Streaming and Political Campaigns: A Complementary Relationship

Streaming video and audio via Over-the-Top (OTT) platforms, such as Connected TVs (CTVs), mobile phones, and smart speakers, have rapidly developed into competitive paid media options. CTVs are available in 75% of American households, and more American families have a CTV than a cable box.

Similarly, over 60% of the US population, or 169 million people, listen to streaming audio at least once per week. Political advertisers are considering how they can take advantage of the proliferation of OTT and streaming audio content to reach and sway their target voters.

The election cycle of 2022 will serve as a dry run for political campaigns to see how effectively they can employ streaming media to reach a specific demographic. In the past, election years have always been good for linear television, and especially for local broadcasters. While this is typically the case during years with a presidential election, the midterm elections this year have witnessed expenditure on a completely different scale.

Recent estimates from Kantar/CMAG put political ad spending in 2022 at $7.8 billion, which would be a record high and set the stage for even greater spending in the years to come. Equally important is their estimate that streaming will make up 15%, or $1.2 billion, of that total.

Accurate Analytic Information

As an increasing number of people in the United States abandon cable and join alternative networks, political parties and candidates must find new ways to connect with voters.
The abundance of data is a significant benefit of streaming for electoral campaigns. Advertisers can find out not only how many people saw an ad and whether they watched it in its entirety, but also whether viewers went on to take any further action as a result of seeing the ad, such as visiting a campaign website.
Among these are signing up for a newsletter and making monetary contributions. Having this information at their disposal will allow candidates to adapt their creative approaches accordingly.

Reaching Target Audience Directly

The ability to reach specific audiences based on their location is perhaps the most obvious benefit of streaming. Since this leads to significant savings, it greatly benefits candidates in large markets. So streaming allows a local Congressional candidate to narrowly target voters in her district directly in their houses rather than spending a fortune on TV ad spots for the entire LA TV market. Rather than having her ad play in the background or to everyone, she will only have to pay for voters who actively engage with it. Even though the CPM will be higher than with conventional linear, the total cost of the purchase should be lower.

Data Targeting: Where Data Really Shines

However, the most intriguing application of data is in the realm of targeting. A household that regularly tunes in to Sean Hannity and Fox News is a prime target for Republican candidates and SuperPACs looking to sway voters. Streaming makes it easy to target households with political advertisements across a wide variety of programming, not just news programs.
For linear, this is not the case. Here, ads must air during shows where viewers are likely to be either sympathetic to the network’s political stance or interested in the news. During election seasons, this can lead to an overwhelming number of political advertisements flooding every available ad space. Many candidates in the same metro area but outside the viewer’s congressional or state legislative district will be included.
This is yet another advantage of online video streaming. In many cases, viewers of linear television aren’t sure if the candidates whose ads they’ve seen are actually running for office in their district. Many voters are blindsided at the polls when the person they were planning to support turns out to be absent from the ballot.

Context is King

One thing to keep in mind when trying to reach voters through streaming services is that it’s important to be sensitive to the context in which your message is being delivered.
For instance, more people might disapprove of an ad about guns or drugs if it aired during a family-friendly program. So, even if the parents agree with the overall message, they may feel it is unsuitable for programs aimed at their young children.
So, while it’s great to be able to run ads in clutter-free zones, it’s also important to make sure those zones are relevant to the ads’ content.

Where Goes The Money

The spending pace has quickened this season. Kantar’s previous spring estimate of $8.6 billion was revised to $9 billion recently.

This fall, Madhive, one of the most prominent ad tech companies, has been monitoring the amount of money spent on streaming political ads. By analyzing bid stream data, it has uncovered some unexpected findings. Using their proprietary device graph of 100+ million households across all US metro areas, they were able to correlate hundreds of millions of political perceptions across the country.

Ad Spends Rise

The average number of impressions of political ads on streaming services increased by 96% in October compared to the previous month, indicating an increase in advertising budgets.

While an increase in political spending is expected as Election Day approaches, the significant increase from September to October shows evidence that streaming is gaining traction with political campaigns.

California is a Hotspot

The biggest boost in streaming ad spending has been in California. From October 3rd to October 10th, Madhive saw a weekly increase in impressions of 32%. Candidates and PACs would be wise to use streaming as a more cost-effective way to reach voters in California, home to three of the most expensive TV markets in the United States: Los Angeles, San Francisco, and San Diego.

The Most Money Can Be Made in Campaigns For Governor

Despite widespread coverage of the midterm elections for the House and Senate, advertisements have mainly focused on contests for governor. About 37% of political ad impressions are focused on gubernatorial races, 17% on state legislative races, 18% on House races, and only 8% on Senate races, as reported by Madhive. Considering these are nationwide figures, it stands to reason that House races would garner more attention than Senate ones, given only 34% of the Senate’s 100 seats are up for election this year.

The State of Wisconsin is a Flashpoint

Three Wisconsin congressional districts rank in the top five for total political ad impressions. Two of the Milwaukee districts and one of the Green Bay districts have uninspiring House races. However, Senate, Governor, and State Supreme Court races in the state are highly competitive, with potential for either major party. That’s why they’re throwing so much money at the state’s more populous regions to get their message across.

Takeaways

With their combined reach, TV and OTT make up a crucial part of any comprehensive political advertising strategy.
Although these ads only make up a small portion of the election campaign, they demonstrate the parties’ seriousness about winning and the sophistication of the targeting methods they employ.
In 2024, a presidential election year, we can anticipate a significantly higher percentage of political ad dollars to be spent on streaming. More viewers are expected to shift to streaming as primary SVOD services like Netflix and Disney roll out ad-supported tiers.

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