Political Operatives Predict Next Big Campaign Medium Is -- Surprise -- TV

One of the surprising take-aways at Marketing Politics here was, that despite the hyper-focus on “digital” and “multi-screen,” TV remains far and away the most vital medium for political campaigns.

That point was underscored on the local election scene during a presentation by Russ Schriefer, partner at Strategic Partners & Media. Schriefer tried to explain why TV works better than ever in political marketing, and he attributed at least part of it to the fact that TV programming may also be better than it has ever been before.

“Today, we still find that television is still moving numbers,” Schriefer reiterated, noting that when he invests ad budgets on television he sees direct results in the polls, and hopefully, in the polling booths. “As long as the creative is halfway decent, they will spit back what I am saying,” Schriefer said of the post-broadcast polling. Broadcast is the only medium, basically, where that is happening. It doesn’t necessarily happen in cable either.”

Schriefer did cite a variety of studies showing that the political media mix is beginning to disperse, and greater efficiencies are coming from those mixes, but he said he doesn’t see much of a shift from broadcast TV’s dominance in the next several years, especially in local races. Specifically, Schriefer said that campaigns that used to be able to generate a messaging effect with 300 to 400 rating points now require about 1,000 points, and that when the noise gets particularly cluttered near the final run.