Dive Brief:
- Donald Trump's presidential campaign is making a $10 million TV ad buy in the key battleground states of Ohio, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Florida, New Hampshire, Virginia, Iowa, Colorado and Nevada.
- Jason Miller, a Trump campaign spokesman, confirmed the ad buy on Twitter.
- While Trump at one point had spent $0 on TV ad spots, the Trump campaign has spent $4 million on ads this month, according to the New York Times. By contrast, the Clinton campaign has spent over $60 million.
Dive Insight:
Until now, Trump's campaign has largely relied on earned media to attract voters.
As recently as a few weeks ago, the Trump campaign had conspicuously not spent a dime on TV ads — usually a staple of presidential election campaign strategy. At the time, Hillary Clinton’s campaign had outspent Trump on TV ads by $52 million to zero. However, it's worth noting that Trump has been outspending Clinton on online advertising.
The danger in only receiving earned media on TV meant that the Trump campaign couldn’t control the message and tone of the TV coverage. The latest round of TV ad buys in battleground states is an indication that the campaign brain trust realizes it needs to take control over how voters perceive the candidate and his positions on key issues.
Trumps previous reluctance to buy TV spots was unusual to say the least, as presidential elections are typically boom times for TV advertising. Earlier this month, reports showed $146 million had been spent on TV advertising in the presidential race this year, compared to $373 million for the same time period in the 2012 race.
