Advertising Operations Will Be Key For Winning Campaigns In ‘26

Forget about buzzy digital marketing jargon like predictive personalization and zero-party data. What could distinguish winning campaigns from losing one’s this midterm cycle is much simpler. It can boil down to how you deliver your ads. 

My company, XR Extreme Reach, has the tech infrastructure (and 30+ years of experience) to do that in a couple different ways. But more on that in a minute. 

You might be wondering why I’m putting such a premium on ad delivery. It stems from my experience on all sides of this industry. Before joining XR, I was at FastPay, a dedicated tool for political cash in advance payments. Before that I spent my career climbing the media buyer ladder at various DC-based public affairs shops and ventured into the ad tech side, growing political teams at RocketFuel and Magnite (Former: Rubicon Project). From planning and buying to reporting across all mediums, I’ve seen, and done it all. 

I’ve lived the urgency of political campaigns and know the stress and pressure to do the job. 

Convenience is not control.

In the past few months, I’ve seen campaign media buyers using file transfer tools like WeTransfer to send creative to TV stations. I’ve seen others upload spots directly to station portals, while some still email creative files to 20-50 stations every week.  

This approach may work early in the election cycle, but as campaigns ramp up in the fall, stations and the people managing them come under enormous pressure to keep pace. If you choose to send spots manually, you may not know if your spot ran until you get the invoice. 

There’s a better way and it’s faster, more convenient and has built-in checks to ensure compliance. 

You can email me about it (and I’ll give you the tool in under an hour)

Here are a few examples where that foundational operations piece really starts to matter. 

If your CTV creative is looking a lot like linear TV ads, you should consider using proven, TV-ready infrastructure.

The lines between digital and TV advertising are becoming increasingly blurred. As more digital agencies produce CTV creative, they’re also finding themselves responsible for getting that same creative onto linear TV stations too. The largest political shops having been doing this for years, but during this campaign cycle, that responsibility is spreading as CTV spending continues to grow. 

An Ad server gives teams the confidence to branch out.

An ad server is like air traffic control for advertising. It directs ads to the right destinations, makes sure they arrive when they’re supposed to, and keeps track of every delivery.

Many political advertisers still don’t use ad servers. Instead, they upload ads to their central DSP, then to each media platform (Meta, Hulu, Roku) individually and manually combine reports from multiple sources. It’s time-consuming, prone to mistakes, and one reason many campaigns stick to just a handful of publishers because every new platform means another upload, another set of requirements, and another report to manage.

An ad server simplifies all that by delivering ads across platforms, tracking what ran, and bringing the reporting together in one place — making it much easier to add new partners without creating more work.

XR for Political Ad Operations

Operational efficiency is a massive competitive advantage in this cycle’s political advertising arena. With XR, you can upload an approved ad once and get it delivered in the right format to every destination that matters, from TV stations and streaming platforms to digital channels.

Instead of repeatedly uploading files, managing different technical requirements, and piecing together reports, marketers can do it all from one place. That means less manual work, fewer mistakes, and more time spent winning votes.

Your political team matters

Finally, from my experience working for a lot of different companies in political marketing, it’s worth noting that who you have on your team is especially important. 

You can’t teach urgency. 

You need teammates who will drop everything to traffic a spot, understand the timing, embrace the mission, and thrive in the fast-paced nature of campaigns. Luckily, the political team at XR Extreme Reach knows how to deliver. 

Theresa Contario is the VP Enterprise Sales, Political & Advocacy at XR Extreme Reach, a global technology platform that manages advertising operations, creative asset distribution, and talent payments.