How political campaigns may impact your marketing plans
By Anastasia Stefanova, AVB Marketing
During arguably the most important time of the year for BrandSource members — Labor Day through Black Friday — political campaigns, fueled by inflated budgets, will deluge media platforms across the country.
If you rely heavily on traditional media (TV, radio, newspapers), this may greatly affect your ability to run ads and the costs associated with running flights. Preparing ahead of time can help maximize your budget and ensure your marketing reaches consumers and drives traffic during the lead-up to Black Friday weekend.
Let’s look at what’s happening:
Low Inventory Drives Up CPMs
Basically, both parties will buy out the majority of available TV and radio spots, leaving local advertisers to fight for the remaining less desirable flight times. This will drive up CPMs (cost per 1,000 impressions) during an already competitive period, making it significantly more expensive to run traditional media. Depending on the market, some retailers might struggle to get any spots at all. However, with so much inventory available, it’s likely that price will be the major issue for most.
Swing States and Politically Valuable Markets
With some candidates planning a 13-30% increase in political ad spend over 2020, traditional media may be especially impacted in swing states and other politically valuable areas. Nevada, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Wisconsin, Georgia, Michigan and North Carolina will be high-value objectives for both parties in 2024, and hyperlocal targeting will further concentrate political marketing budgets in counties that can swing the vote for the entire state. Impacted cities will include:
- Atlanta
- Billings and Missoula, Mont.
- Boston
- Butte/Bozeman, Ariz.
- Charlotte and Raleigh-Durham, N.C.
- Cincinnati and Cleveland, Ohio
- Detroit
- Las Vegas
- Los Angeles
- Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Harrisburg and Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, Pa.
- Phoenix
- Reno, Nev.
- Washington, D.C.
Risk of Getting Bumped
For those that buy rotations and more general flights, ads may get bumped and not play during the slated times. Stations are usually pretty good about adding your bumped ads back into rotation, although there’s typically little guarantee over when and where the ads get put back into rotation. They may not even play in the same month!
Even if stations provide provisions for ads that weren’t played, it doesn’t do much in the moment if retailers aren’t able to reach their consumers during the necessary timeframe.
Post-Election Turmoil
With heavy political campaigning taking up the majority of room on major networks in the 30-45 days prior to the election, placements will be flooded after Nov. 5. Stations will be making up spots for numerous advertisers that may have been bumped in the preceding month and advertisers scurrying to cram in marketing in the three weeks leading up to Black Friday will be battling for airtime.
With Black Friday being the most competitive and valuable advertising period of the year, this will inflate CPMs for traditional media even higher than during a regular Thanksgiving weekend.
How Retailers Can Prepare
Diversifying your marketing mix will help you manage marketing costs. Retailers should plan well in advance of these periods and leave ample room to execute their strategy over a longer period.
Traditional media’s immediate goal is to drive brand awareness rather than actual sales/conversions. On a regular day, digital marketing is more effective at reaching and converting an active shopper than a radio spot for someone driving to work. During election years, digital becomes crucial in supporting your marketing efforts and ensuring you continue to drive foot traffic for your business.
By reallocating your traditional media dollars into digital marketing, you can avoid the headache of chasing down stations for missed spots and paying a premium for your airtime.
If you’d like to discuss marketing, tactics or to strategize for the fall, reach out to me at the email address below.
Anastasia Stefanova is director of marketing/home furnishings, at AVB Marketing, the advertising, e-commerce and digital marketing arm of YSN publisher AVB BrandSource. Contact Ana atAnastasia.Stefanova@avb.net.
