For political marketers, the 2022 midterm elections revolved around the central question of whether to continue doing things how they’ve always been done or try something different—and perhaps better—regarding campaign media strategies.
In July, Nielsen released data showing that streaming platform viewership outperformed linear TV viewership for the first time. And with social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter reducing—and in some cases altogether banning—political advertising, political marketers turned to data-enabled technology to reach voters through connected television (CTV) and programmatic advertising.
With mere months until the 2024 election campaigns begin to heat up, media strategies for national races are starting to take shape. Political marketers need to build on the momentum of the following media learnings from these midterms and leverage the clear advantages of CTV and programmatic advertising.
Optimize engagement in real-time
If you want to stay one step ahead of the rapidly shifting narratives of opponents, especially in a national race, media is crucial. CTV and programmatic enable quick turnaround times to swiftly deploy new campaign messages into market, measure impact and optimize engagement in real time.
Connect with voters where they consume news
The CTV environment gives political advertisers the advantage of reaching viewers on the streaming platforms where they prefer to consume their news. Linear TV will always be a high-scale medium, but reaching relevant streaming viewers on their preferred news platform gives political marketers a chance at highly targeted incremental reach.
Combine complementary datasets
The first-party data that political campaigns gather through donations, surveys and other meaningful interactions with voters can become an even more powerful resource when it is combined with complementary third-party data. By diversifying and merging multiple data panels, political marketers can hyper-target voters on CTV and programmatic to keep them engaged. Geography and device data can help advertisers identify the news inventory available within a voting district, while other key attributes like political affiliation, age and gender demographics, lifestyle and social engagement can help advertisers tailor creative to the voter’s interests. A layered data strategy is vital to determining where, when and how to reach voters, and discovering what kind of messages can motivate them.
Capture audience attention with a data-driven creative
Creative messaging is most effective when it’s powered by audience data and the latest technology. New tools and formats are giving political marketers the unprecedented ability to tailor their creative at a granular level, enabling speedy responses to the constantly shifting political landscape. This compelling and pertinent messaging can leave lasting impressions without the risk of oversaturation and ad fatigue.
Even as we await news of which candidates will throw their hats into the ring for the 2024 presidential election and various down-ballot races, it’s sure to be a highly competitive cycle with unprecedented ad spend. Linear TV will remain a high-scale medium for the foreseeable future, but the marketers that integrate CTV and programmatic to secure incremental reach in their overall media strategy may emerge victorious.
