Now that campaign season has started, television viewers can expect to see political ads during college football and the local news. Ad spending is also moving online.
Broadcast TV ads once held such a significant place in American politics that candidates would raise millions of dollars to flood the airwaves in an effort to get elected. Now, a significant chunk of that is moving online.
"Digital ads are not only necessary for campaigns because that's where people are getting their news from," says David Ramadan, former Republican delegate who is now at the Schar School at George Mason University. "But digital ads are essential, in my opinion, for any campaign to spread their message."
But there might not be as much difference between a broadcast ad and a digital ad as you might think. Democratic strategist Ben Tribbett says a huge percentage of streaming ads appear on smart TVs.
"If you're airing an ad on YouTube because someone’s using a YouTube app on their smart TV, it's appearing in their living room on their 80-inch TV the same way that a television ad would," Tribbett explains. "So, that's why most media companies are moving toward a screen-neutral approach."
So, the content of the ads might be screen-neutral, but the prices aren't. Broadcast advertising remains significantly more expensive than streaming ads, potentially changing the way campaigns decide to allocate resources in the future.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
