Borrell Associates tracks local advertising spending in North America and the UK and conducts research on advertising trends. Founder and CEO Gordon Borrell started the company in 2001 after a career in media. Borrell is an entertaining speaker who gave an outstanding talk titled Out of Home’s Changing Role in the Local Landscape at the 2016 TAB/OAAA conference. Insider talked with Borrell about the firm’s April 2018 Political Advertising Forecast.
Gordon does out of home political spending look like for 2018?
We’re forecasting that U.S. Out Of Home political advertising will total $400 million during 2018. That’s equal to 4.5% of total projected 2018 political spending of $8.8 billion.
You raised your forecast for total 2018 political spending. What’s driving the increase?
Between December 2017 and March 2018 we saw slightly more funds going to the PACs and a greater level of intensity in contests — namely in the Pennsylvania special election and in the unusually large number of incumbents vacating their positions. In addition, we saw skittishness toward digital media, particularly Facebook, which is a less-expensive buy than TV, radio, or outdoor. When we put all those together, we felt that the total spending would be higher than we had initially forecast last December.
Who’s spending the money?
Thousands of PACs and Special Interest Groups are compiling enormous sums of money. Contributors tend to be executives who work for banks and corporations, as well as wealthy individuals. That money goes to many things, not just advertising. They’re funding research, campaign workers, events, mailings, printed materials, etc. There are rules on how it can be contributed and spent. In the end, all that money is spent by groups of people trying to motivate the electorate to do something about an impending evil or potential good.
What does out of home have to do to maximize its share of the political spend.
Find the buyers, educate them about the benefits of OOH, and be poised to be timely. Many campaigns make spur-of-the-moment, reactionary decisions. If the lead time for changing a sign is 30-45 days, get creative and sell them reserved spots in advance. The most important thing, really, is to stay in touch the with decisionmakers and be top-of-mind for those important buying moments.
You can purchase the April 2018 political Advertising forecast and access other Borrell research at www.borrellassociates.com.
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