The Battle For The Presidency Rages On

It's February. And it's already obvious that it's an election year because political ads are everywhere. It may seem bad now, but it's only going to get worse as the year goes on.

"According to the University of Wisconsin Advertising Project which monitors the political races, Democratic candidates

have already spent more than $21 million on TV ads in the current 2004 cycle. But the real battle hasn't even begun ... wellfinanced Republicans have barely touched their wallets yet," states Ellen Beardsley-Wildeman, Media Director of The Karma Group, a marketing and advertising consultancy in Green Bay. "And as the political battle wages on, our clients battle, too ... to keep the messages they want to send on the air."

According to TNS Media Intelligence/CMR, TV advertising is expected to exceed levels reached during the 2000 presidential election campaign, when spending on televised political ads reached $600 million. Analysts are also projecting advertising dollars spent by candidates, political parties and independent interest groups could exceed $1 billion by November 2004. Like no other election cycle, the 2004 race has been marked by early and plentiful advertising.

And the Wisconsin primary was moved up, so our state will not only have a bigger impact on the race, but it'll be even harder to get commercial advertising on TV "Political years certainly make buying and managing media a challenge because politicians buy up all the air time," reiterates BeardsleyWildeman. "But if thought out and well-planned, your message will come across just as loud and clear as the politicians' messages."

By law, political advertisers get the lowest rates on a station's rate card. That's what makes buying media so difficult in an election year. If a political party wants to buy a certain time period, the station must offer them the lowest rate, and if they pay it, they'll pre-empt, or bump, out a commercial advertiser. Beardsley-Wildeman suggests procuring optimum ad time during political years by buying around the timeframe by which politicians can buy airtime at the lowest rates, called a political window, and especially the two weeks prior to the general elections when inventory gets extremely tight. Outside of the window, politicians must compete with commercial advertisers.

Some of the important 2004 political dates included the Wisconsin Democratic presidential primary on February 17. The political window was 45 days. viewers saw heavy advertising on television, as well as some radio. The U.S. Senate primary, which also includes local and county elections, is Sept. 14. That, too, has a 45-day political window, and the advertising will be medium to heavy. Finally, the general election is Nov. 2. There's a 60-day political window, and advertising is heavy throughout, on television and even radio.

Another option, according to Beardsley-Wildeman, would be to mix day parts. A day part is a period of time in a day during which TV stations broadcast programs. An early morning day part, for example, is from 6-9 a.m. and has mostly newstype of programming. Politicians usually seek out the news areas and news-related prime programming for advertising. However, some are starting to venture into other prime programming - prime access and some daytime.

Cable TV networks are also hit heavily, particularly CNN, Fox News, CNBC and Headline News. Radio stations most heavily hit are news/talk formats. TV is the medium in which most politicians place their advertising dollars, so BeardsleyWildeman suggests trying other forms of media for her clients, like radio, newspaper and outdoor.