Billboard Insider talked with Steve Passwaiter about political advertising and out of home. Steve is a Senior Advisor to BIA and the President of Silver Oak Political which provides political advertising intelligence. You can contact Steve at steve@silveroakpolitical.com.
How did you get involved with advertising?
In the past, I worked for Kantar Media. We tracked advertising (Broadcast TV, national cable and selected digital) for political and advocacy campaigns. That followed a long career in broadcasting and media research
Out of home is a small part of political ad spending.
Out of home has not been a major player in political advertising…there was you roughly $12 billion spent in 2024l but I think as an industry OOH probably did $20-30 million. It’s not been a major player in political advertising
But the outlook is bright.
The increasing digitization of the business puts it in a better position to take political dollars than it has been in the past because digital boards can be changed instantly to deliver different messages and is full motion video which this sector loves.
If you’re a state legislative candidate or you’re running for County Commissioner, out of home can be very geographically targeted within the district and even within neighborhoods…You’re targeting all these households in certain neighborhoods and zip codes looking for people with similar profiles that your data and voter files tell you are persuadable voters.
Who makes the buy?
The party or PAC will go will go with an agency to figure out how to spend the money. The out of home folks have more to talk about and have much more to offer than they did five years ago. They’re digitizing and they need to make sure that the political people understand that it’s easy to buy and does a great job reinforcing all this CTV money they’re spending.
It’s important to talk about political advertisers even when there’s no election.
You have to remind them of the value proposition right but don’t turn off your efforts once the election’s over…be consistent and keep pushing the message… I had a sales manager in my radio days who said to me the best time to sell to people was when there was nothing going on..
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OOH and political advertising has been increasing in my area. I’m specifically going after it. A lot of times. the political candidates don’t call YOU. Reps need to research their local elections, ride their markets and look at the signs, and call these folks. I’ve been fortunate to help many political candidates spread their message.