"About That with Carl Mayer:" Alaina Donnellon (Episode 10: Political Spending)

About Alaina DonnellonAlaina has over 15 years of experience at Active specializing in the local video and audio marketplace She has held positions of increasing responsibility in media buying strategy and account management throughout her career As Senior Vice President Local Media Alaina leads a dynamic team of over 50 media professionals with oversight on all local campaigns Her role involves close collaboration with internal and external partners to craft strategic solutions steering Active39s clients through the everevolving video and audio landscapeTranscriptCarl Mayer Welcome to About That I39m Carl Mayer We39re already seeing record spending for the 2026 midterm election campaigns And here to help explain everything is Alaina Donnellon She39s SVP of local media print and out of home at AMSAlaina thanks for being here on About ThatAlaina Donnellon Thanks for having meCarl Mayer CM And welcome back another appearanceAlaina Donnellon AD Thank you very muchCM So far to date we39re over 17 billion in spending for the 2026 midterms That39s only going to ramp up when we get into 2026 proper What39s spurring all of this spendingAD Yeah it39s a lot of money spent so far It39s a record high start off for a midterm election They39re projecting about 108 billion total to be spent towards the 2026 electionsWe39re seeing a lot of competitive races especially because we have you know Republicans have current control of Congress You know we have a Republican president There39s a lot of drive for the parties both of them to either retain that control or jump in and take some of that controlWe saw that in the past month39s election in 2025 super competitive Over 860 million spent for 2025 which was a record high for an off year and advertisers felt that impact You know there was a lot of competition in states like New Jersey Virginia New York Wisconsin California and advertisers were certainly impactedSo they had to be flexible and you know look at some alternatives We39re expecting that to continue going into 2026 as we see increased spend certainly for Congress where we39re going to see some really competitive raisesCM With seemingly more of these states that weren39t competitive districts that weren39t competitive becoming competitive how much of that ad spending is going to be for Senate and House spendingAD So the projection right now is about 5 billion for Senate and House which is just under half of that 108 billionThere39s going to be very competitive races across a variety of states And we39re also seeing some states like Texas California Ohio North Carolina among others look at some redistricting which is essentially redrawing those congressional maps which impacts the House races to potentially benefit either party whether it39s Democrats or Republicans picking up more of those House seatsSo advertisers are going to need to be looking at the individual markets that they39re looking to advertise in and keeping tabs on those to see how that39s going to impact those markets and what they might need to do to protect their individual campaigns for next yearCM So what are some things that they can do Because as the spending goes up you know it seems that there39s endless coffers of money that the packs and the campaigns and the parties have access to but not an unlimited supply of ad inventory So they can keep an eye on it They can keep their finger on the pulseWhat can they actually do as a tactic to still get their message out there in this world of just fewer availsAD Sure So you know brands aren39t going to be able to completely avoid being impacted by political spend We39re seeing an increase every cycleSome of the things that they can do now in getting into 2026 is looking at Upfront campaigns laying those in across the stations in their markets that they39re looking to advertise in That39s going to help them kind of get in a little bit early and then be notified if there might need to be any adjustments further down the roadExpecting to be flexible in terms of if they need to shift into other areas like moving from broadcast to CTV or even looking at a broadcast stations digital extensions or sponsorships that they might be able to take advantage of In lieu of a traditional spot schedule that can help them keep their audience where they want in a little bit of a less cluttered environmentCM So there is a lot to unpack a lot to discuss We could seriously talk about this forever I could You might get bored but unfortunately we39re bumping up on the end of the show here So just on the way outWhat39s something you think is an interesting thing that everybody should know about that maybe they don39t nowAD We39ve seen a lot of increase in hybrid ads which is when a political party jointly funds a campaign with a political candidate as a strategy to get the benefit of the station39s LUR or lowest unit rate which is typically only available to a candidate within the political windowWe39re seeing a lot of increase there There39s also legislation that39s pending right now that they39re trying to get that campaign funding increase Right now there39s a limit on what political party can contribute to a candidate39s campaign and there39s an effort to try to increase that limit and loose end those regulationsSo if we see that happen that39s certainly going to be something that would drive a lot more spend into a lot of those competitive markets which is something that advertisers just need to be on the lookout forCM 2026 is going to be hectic and chaotic Thank you for helping kind of keep that at Bay and make it make sense Alaina Donnellon You39re welcome anytime you want back to About ThatAD Thank youCM Thank you for being hereAD Thanks so muchCM And we39ll see you next timeClick here to view previous episodesFor additional insights into 2026 political ad spending read Alaina Donnellonamp8217s article featured in TVNewsCheck httpstvnewscheckcombusinessarticlepoliticaladvertisingin2026willbeabumpyridePosted at MediaVillage through the Thought Leadership selfpublishing platformClick the social buttons to share this story with colleagues and friendsThe opinions expressed here are the author39s views and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillageorgMyersBizNet

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"About That with Carl Mayer:" Alaina Donnellon (Episode 10: Political Spending)

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