Election Year Tightens Ad Inventory, Demands Nimble Strategy

As if marketers didn’t have enough to worry about in 2012, with troubling signs that the economy will remain less than robust, they will also have politicians and their war chests interfering with planned media campaigns for the coming year.

That’s the word from MediaVest, which has issued new research to clients predicting that ad inventory during the upcoming political year will be tighter than ever, given the record dollars that politicians will raise and spend next year in their bids to get elected. The research was generated from the agency’s Civic Observatory unit, an ongoing tracking study that draws on a pool of 1,500 consumer respondents. The biggest crunch will come at the local level. In 2008, roughly 85% of measured media advertising placed for the November general election was in local TV, where political ads take precedence over those from regular marketers. The Publicis media shop estimates that political spending next year will be up roughly 30% from four years earlier and could reach $4 billion. Plus, it’s not just the local TV airwaves that will be jammed, per the MediaVest research. “Increased fundraising in 2012 will drive broader tactical use of more media,” the agency reports. “It will impact marketers across all categories.