November 25, 2008 9 Comments
Nielsen’s final look at ad buys by the 2008 Presidential candidates proved one famous mantra: politics really are local.
President-elect Barack Obama placed one-and-a-half times as many spot TV ads than John McCain during the general election season (6/08 to 11/08), and almost twice as many ads dating back to the beginning of January when the primaries were just heating up.
SPOT TV ADS: June-Nov 2008
| Barack Obama | 419,667 |
| John McCain | 269,992 |
The local numbers show a much bigger discrepancy than those for national cable and network buys. Sen. McCain kept pace w/ President-elect Obama in those categories, with Obama edging out his rival by just 136 ad buys in the cable and network combined, dating back to January.
CABLE AND NETWORK ADS: Jan-Nov 2008
| Barack Obama | 3,004 |
| John McCain | 2,868 |
Other notable campaign facts from Nielsen’s research
- Obama’s ads were on the airwaves over twice as much as McCain’s in the final month before the election (210,245 vs. 97,023 ad buys).
- McCain took early advantage of Obama’s long primary battle with Hillary Clinton, which ended on June 3rd. McCain bought over three and a half times more spot TV ads than Obama in June (26,594 to 7,251), the only month that McCain beat his opponent in that category.
- McCain made a major push with national buys in September, out placing Obama 10 to 1 in cable and network ad buys.
- The two candidates alone combined for almost 850,000 total ad buys dating back to January.
Complete Ad Spends: Jan-Nov 2008
| Month | Candidate | Cable TV-Units | Network TV-Units | Spot TV-Units | Syndicated TV-Units |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan-08 | John McCain | 0 | 0 | 8,951 | 0 |
| Feb-08 | John McCain | 172 | 0 | 2,170 | 0 |
| Mar-08 | John McCain | 0 | 0 | 149 | 0 |
| Apr-08 | John McCain | 0 | 0 | 693 | 0 |
| May-08 | John McCain | 0 | 0 | 5,135 | 0 |
| Jun-08 | John McCain | 438 | 0 | 26,594 | 0 |
| Jul-08 | John McCain | 88 | 0 | 30,350 | 0 |
| Aug-08 | John McCain | 244 | 63 | 48,492 | 0 |
| Sep-08 | John McCain | 887 | 221 | 68,288 | 0 |
| Oct-08 | John McCain | 532 | 108 | 86,739 | 0 |
| Nov-08 | John McCain | 99 | 16 | 9,529 | 0 |
| McCain Totals | 2,460 | 408 | 287,090 | 0 | |
| Jan-08 | Barack Obama | 66 | 0 | 20,913 | 0 |
| Feb-08 | Barack Obama | 30 | 0 | 49,317 | 0 |
| Mar-08 | Barack Obama | 0 | 0 | 15,078 | 0 |
| Apr-08 | Barack Obama | 0 | 0 | 29,661 | 0 |
| May-08 | Barack Obama | 0 | 0 | 18,993 | 0 |
| Jun-08 | Barack Obama | 40 | 0 | 7,251 | 0 |
| Jul-08 | Barack Obama | 92 | 0 | 61,521 | 0 |
| Aug-08 | Barack Obama | 195 | 57 | 51,688 | 0 |
| Sep-08 | Barack Obama | 91 | 14 | 91,412 | 0 |
| Oct-08 | Barack Obama | 1,752 | 406 | 190,309 | 31 |
| Nov-08 | Barack Obama | 249 | 12 | 17,486 | 0 |
| Obama Totals | 2,515 | 489 | 553,629 | 31 | |
| Grand Total | 4,975 | 897 | 840,719 | 31 | |
| Source: The Nielsen Company – data is loaded through November 9, 2008 | |||||
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Tags: Barack Obama, broadcast tv ads, cable tv ads, John McCain, political advertising, spot tv ads, television advertising
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[...] How Obama’s Local Buys Added Up Nielsen’s final look at ad buys by the 2008 Presidential candidates proved one famous mantra: politics really are local. President-elect Barack Obama placed 155% more spot TV ads than John McCain during the general election season (6/08 … [...]
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Thanks for the research. Is there a breakdown on ad buys by state for Obama and McCain?
[...] to Nielsen Company, from June through November, Obama ran 419,667 ads in local markets while McCain ran 269,992 ads [...]
[...] to Nielsen Company, from June through November, Obama ran 419,667 ads in local markets while McCain ran 269,992 ads [...]
[...] to the Campaign Media Analysis Group. Obama dominated local television advertising (as the Nielsen Media Research numbers show) and his massive war-chest allowed him to underwrite Get Out the Vote efforts in the key swing [...]
[...] to the Campaign Media Analysis Group. Obama dominated local television advertising (as the Nielsen Media Research numbers show) and his massive war-chest allowed him to underwrite Get Out the Vote efforts in the key swing [...]
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