Media forecasters expect the 2024 election cycle to be the most expensive ever, with more than $10 billion spent on all media platforms. Amid this record spending, cord cutting has permanently changed the media-buying strategies for political campaigns.
Eric Frenchman, advertising executive at Push Digital, is seeing this shift in very personal terms.
“My mom just had her 82nd birthday. Two years ago, she decided she got rid of cable. She was sick of cable bills, and so she became a cord cutter,” he said. “When seniors are cutting cords, that’s a completely different shift in how you have to buy media…Last cycle, we were screaming about cord cutters, but there wasn’t this critical mass.”
Televised Sports and News
It’s well known that older Americans are more likely to vote than their younger counterparts, despite all the hype about appealing to twentysomethings with “rock the vote” efforts. Changes in people’s viewing habits are particularly important in television campaigns, Frenchman said.
“There’re only two appointment viewings, it’s sports and it’s news,” he said. “Outside of that, people can watch when they want, how they want, and consume the media differently. That now means that the power has shifted from the traditional linear TV buyers, especially in politics, over to the digital side.”
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