political advertising

Ramping up national TV advertising around recent political news — the recent Republican Presidential Primary Debate, candidates’ appearances at the Iowa State Fair and the indictments of the former president, super PAC groups spiked ad spending over the last 60 days. For the last seven weeks, national TV political advertising has climbed to $3.7 million — a total of 952 airings amassing 975.4 million impressions, according to estimates from EDO Ad EnGage.

Agencies want broadcasters to run what they pay for and feel that should no longer be challenging in 2023, executives from Sinclair, Magna, Icon International and Locality said during a TVNewsCheck webinar last week.

Half-way through the off-year leading into the next presidential political media-buying cycle, the 2024 race already has spent twice as much as the 2020 cycle-to-date, according to an analysis by political and general market ad spending database analyst AdImpact. The $480.2 million spent through July 7, 2023, is 99.6% more than what was spent through the same point in 2019, according to the analysis.

Star Cillian Murphy and producers fired back at the Florida governor for using their footage in a heavily criticized anti-LGBTQ ad.

Advertisers may wonder how the reversal of YouTube’s decision to take down content that advances false claims that widespread fraud, errors or glitches occurred in the 2020 or other elections will impact ad-placement decisions. The change, which YouTube announced Friday, will not impact its advertising policies or YouTube monetization policies.

Emily Barr, TVNewsCheck columnist and former CEO-president of Graham Media, weighs in on the troubling implications of Sinclair’s closure of five newsrooms across its markets and what shoes may drop next for an industry up against serious headwinds. A full transcript of the conversation is included.

Elon Musk took over Twitter last fall with a pledge of transparency for the social media giant — but so far political advertising on the platform has been anything but forthcoming. Twitter has failed to disclose some political ads running on its site since early March, according to a review of its activity by Politico. At least three promoted fundraising tweets were not included in Twitter’s own data, seemingly contradicting the company’s policies and raising doubts about the integrity of the platform’s data and how many other political ads could go unreported.

In a request for declaratory ruling filed by the Florida Association of Broadcasters, an interesting question has been posed to the FCC – can other political advertisers who buy time during the LUR period be entitled to “lowest unit rates” rates if they are “authorized” by the political candidate?  Normally, such non-candidate political ads (usually referred to as issue ads) are charged much higher rates than those charged to candidates.

The final count is in, and ad spending for the U.S. 2022 elections came in 7.5% lower than originally forecast, according to final estimates from competitive ad intelligence firm AdImpact. Total ad spending by candidates and other advertisers across all national, state and local elections came in at $8.94 billion — 7.5% less than the $9.67 billion that AdImpact originally forecast in August 2022.

Former President Donald Trump’s campaign has split with its longtime TV ad maker, Jamestown Associates. One of the firm’s partners has decided to work with a Trump rival in 2024: Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor and ambassador to the United Nations who launched her presidential bid on Wednesday. The former president’s campaign, in turn, has decided that it would not renew its relationship with Jamestown, which crafted commercials for Trump during the 2016 and 2020 elections. Trump’s team also used the firm after he left the White House.

Democrats’ political committee focused on state legislatures is launching a new affiliated nonprofit whose first move is a digital ad campaign on abortion in Virginia — an early example of Democrats continuing to lean into the issue after a strong midterm performance.

Elon Musk’s social media service said it would begin to permit cause-based advertising to “facilitate public conversation around important topics.”

Campaign finance data shows Home Depot founder Bernard Marcus and Richard Uihlein of ULINE Inc. giving a total of $2.75 million to the Republican candidate.

ABC affiliate WSB-TV leads the nation in political advertising this year with $86 million so far. The figure jumps to nearly $232 million when taking in the period from Jan. 1, 2020 through Nov. 28 of this year, according to ad tracker AdImpact. It’s been a good stretch not only for WSB, owned by Cox Media, but other area stations as well. Three Atlanta stations were among the top five nationally for political spending between Jan. 1, 2020 through Nov. 28 of this year, according to AdImpact.

Political money as of Election Day is slightly over $500 million, or 103% of what was on the books on Election Day 2020. All that remains to be seen is whether there is a senate run-off in Georgia.

Early on, it thought the mid-term elections would attract spending that would beat its record revenue in 2020’s presidential election. That didn’t quite happen, but CEO Adam Symson said, the company was still proud to post record political revenues for a mid-term election.

Nearly 20 businesses and groups have restarted giving to lawmakers who voted against certifying the presidential election. Most business and industry political action committees that announced pauses after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol had already resumed giving to all lawmakers, including the 147 lawmakers who opposed certifying electoral votes from two states after the attack, Federal Election Commission filings show.

Campaigns are using social media influencers as a way to reach young and diverse voters, a novel and mostly unregulated strategy. Some are even spreading the message through dating apps.

