a4's Jordan Lieberman: Smart TV as a 2020 Political Campaign Option

That39s an estimate from Jordan Lieberman vice president of a4 Altice USA39s advertising and media buying arm Admittedly that amount may read like a drop in the political ad bucket especially compared to the billions these candidates will funnel through broadcast and cable networks online and elsewhere Realizing however that smart TV spending in this arena was virtually nil during the last national election cycle in 2016 there39s an accomplishment to be recognized Lieberman points outquotThe medium is so new and growth rate among candidates and causes is growing faster than even the most optimistic assumptions a year or two agoquot he says quotThis is year one and we39re going to get better amp8230 into 2022 and beyondquotSeventy percent of the total political ad spending anticipated in this election cycle amp8212 the first one of the next decade amp8212 will go to linear broadcast and cable networks The other 30 percent will reach the public through everything else including direct mail online videoondemand and other digital placement according to various ad industry organizations Lieberman believes that the 500 million to 750 million earmarked for smart TV options amp8212 connected device distributed service and settop box amp8212 up to 15 percent of the digital spending quotIt will come at the expense of display ads and not surprisingly given recent events social mediaquot he explainsLieberman and his a4 colleagues see tremendous demand for smart TV advocacy from candidates running in the 2020 election The realization that these products are now how the majority of American households watch and use TV amp8212 upwards of 10 billion hours of content and applications per month according to Nielsen amp8212 is one factor Another is that quotthey cover the sweet spot of addressability plus a large screen sitting in front of a captive audiencequot Lieberman theorizes quotThose two things are hard to come by in politics We39ve got TV ads that are addressable like a piece of mail and measured like digital There39s plenty of data behind this medium that makes it a lot smarter than a basic cable buy Everyone gets everything they want with this buyquotOne factor preventing candidates from spending 1 billion or more on smart TV advertising for 2020 elections is limited inventory This is due to the number of TV setdevice makers accepting ads and the number of adsupported content options The training process among employees at a4 and elsewhere is to manage effective smart TV campaign buysquotWe focus our efforts on the best practices for targeting these ads That means coming up with the right media mix and the right tactics that win for our clients training our account managers to come up with media plans that work right and pushing back appropriately when requests don39t make sensequot says Lieberman quotFrom a selling perspective we want to give clients everything they asked for but more importantly don39t let them make mistakesquotAltice USA39s a4 unit is getting smart ad placement orders from both traditional TV and digital political consultants TV consultants are often coming through with bigger spending plans than their digital counterparts And the TV consultants are jumping into order placement faster than digital handlers because they quothave control of the creativequot Lieberman explains quotThey typically have more experience in this spacequotThe introduction of Peacock next April as well as other adsupported programming services carried through smart TV sets and devices throughout 2020 probably will not impact how much campaigns will spend in this manner in this election cycle in Lieberman39s thinking Besides not knowing how much inventory will open up when these ventures launch there39s the matter of the regulations and business decisions related to accepting political ads on the national or local levelquotThe next thing to think about as a publisher is where to generate the most inventory like swing states or generating inventory in smaller states with high political spending per capita like New Hampshire or Arizona amp8212 places where we know there will be a ton of spendingquot he goes on quotThat spend per targeted voter is going to go way up in states with multiple competitive electionsquotThe sure conclusion from a439s perspective The smart TV landscape carrying political advertising will mature in usage and spending very quickly from this campaign cycle to the others this coming decadequotWhat we will see here is a convergence between screens simplification of buying tools and truly buying audiences across screensquot Lieberman predicts quotThat39s what we39re looking for putting ads on the biggest screens to the right people at the right time over and over againquotClick the social buttons 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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a4's Jordan Lieberman: Smart TV as a 2020 Political Campaign Option

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Simon Applebaum

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a4's Jordan Lieberman: Smart TV as a 2020 Political Campaign Option

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