Money is pouring into candidates’ campaigns from super PACS and corporations with deep pockets, said Garvey Schubert Barer’s Brad Deutsch. For broadcasters, candidates need local media to get their messages out.
Broadcast political ad spending is expected to exceed $4.4 billion this year.
Nathaniel Kronisch of Buying Time told attendees at a session for NAB 2016 that while broadcast was dominating the political ad spend in 2012, now its big data. His company is using data to micro-target voters with custom messaging.
Katz Media’s Stacey Lynn Schulman agrees, saying the reality is all broadcast media is also digital. “We think digital is wonderful for the future of broadcast.” Katz uses data to tell campaigns how they can better target voters.
Kronisch says his company worried about viewer fatigue earlier in the year. For example in Ohio there would be several blocks of television political spots in a row. “But you can’t not advertise,” he said, explaining the concept of “mutual destruction.”
“If we don’t advertise and the other guy does, you will get creamed.”
