Targeted Media Boosts Share of Political Pie

It was a record year for political ad spending, according to ad trackers at Borrell Associates, up 4.6% from the 2012 presidential election to $9.8 billion, but money is shifting toward more targeted ads, with cable in on the new bounty. Broadcast TV remained the big dog at $4.4 billion, more than three times any other outlet. Borrell pointed out that represented a 44.7% share, down from 57.9% in 2012, a $1 billion decline when many were predicting a $1 billion increase. Part of that was President-elect Donald Trump's heavy reliance on earned media and digital media, but it was also because of the general shift to more targeted media. Cable, digital and direct mail gained a total $1.7 billion over 2012. Cable jumped from $891.78 million in 2012 (9.5% of the total pie) to $1,355.28 billion (13.8%), Borrell pointed out. Online and digital exploded from $159.21 million in 2012 to 1,415.38 billion in 2016.