Super Primary Day Means Huge TV Ad Costs

SUPER PRIMARY DAY MEANS HUGE TV AD COSTS
[SOURCE: ABCNews3/15, AUTHOR: Tahman Bradley]
With a number of big states poised to follow in California's footsteps, moving their presidential primaries and caucuses to Feb. 5, campaign strategists may be forced to completely reconsider how they use television advertising to win voters. A full-saturation television ad blitz in the last weeks of the nomination fight in early states Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina can range between $200,000 to $400,000 a week. And to be even somewhat competitive in those early states, a campaign usually needs to spend $50,000 to $60,000, according to Evan Tracey the chief operating officer of TNS Media Intelligence/CMAG, a advertising research agency. But in California, New Jersey, Illinois, Florida and Texas, states with some of the most expensive media markets, presidential campaigns could spend 10 times as much -- or $2 million to $4 million a week. Besides cutting costs, campaigns will likely have to make tough decisions about which states they want to spend advertising dollars in and what other options they have beyond buying local television.
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=2955246&page=1