Political TV Ads Boom in an Era of Powerful Targeting

Television in particular has seen increased interest of late as campaigns take advantage of TVamp8217s ongoing digital transformation to make their campaigns more targeted and transparentamp160 Sophisticated political marketers are using the medium that helped Kennedy beat Nixon with the most modern targeting tools and without the drawbacks inherent in purely digital campaignsamp160 But where the races are really being run amp160and potentially won even for federal races amp160are at the local level which necessitates detailed media placementAccording to Tim Kay Vice President of Political Strategy at NCC Media the number of political TV campaigns his company will execute this year has dramatically increasedamp160 NCC represents multiscreen inventory across the US for national regional and local advertisersamp160 amp8220Weamp8217ve grown from 150 racesquarter in 2016 a presidential year to 250 racesquarter so far this yearamp160 Candidates are embracing televisionamp8217s fraudfree emotionally powerful messaging for sureamp8221Of course not every television sales organization can boast of NCCamp8217s capabilitiesamp160 The company which started as a rep firm for television distributors like Cox and Comcast has since grown into a 2 billion business representing a broad swath of digital TV alongside its traditional linear businessamp160 NCC today can reach nearly 3000 zones across the US making television at a below DMA level a reality for campaign strategistsKay who early in his career was a media buyer himself noted that in a world where the majority of buys used to go to broadcast networks political marketers are now following audiences just like other advertisers areamp160 amp8220The voter is no longer consuming just the 6 pm newsquot he saidamp160 quotWeamp8217re seeing them on Fox Newsamp160and CNNamp160and MSNBC but itamp8217s more than thatamp160theyamp8217re on Lifetime or Food Networkamp160 Weamp8217re seeing them on what we call the long tail and since itamp8217s about reaching likely voters we can be incredibly sophisticated with the strategies we offer campaignsamp160 We can target these individual pockets of voters whether itamp8217s at the county level the congressional district level or the state level and thanks to the information from our MVPD partners across multiple screensamp8221Kay says that what was once cumbersome and time consuming is now thanks to investments in technology and people highly efficient and that his team is able to do today in minutes what would have taken days to accomplish years agoamp160 But the technology enabling more than 13 million individual commercial units this election cycle is not according to Kay the real storyamp160 amp8220Itamp8217s about finding audiencesquot he explainedamp160 quotWeamp8217re bringing the right geographies programmingamp160and the other screens to our advertisersamp160 What weamp8217re doing today is powerful and what weamp8217re going to be able to do by the 2020 campaign in terms of targeting using addressable TV is going to be outrageousamp8221Jeff Haigney NCCamp8217s Regional Vice President of Political Salesamp160notedamp160that amp8220what weamp8217ve done to logistically enable targeting and increased intelligence for political advertisers is importantamp160itamp8217s actually reflective of how we go to market with the rest of our segmentsamp160 Political advertisers are definitely beneficiaries but our capabilities are being used by all kinds of brands and advertisersamp8221Haigney said that in 2018amp160political ads are expected to generate 950 million this year a figure that four years ago would have been between 600 and 650 millionamp160 That is a significant part of the billions that Borrell estimates will be spent on local and regional races this yearamp8220Whatamp8217s also interesting is how the marketplace responds when youamp8217re able to give clients what they ask forquot Haigney continuedamp160 quotWeamp8217ve responded to the political marketamp8217s need for expanded news inventory for exampleamp8221As another example Kay pointed to the transparency of NCCamp8217s reporting amp160amp8220With thousands of zones and complex data you might think reporting would be cumbersome or that we would take a while to turn it around but our political clients need that information quicklyamp160 With everything in electronic form not only are we fast but weamp8217re transparentamp160 Thereamp8217s a lot at stake in these campaignsamp8221Photo creditamp160 Steve HarveyUnsplashClick the social buttons above or below to share this story with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this content are exclusively the views of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc management or associated writers

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Political TV Ads Boom in an Era of Powerful Targeting

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Kathy Newberger

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Political TV Ads Boom in an Era of Powerful Targeting

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Kathy Newberger

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