Sick of Politics? What Can We Learn From Political Media Buying?
You could probably tell from your own viewership and search that four billion more dollars were spent this political season than 4 years ago. These are mind-numbing numbers to think about, yet more than 11 billion dollars were placed on all kinds of media and in marketing efforts for this election cycle.
According to an Advertiser Perception study from Marketing Charts, if you put partisan politics aside, you can learn a lot from these numbers. The most “effective or influential” political platforms are 1) Broadcast TV, 2) Social Media and 3) Cable TV. Video is a big player in the top tier of effective political message delivery considering that even social media would include video messaging on Facebook. The second tier are Direct Mail, Digital Display, Email and Podcasts. Other than direct mail, the others are considered “new media” even if they have been around for many, many years.
So What About Digital?
You may be wondering, “Where is the rapid increase in digital marketing?” There are so many rules and regulations placed on political digital advertising, that it is no surprise that digital marketing is not in the top tier of influential political ad platforms.
For influential messaging, broadcast and cable are still the leaders, with the newcomer social providing a new medium to provide video messaging. These three media are more expensive than all other media due to their influential abilities, and that leads to raising huge amounts of money–roughly $11 billion now.
Mark Mathis
Mark wrote his first direct-mail fundraising letter in 1981 for the University of Iowa Center for Advancement. The effort raised a few million dollars in undiscovered wills and legacy gifts. From that day forward Mark discovered a love of the big idea that moves the needle. After 12 years at KWWL, Mark became a business owner as a co-founder of ME&V — rebranded as AMPERAGE in 2015. After 25 years of leading creative teams in video production, graphic design, PR, writing and web development, Mark transitioned out of ownership in 2021. Today he serves in an employee role as special projects consultant. He is creatively ambidextrous — son of an artist and engineer — and famous for distilling complex ideas down to a few words and a few visuals. Mark is a writer. When he found that many nonprofits struggled with complex branding puzzles, he wrote the book, “NonProfit-NonMarketing .” He also wrote a novel called “Reenactment.” Mark is an active blogger OneMinuteMarketer® with nearly 1,000 readers each week on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter. One of his most popular YouTube videos is on “How to Look Good on Zoom.” One of Mark’s fondest business memories was being named to INC 500 two times and attending the INC 500 conference with other winners. Mark is considered by some a Civil War expert (and that explains his novel). Mark also served as an adjunct professor in the business and in the communications departments at Wartburg College. Mark is a graduate of the University of Iowa and is currently vice president of the University of Iowa Journalism and Mass Communications Advisory Board. Mark is married to state Sen. Liz Mathis, and the two love to travel, even when it means being trapped by a volcano in the Czech Republic for three weeks.
