How Data and Programmatic TV Will Dominate the 2016 Presidential Campaign

Already sick of hearing about data, the big buzzword during 2015's upfronts? Bad news: The incessant upfront chatter was just the beginning, as data blending and programmatic TV buying also looks to dominate the 2016 presidential campaign. There will be a projected $4.4 billion in TV ad spending for all 2016 elections (compared with $3.8 billion in 2012). With 17 Republican candidates already in the running and Aug 6's first Republican presidential debate just days away, the ad buys have already begun, both nationally and in the early primary states.

The crowded field is giving Republican strategists an early chance to prove they've learned their lessons from the 2012 campaign. "You saw the Obama campaign pioneering a lot of the work and scale in this space. Republican consultants, targeters and analytics folks came out of that and said, 'We've got to learn and adapt those lessons,'" said Brent McGoldrick, CEO of Deep Root Analytics, a media analytics company formed in response to that 2012 loss. "For the first time on the Republican side, in 2016, you're going to see this type of data blending informing media targeting on the right."