Residents of battleground states have seen more than their fair share of political ads during sports broadcasts in recent months, especially before, during and after NFL games. SBJ Research Director David Broughton tracked both campaigns' political ad spending across the country, and the results reveal a shift in which markets are the biggest battlegrounds as well as the impact COVID-19 cancellations had on traditionally action-packed markets. On the latest episode of “SBJ Unpacks: The Road Ahead,” Broughton and our Bill King break down everything you need to know about political ad spending around sports broadcasts.
On what jumped out about presidential ad spending on sports broadcasts:
Broughton: This time around it was a lot of money spent, and I say that because in 2016 you and I jumped into it expecting to go through thousands and thousands of files again only to find out that because one side wasn’t spending, the other side wasn’t spending either. … This time, just since the conventions finished up, the two candidates combined for about $48M. That’s local affiliates and national, and that’s more than the past. The big thing was Joe Biden outspent Donald Trump in sports advertising by almost three times.
On the candidates’ geographic spending patterns:
Broughton: Florida, always the big one. Tampa is just a hotspot. Obviously, we were looking at the big league markets: Tampa, Orlando, Miami and Jacksonville. Those made up the bulk of what we tracked this time, but in the past Ohio was a really close second. Denver, always a battleground market. There was very little in Denver this time around by both candidates, and Ohio, because of college football, Trump had ordered a bunch of college football, you’re talking $30-$60k for 60 seconds during a Michigan or Ohio State game. He ordered one for each, every week. Once there was no football, he canceled all those orders. That’s an easy $100k that’s suddenly back in play. Now, in the past 10 to 12 days, all that money was dumped back in there, but Ohio was really interesting this time around.
On how the candidates have spent in the final months:
Broughton: What surprised me was the sudden influx of spend over the past 10 days. Just in the NFL alone, $8M was spent within this past weekend. It was $4.4M a month ago. Over a five-weekend period, NFL spending between Trump and Biden went from $4.4M to just under $8M. When I looked a month ago, that number probably would have been about $6M for the past weekend. The huge surge is unlike anything we’ve ever seen all the times we’ve done this.
