Post-Trump, political ad spending won’t be the same

President-elect Donald Trump’s nontraditional political ad spending plan worked because he focused on targeted over mass media. He spent way less than his opponent but achieved the results he needed. Going forward, we may see more campaigns run in this matter.

What’s that mean on a practical level? That targeted media such as digital, cable and direct mail will see political spending gains. Television and newspaper, the mass media, will not. That’s what happened in this election, according to final data on the 2016 election released this week by Borrell Associates, the Williamsburg (VA) ad tracking firm. Total political ad spending hit $9.8 billion, up slightly from $9.4 billion four years ago. The numbers include a huge shift in where money was spent. Broadcast TV made up 57.9 percent of spending four years ago but just 44.7 percent this year. Digital spending, meanwhile, increased almost eightfold, from a 1.7 percent share to a 14.4 percent share. “The changes noted reflect more than tactical shifts by an unorthodox candidate. They point to a new ascendancy in both spending and attention for digital in future elections,” notes the report.