total market is growing by less that 5 percent represents a great ground floor opportunity.

Anyone who is inclined to assume that the online ad sales opportunity lies with only the national powerhouses, should be reminded of the compelling statistic contained in last Friday's "Jessell at Large" column by TVNewsday Editor Harry Jessell.

In making the case for the importance of net neutrality to broadcasters, he cited a Borrell & Associates forecast that expects total local online ad spending to jump from $8.7 billion last year to $13.1 billion this year.

Remember too that a presidential ballot isn't the only one we will be casting in November. In the Senate alone, Republicans are defending 23 seats and Democrats are trying to hold on to 12, in addition to House, state and local elections and ballot issues.

As Jessell notes, TV stations are uniquely positioned to seize this increasingly significant opportunity as online publishers.

The Online Publishers Association would agree with that assessment. A recent OPA report found that consumers trust advertising on local news sites and are very likely to take action after viewing ads on these sites. In fact, 44 percent of those surveyed responded to an online ad on a local TV site, making TV a close second to local newspaper sites, which came in at 46 percent, according to the study.

But the bigger opportunity for local broadcast and cable media lies in recognizing that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. Stations that integrate their online and on-air advertising programs have the opportunity to generate more ad revenue from cross-platform ad sales than either platform may generate if sold as independent silos.

This approach allows stations to give advertisers what they want. In a TVNewsday interview last week, Rishad Tobaccowala, the chief innovation officer at Publicis Groupe Media, said there is no better way to reach 25 percent or more of a local market than using traditional media, and TV is holding its share of mass audiences better than other media outlets.

Tobaccawala went on to tell TVNewsday Contributing Editor Janet Stilson (who also serves as editor of MFM's The Financial Manager magazine) that stations can leverage their Web site's ability to offer 24/7 access to local news and more in-depth coverage of a particular news story to grow their online audience share.

The interview also reinforced another message that we have been hearing from the advertising community concerning the premium that they are willing to pay for engagement. Compared to television ads that sell for a $20 cost-per-thousand rate, Tobaccowala explained that receiving 50 cents for each click from the station's Web site to the advertiser's is equal to a $500 cost per thousand.

In addition, technology is also making it easier for consumers to participate in cross-platform promotions. At MFM's Annual Conference earlier this year, Cox Communications' Director of National Advertising Strategy Milton Stumpus provided a successful example of telescoping based upon the cable operator's work during the Nevada caucus.

Cross-channel spots that ran on local ad avails drove viewers to VOD programming concerning the caucus process. In addition to data that showed how well the linear commercials fueled VOD viewing — and which cable channels were the most effective in driving traffic to the VOD content — the project was able to demonstrate additional voter activity that was attributable to the advanced advertising campaign.

Last week, the New York Times reported that Cox, along with Comcast, Time Warner and other cable MSOs, is tapping into this capability to promote "Elections '08 On Demand."

Similar to the Nevada Caucus example, cable systems will use a portion of their local ad avails to drive viewers to VOD programs, such as speeches from the national conventions or events involving their local candidates.

This example underscores the great opportunity that lies in creating cross-platform promotions tied to the 2008 elections, especially for state and local contests. And it doesn't require any more technology than the capabilities that already exist in the majority of today's TV households.

As studies by Comcast and others have shown, many households are surfing the net simultaneously with watching TV. A spot ad or crawl message reminding viewers about an "election '08 online exclusive" can persuade viewers to visit the station's Web site just as easily and effectively as the message encouraging them to vote for their favorite performer or dance couple.

Tracking the spikes in Web traffic that coincide with on-air messages represents a great way to demonstrate the value of cross-platform promotions to advertisers. Better yet, it's something that most stations can easily quantify.

These types of campaigns will be among the topics we plan to cover at "Follow the Money: Give Advertisers What They Want," MFM's 2008 fall Regional Seminar in New York.

The Seminar will be held Oct. 16 from noon to 5 p.m. at the Penn Club in downtown Manhattan (30 W. 44th St). For more information, visit MFM's Web site.

A few months ago, I told you about political campaign strategist Jeff Eller's example of a station in Texas that was running an online tracking poll in advance of the Texas primary. He was astounded to find that the Obama campaign had bought all the advertising positions on the station Web site that surrounded the tracking information.

This example should remind us just how predisposed media buyers from national, state and local campaigns are to buying online media, especially when there's a powerful medium driving targeted consumers to that destination.

Now is the time to launch a proactive political sales effort, an effort involving ad sales personnel for both your on-air and online business units that allows you take advantage of every opportunity you have to increase your political advertising revenues.

You may also want to consider Eller's suggestion to tap into some market wisdom from a local campaign media buyer who can help you identify what the campaigns are looking for now, rather than relying on the old strategy of sitting back and taking orders from the campaigns.

In today's world, an order-taking strategy guarantees that you are leaving money on the table. And in tomorrow's elections, the media outlet that isn't taking advantage of the premium paid for online engagement will lose out in both the traditional and new media markets.

Having advertisers choose a competitor is an election no one can afford to lose.

Mary Collins is the president and CEO of the Media Financial Management Association (formerly the Broadcast Cable Financial Management Association), a professional society for addressing the diverse needs of the industry's financial and business professionals. Her column appears here every other Friday.