This past week was Cross Screen Media’s onsite in Alexandria, VA. After concluding on Thursday, some of the team stayed in the office to watch the World Cup on YouTubeTV. What we saw after the game highlighted the need for holistic voter contact strategies.
After the game, FOX transitioned to the local news on the local DC affiliate WTTG. During the first 15 minutes of the news, we saw a lot of political ads. In one case, every ad during a break was political.
We were in Virginia, seeing an incredibly high frequency of ads for the Maryland primary.
We know that geography waste is a factor in TV buying, even on YouTube TV. But this was a lot of noise for any one message to break through.
Let’s take a look at another example, the CA Gov Primary.
How much was spent on advertising in the California gubernatorial primary?
$323M
Which candidates spent the most?
Tom Steyer outspent the rest of the field almost 3:1.
What were the results?
Only the top two move on to November.
Steyer spent 10 times as much per vote as the winning Democrat.
What was Steyer's Media Mix?
65% Broadcast/Cable
34% Digital/CTV
How do likely primary voters in California consume video?
63% are reachable on TV
79% are reachable on CTV
20% are exclusively reachable on CTV
17% are not reachable on the big screen
Ad-supported CTV offered access to a larger universe of likely primary voters than traditional TV, but only received a third of the spend.
How many statewide likely primary voters did Steyer reach on TV?
38% of voters, with an average frequency of 153. This means the voters who saw the ad did so on average 153 times.
In the San Francisco media market alone, 38% of likely voters saw the ad at least 176 times.
Steyer paid $37 per likely voter reached on TV alone.
Next week, we'll dive into the San Francisco media market and take a look at ad load.
What does this mean for political advertisers?
Spending the most does not mean you’ll break through. You need to reach voters through multiple formats with the right message to be remembered.
There is a cap to linear reach. Viewership habits continue to shift; reach plateaus and frequency climbs as heavy TV viewers are saturated with ads.
Measurement is key. In a fractured media environment, campaigns have to understand what mediums are driving incremental reach.