Dive Brief:
- Donald Trump’s presidential campaign isn't buying advertising like most campaigns—and TV broadcasters are feeling the impact. As of last week, the Clinton campaign had outspent Trump on ads by $52 million to zero.
- The Indianapolis Business Journal reports $146 million has been spent in presidential advertising so far, compared to $373 million over the same time during the 2012 election.
- Despite the slow start, experts expect ad spending to start ramping up now as the election quickly approaches.
Dive Insight:
Broadcasters have come to count on the uptick in ad buys every four years during the presidential election, but not this year. Donald Trump's campaign has broken a number of paradigms, including not buying linear TV ads.
Reports suggest that the Trump campaign will begin linear TV advertising soon and the Republican nominee has been raising money to fund those ad buys. Trump has already been supported by outside groups with TV ads, but the campaign has relied on earned media for most, if not all, of its messaging.
“It delayed the start of general election advertising in battleground states where the real money is," Ken Goldstein, a Bloomberg Politics polling and advertising analyst, told the IBJ.
The Clinton campaign is running a much more conventional effort with TV ads coming from the campaign, mostly in battleground states, bolstered by outside groups such as super PACs and special interest organizations. While Trump is taking to social media himself to communicate directly with his fans, Clinton has a team of insiders handling those interactions, giving the candidate a measure of remove from the social media fray.
