Bob Cerasoli and Mike Stafford

Grizzled advertising execs Bob Cerasoli and Mike Stafford will continue to embrace new technologies in 2008 as they handle the ads for several political campaigns, including Mayor Sanders’.

Since partnering four years ago in CerasoliStafford Media Management, the pair have smartly mixed their clients’ money in traditional media and the Internet. Digitally, they are particularly fond of the political Web pages run by KGTV and signonsandiego and like the ability to stray, such as tossing an ad for a politician on an online sports page or a land use initiative on a feature page more likely to attract women. In the upcoming election they’ll up the action ante. “We are hoping to use streaming video on the ads this year,” says Cerasoli.

Also in 2008 the pair will venture more into video on demand, a technology they used with Cox Communications to promote the Del Sur master-planned community.

Just don’t ask them to produce political fliers.

“We don’t get involved in those areas of direct mail,” says Stafford. “There are a lot of people who have long relationships with political consultants and consider direct mail sacrosanct. It is something that we understand needs to be used if it is money from the Republican party; their funding doesn’t allow them to buy mass media. We just think there is tremendous shrinkage.”