What’s the difference between History Channel viewers and people who watch TNT? Politically, at least, Republicans heavily targeted the former during the just-concluded midterm campaign; Democrats prized the latter.
That’s the finding of Viamedia, a firm with offices in New York City and Lexington, Ky., responsible for selling the bulk of local television advertising time on America’s cable networks. Viamedia sold 1.2 million cable television campaign spots, each 30 seconds in length, in 69 individual local media markets this year, with just more than half of those spots airing after Aug. 31.
Other cable networks favored by Republican campaigns and affiliated groups included The Weather Channel, Headline News and the Discovery Channel. Meanwhile, Comedy Central, Bravo, and AMC were prioritized by Democratic campaigns and allied groups. The USA Network knows no political boundaries, as Democratic and Republican campaigns made the channel their top recipient of local cable advertising dollars.
Despite the growing reliance on digital advertising and social media, Viamedia CEO Mark Lieberman predicted that political spending on television appeals would rise in 2016.
“We have a saying in the advertising business: ‘Data is the new Creative.’ You can get the right ad, at the right time, in front of the right voter so you can affect that result,” he said, in a statement provided to the Washington Examiner. “While we saw a high level of campaign advertising spending this year, the projections are that there will be a 50 percent increase in TV advertising from 2014 to 2016.”
The statistics compiled by Viamedia were not necessarily exhaustive.
Only a small portion of the available advertising during an hour of cable television is reserved for targeting local markets. And Viamedia might not have counted advertising purchased by all political committees or outside groups that were active during the 2014 elections. But a memorandum prepared by the firm nevertheless provides a window into Democratic and Republican political strategy, and the precision both sides exercise in appealing to voters.
Viamedia’s stats also showed that most of the ad dollars targeting cable television viewers on the local level were expended during the final two months of the two-year election cycle (51 percent), with 19 percent of expenditures happening in July and August; 18 percent invested in the second quarter of the year, and 12 percent in the first quarter.
The chart below shows the top cable networks targeted by Democrats and Republicans. There are several similarities in audiences targeted, but also some notable differences.