A new report from Effectv that studied more than 200 political ad campaigns in the first half of 2022 concludes that when it comes to achieving the best results from TV, politicians should spend 10%-20% on campaign ads on streaming and the rest on traditional TV.

Political candidates are increasingly turning to sports to reach viewers and voters, according Viamedia, which sells advertising for cable TV operators. Viamedia said spending on linear cable and related digital networks in sports programming is likely to reach, if not exceed, the record levels seen during the 2022 presidential election year and triple the spending during the last midterm election in 2018.

Nancy Pelosi is creating static over the proposed Tegna-Standard General merger that would take a massive group of TV stations private — after she and fellow House Democrats got more than $500,000 in campaign donations from Byron Allen, a comedian-turned-media mogul who wants to block the deal.

The billionaire former New York City mayor is increasing his stake in the midterm elections after giving big to down-ballot Democratic candidates.

To help campaigns target ads, voter-profiling firms score millions of Americans on issues like guns, vaccines and QAnon.

The party is paying far more for TV ads than Democrats on the exact same programs. The reasons are tied to Republicans’ reliance on super PACs. Above, Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto paid far less for a 30-second television commercial during a Las Vegas Raiders game than a Republican super PAC did. (John Locher/Associated Press)

The party isn’t airing ads in six of the 14 GOP districts Joe Biden carried in 2020, as it directs money to help incumbents under threat.

Political ads are rolling in at a record pace at TV stations across the US, especially in states with tight races that may decide which party controls the Senate. Take for instance KSNV, the NBC affiliate in Las Vegas. Campaign spending this year at the station owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group reached $54 million through Oct. 5, according to spending tracker AdImpact.

Republicans in competitive House and Senate districts are hitting Democrats with a barrage of ads focused on voters’ increased fears about the surge in violent crime in recent years, with the issue playing a central role in many tight races.

Senate Republicans’ campaign arm is pulling millions of dollars in spending from New Hampshire’s race to shore up other candidates across the board, as Democratic incumbent Maggie Hassan continues to poll ahead of her challenger.

MAGA Inc., made an initial ad buy in the Columbus and Cleveland markets and has also placed ads in Pittsburgh, according to AdImpact, a media tracking firm. Ohio and Pennsylvania have key Senate races where Trump endorsed earlier this year. AdImpact reported $135,650 worth of ads placed in Pittsburgh and another $276,000 in Columbus and Cleveland so far, although those numbers are expected to rise as more stations report buys.

TikTok and Twitter won’t take campaign money, so Meta’s social network remains the default winner, even though strategists say the platform is losing its effectiveness.

Viewers might complain about the barrage of political commercials on the way as Election Day approaches, but they seem to pay attention to them. A new study from TVision found that when political ads appear, viewers stay in the room 22% longer than when other types of ads appear. TVision also said viewers’ eyes stay on political ads 15% longer than spots for other products or services.

Outside spending is pouring into the 2022 Senate races, as Democratic control of the chamber hangs in flux. Nearly $450 million in outside spending has been spent on Senate races so far this cycle, according to OpenSecrets, a watchdog group that tracks money in politics. Just over 80% of that sum, or about $360 million, went to the 10 races deemed competitive by Cook Political Report. Overall, outside spending has ballooned for a midterm year. Super PACs cycle-to-date have spent more than double what they had by this point in 2018 — and the total is just $41 million shy of the cycle-to-date spending during the 2020 election.

A torrent of advertising has buffeted Californians for months, much of it making promises far beyond a plump payoff from a game wager. With the stakes high, more than $400 million has been raised so far – easily a national record for a ballot initiative fight, and nearly doubling the previous mark in California set in 2020 – with another seven weeks to go until balloting ends on Nov. 8.

With the most intense period of campaigning only just beginning, Democrats have already invested more than an estimated $124 million this year in television advertising referencing abortion. That’s more than twice as much money as the Democrats’ next top issue this year, “character,” and almost 20 times more than Democrats spent on abortion-related ads in the 2018 midterms.

Although millions of American voters may not be aware of it, the powerful data-mining techniques that campaigns routinely use to tailor political ads to consumers on sites and apps are making the leap to streaming video. The targeting has become so precise that next door neighbors streaming the same true crime show on the same streaming service may now be shown different political ads — based on data about their voting record, party affiliation, age, gender, race or ethnicity, estimated home value, shopping habits or views on gun control.

Local cable advertising rep company Viamedia says it expects record midterm political advertising, with growth coming specifically in issue ads. Election ad spending is up 11% year-to-date, when compared to the 2018 midterm elections, and up 2% from 2020, a presidential year marked by heavy spending by Michael Bloomberg during the primaries. Digital and connected TV revenue is already 61% higher than in 2018 and up 38% from 2020.