Face The State Staff Report
With a November ballot that will see 18 different constitutional questions, a contentious U.S. Senate race, and a presidential race now polling within the margin of error, state and local races are left to figure out how to best reach voters. The smartest way, according to Colorado campaign experts, is also the most expensive: TV advertisements.
In an era when short attention spans are fueled with endlessly clicking TV remotes, political consultant Katy Atkinson still contends that TV spots are the way to go.
“Other methods of communicating your message are fine,” said Atkinson. “But nothing beats TV.”
For the average statewide campaign to hit its target audience, Atkinson says a minimum purchase of at least 1,000 gross rating points is required. GRPs are ways that TV stations measure viewership. A 1,000 point buy means that the average targeted viewer would see the ad ten times in a given week.
Cheryl Klein, a media buyer for the Walt Klein Advertising Agency, estimates that campaign would have to spend around $400 per GRP, meaning a 1,000 GRP buy would cost about $400,000.
Even a campaign that is well ahead or far below its opponent in the polls should still consider TV buys if it has the money, Atkinson added. But it all depends on what the opponent is doing with its own media campaign.
"Stay on TV and pay a lot of attention to your opposition's media buys," Atkinson said. She says every campaign should be keeping track of its opposition's spending to aid in their decision whether or not to buy TV ad space. Every TV station is required by law to keep a public record of political advertising purchases.
Political consultant Sean Tonner says that just a couple weeks from now is the optimal time for statewide campaigns to buy TV ad space, considering the record number of mail-in ballots requested this year.
“The third week of September is the best time to buy TV as opposed to waiting until October,” said Tonner. “Mail-in ballots drop on October 4th and to break through the clutter of national candidates, you’ve got to hit them early.”
Tonner added, however, that a campaign should not even consider buying broadcast TV space unless it has several million dollars in its coffers and instead it should invest in cable and radio buys.
“If you don’t have at least $2 million don’t bother with broadcast,” he said. “You can’t even punch through the gross rating points.”
The strategy appears to be working well for Tonner and his firm, Phaseline, who consulted on Mike Coffman’s successful primary campaign for Colorado’s 6th Congressional District. In that race, Coffman began running ads weeks before his opponents in anticipation that more than half of voters would mail in their ballots before the election.
Klein said if campaigns have not bought or reserved TV ad space yet, they’re going to have a “tough time this year.”
“The way you maximize you media buy is to buy early,” she said. “TV space is being slurped up to what I see as record highs.”
For campaigns seeking to target specific demographic groups, Klein believes radio may be the way to go.
Mark Hillman, who ran for State Treasurer in 2006, said that although he thinks broadcast media is definitely preferable to yard signs, bumper stickers, and direct mail, said he thinks money could possibly be better spent on radio rather than TV, depending on the campaign.
“Radio is the best bet for an initiative [campaign] running on a shoestring budget,” said Hillman. “They would be better off buying weeks of radio time across the state, instead of days of TV in the metro area.”
Hillman, who lost his bid for state Treasurer to Cary Kennedy, a Democrat, by just three points, admits that her strategy using TV was better that his own. Kennedy bought TV space a week and half before the election and saturated prime time broadcast television.
Hillman also said that campaigns that cannot afford the approximately $350,000 a week for TV ad space in the Denver metro area, would be wiser to spend that money on a direct mail campaign, especially considering the rise in popularity of mail-in ballots.
“If you don’t have the money, you can identify your swing voters and blanket them with mail statewide,” Hillman said.
Tom Lucero, a University of Colorado Regent, is also serving as chair of Clean Government Colorado, titled Amendment 54 on the November ballot. According to Lucero, his campaign has a medium-sized budget, where TV advertising will play an integral part.
Amendment 54 is a measure being marketed as an effort to clean up government by restricting campaign contributions by companies that hold no-bid contracts with the government.
Lucero, however, is not counting solely on the airwaves to see his proposal voted into law. “Ultimately our success is dependent on our volunteers,” Lucero said.
In the end, however, advertising is only as effective as its messenger. According to Atkinson, campaign advertising almost universally fails if an issue or candidate does not have a comprehensive, clear message that resonates with its target audience.
“The first thing is to have a message that works,” Atkinson said. “A mistake that a lot of campaigns make is not having a message that recognizes how people feel.”