By Nick Coston, Billboard Insider’s peripatetic reporter at large. 

With the surprising election results now a week old, it’s clear that the Republicans did a better job reaching middle America, the rust belt states, the midwest  But they spent a good $200 million less than what the Clinton campaign. So how did this happen? Five words: the Trump campaign used outdoor. 

Did you see a few lawn signs this political season? Chances are you saw mostly Trump/Pence signs. In the areas mentioned, probably 20-1 Trump in lawn signs and red ball caps. They also ran posters in key areas like Amish County in PA and Ohio, while the Clinton campaign sent their bulk on TV and stuck to campaigning in big cities. The Clinton campaign did nothing to stay in the voters faces other than TV, while the competition plastered lawn signs, with a great assembly of local volunteers. And not in the big cities, they plastered smaller cities and towns in western PA, eastern Ohio, Wisconsin, Michigan, Iowa, Florida and North Carolina. 

No matter how much I searched, I couldn’t find a single Clinton for President billboard. I found numerous Trump boards, mostly posters in more rural areas, targeting locals. Some PAC boards that were anti-booth sides. So here’s my question: to counter all the lawn signs, red ball caps, and occasional billboard, why couldn’t the Clinton campaign, which spent over $450 million on the presidential campaign, have used $5 million or so and blanketed the midwest and hard to reach smaller markets? Spread that TV dough around, and make friends with all these local/regional OOH companies. They’d be happy to take your business and probably vote for you too. There are over 50 plus small to mid-range OOH companies all over the areas that would love that business, for say 90 days. Buy digital, change copy, buy mobile trucks, make the static copy local, as Trump did in PA and Ohio.  It’s 24/7 you can’t hide from it. And it would have combated all this darn lawn signs.

But no, the Clinton campaign, led by a fine ad agency I know, followed what made them win in the past, and you know what? They got beat by lawn signs and locals who were more than happy to touch and feel and place signs on their property, wear those red caps to the Piggly Wiggly and point to local copy billboards. The constant pounding of TV ads just made poor Hillary look like a robot, which she’s not. This perception hurt her, unlike the constant proliferation of lawn signs, ball caps and local out of home, touching millions everyday. That’s where these hidden millions came from, the millions in flyover country that the Clinton campaign forgot about, they voted for the guy who’s name they saw everywhere. On every lawn, sidewalk, town square and on Grandpa’s noggin. 

No, it wasn’t anything very sophisticated that brought these millions out, it was simple but brilliant out of home marketing. And their guy won. 

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