Richer data sources and a dog fight for the GOP presidential nomination will push ad buyers into new TV territory this cycle.
In 2012, President Obama’s campaign famously bought ads on some 100 networks, according to Rentrak, and had three-to-five pieces of creative running at the same time. None of the Republican presidential candidates can come close to matching the budget that made that possible — at least during the primary.
But with such a robust GOP field and a Democratic nomination contest that could turn into a heavy-weight bout, media buyers are pondering new ways to get campaign messages out on TV.
Hallmark Channel, Lifetime and A&E have been go-tos for GOP ad buyers trying to get their clients’ ads in front of female voters. Now, those cable networks are just the start of where candidates and their allied Super PACs will need to look to get their messages out.
“You’re talking about eight candidates and eight Super PACs — that’s sixteen advertisers right there all vying for a fixed number of inventory. Then don’t forget about Hillary Clinton, and Joe Biden possibly jumping in,” Neal McDonald, a media buyer working with New Day for America, the pro-John Kasich Super PAC, told C&E. “You can’t go in saying, ‘I only want to buy Fox News.’ You’re going to have to keep in mind other networks out there.”
Regional sports networks (RSN) are one option. In fact, Hillary Clinton has already placed ads on the Big Ten Network’s Iowa Hawkeyes games. In New Hampshire, candidates and Super PACs can use RSNs to go after the predominately male audience watching Bruins and Celtics games. Moreover, Fox Sports is pitching RSNs as a way for campaigns to reach undecided voters.
“Nobody watching news is undecided. You have to hit them because they’re your base, but the reality is, I’m never changing anyone’s mind with news,” said Stephen Ullman, who oversees political marketing and media at Fox Sports.
Fans, he added, “tend to be independent leaning – they’re not hardline Dem or hardline Republican.”
RSNs are also holding their ratings while the wider TV audience continues to splinter, according to Ullman. “The bigger picture here is that all the ratings have gone away. It was a glacier and the glacier is melting, but sports is still there.”
Fox, through its Home Team Sports banner, also offers campaigns pod exclusivity so spots won’t run in the same commercial break with a competitor. “That’s a lot different than all six spots being political during the news,” said Ullman.
Campaigns and Super PACs have access to more granular data this cycle through companies like Nielsen and Rentrak. And beyond knowing the detailed makeup of their audiences, some campaigns can now determine if a viewer actually interacts with their spot. San Francisco-based Delivery Agent, for instance, is using automatic content recognition technology on Samsung smart TVs to generate an interactive overlay on TV ads.
“It’s a data-rich sampling platform,” said Patrick Ivers, an executive vice president with the company. “For those who engage, the campaigns get a one-to-one contact with them. They’ve either got a cellphone number or other information that the viewer is providing them.”
They also get confirmation the viewer saw the ad and it registered enough to generate a response. Still, that kind of add-on may be the far from media buyers’ minds come January when they’re racing to get their clients’ spots on the air.
Brad Mont, a media buyer working with the Super PAC supporting Jeb Bush, questioned whether Republicans in the primary would dare to venture too far from orthodox buys.
“The data is there, but you’re still looking at very small numbers. It becomes a question of whether you have a specific message to get to this small number out on that 140th network,” he said. “Am I going out there to get them because I have a message I want them to see that I don’t necessarily want someone else to see, or am I going out there to get them because, hell, I’ve got so much friggin’ money I can afford to do that?”
For the Obama campaign, it may have been a combination of both. But those voters could’ve been reached for cheaper, Mont noted. An older female voter targeted on TV Land may also be reachable during an episode of “Wheel of Fortune.”
“‘Duck Dynasty’ might do a big number but everything around it is going back to hashtags,” said Mont. “It only makes sense to silo people out if you’re going to silo your creative.