Last month, American TV viewers were exposed to almost 1.48 million political ads, up from the 1.41 million political ads aired in October 2008 (the last major presidential election year), according to data released today by Nielsen. It was the largest political ad output on record in what is traditionally known as the busiest month of the year for political messaging. Nielsen data over the last five calendar years suggest that TV distributors air twice as many political and issue ads in October than any other month, on average.

For some media markets, political ads are especially dominant in the local TV landscape, and nowhere is this more evident than Ohio.  In an analysis of local broadcast TV outlets in the top 128 U.S. markets in October, Cleveland stations aired the highest proportion of political and issue advertising.  Nielsen found that about one out of every four paid TV ads aired on local Cleveland stations was placed by a political candidate or outside political group. Ohio’s capital city Columbus placed a very close second in the ranking with an estimated 23.37% of paid ads bought by political entities. Portland, OR, Sacramento, CA, and Seattle, WA round out the top 5.

Ohio’s status as a political TV battleground is nothing new.  In 2008, six Ohio DMAs placed among the top 20 markets with the highest rate of political ads in October, and in the last midterm election in 2006, five markets from the Buckeye State placed in the top 20.

Of course, not all U.S. TV markets were as politically saturated. Ohioans seeking a respite from this year’s political noise may have wanted to lay low in Jackson, MS, where only one percent of paid TV ads airing on local stations were classified as political or issue ads. The Richmond, VA market had the second lowest rate of political saturation among the 128 markets analyzed in October at just 2.45%.  Richmond’s ranking comes in stark contrast to the same time last year, when it ranked fourth nationally in political TV saturation, thanks to a high-profile governor’s race in an otherwise off year for political campaigns.

Interestingly, Texas offered four of the ten least saturated markets last month.

Download the full rankings of all 128 markets contained in Nielsen’s October political advertising analysis.

Meanwhile in the race for Crist’s gubernatorial seat, Republican Rick Scott aired four times as many ads last week as his opponent Alex Sink (D). Both candidates aired their highest number of ads in the Tampa-St. Petersburg market, but the most obvious discrepancy came in the Miami market, where Scott’s campaign aired 344 ads as Sink’s campaign aired none.

In other high-profile races across the country:

• Meg Whitman led gubernatorial opponent Jerry Brown in overall advertising across the top four California media markets. But news that the former eBay CEO once employed an undocumented worker at her home drew a spike in online buzz and overall TV mentions on September 30.
• Carly Fiorina enjoyed her first full week advertising during the general election for California’s Senate seat. While Fiorina’s ads aired in Los Angeles, Sacramento, and San Diego, she still had yet to air an ad in the San Francisco market, through October 3. Overall, Democratic incumbent Barbara Boxer held a nearly 4-to-1 advertising advantage across the state last week.
• The Baltimore market is proving to be the biggest battleground in the Maryland governor’s race. Incumbent Martin O’Malley (D) and opponent Bob Ehrlich (R) were neck-and-neck in Charm City’s ad race, while Ehrlich showed no advertising activity at all in the Washington, DC market. As a result, the candidates’ names were more than twice as likely to be mentioned on local Baltimore television stations last week, compared to the DC airwaves.

Download Nielsen’s Campaign Media Analysis on these and other contentious mid-term political races.

VIRGINIA: The ad race between Virginia gubernatorial candidates continues to be as tight as it was reported two weeks ago. Since September 21st Robert McDonnell(R) has out-placed Creigh Deeds (D) 6215 to 5718.

A breakdown of the Designated Market Areas (DMAs) within Virginia lends a better view of where the candidates are targeting their messages. McDonnell is dominating the airwaves in the Richmond and Norfolk markets, where his campaign has placed about 40% more ads than Deeds’s campaign since September 21st.  But Deeds, the Democratic candidate, is more of a presence on TVs in the rural Western part of the state, where he’s bought 16% more ads than the McDonnell campaign in the Roanoke-Lynchburg market and 19% more in the Tri-Cities market in the last month. In the Washington DC market, the two candidates are virtually tied, with each of the campaigns placing roughly 1700 ads from 9/21 to 10/19.

NEW JERSEY: In Nielsen’s last analysis of the governor’s race two weeks ago, incumbent Democrat John Corzine showed a big lead in ad buys over Republican challenger Chris Christie. And that lead hasn’t waivered, with Corzine’s campaign placing almost 2 1/2 times as many ads on New Jersey TVs as Christie’s, since September 21st through October 19th (4131 to 1786).

But ads placed by the campaigns alone do not tell the entire story in New Jersey.  The Republican Governors’ Association has chipped in with its own advertising on behalf of Christie. The RGA placed over 900 ads over the last month to help close the gap.

NEW YORK CITY: Incumbent Mike Bloomberg continues to dominate New York airwaves over his opponent Bill Thompson (D). Bloomberg’s 2,875 TV ads placed since September 21st, almost 1,300 more than the amount placed by Thompson over the same period.

NEW YORK CITY: Incumbent Mayor Mike Bloomberg is dominating his competition in the ad buying race. Between June 1^st and September 20^th, Bloomberg purchased 4,706 TV ads in the New York market – no small feat considering New York is one of the most expensive markets in the country. The figure dwarfs the number of ads bought by Democratic challenger Bill Thompson, whose campaign bought just 14 TV ads over the same period – all of which ran on or after September 18^th.

NEW JERSEY: Recent polls show a slim lead for former prosecutor Chris Christie over incumbent Governor John Corzine. But since Christie was tapped as the Republican nominee back in June, the ad race has been much more lopsided in favor of his Democratic rival. Gov. Corzine has placed 3 ½ times more TV ads from June 3^rd to September 20^th, outscoring Christie 4,806 to 1,393 in the New York City and Philadelphia markets combined.

VIRGINIA: In the Old Dominion governor’s race, Republican Robert McDonnell hopes that history repeats itself as he takes on a Democratic opponent in Creigh Deeds whom he narrowly beat out for the attorney general seat four years ago. Since the Virginia primary ended in June, McDonnell has placed more ads across Virginia’s multiple TV markets with a score of 4,382 to 3,986 through September 20^th. But more recently, Deeds has been a bigger presence on Virginans’ TV sets with 3,028 ads in the first three weeks of September alone compared to 2,753 ad buys for McDonnell.

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.

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.

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

“The 2008 race has been lametastic when it comes to online advertising,” Shields wrote, adding: “McCain’s been nearly invisible when it comes to display advertising.”

Senator McCain placed 16 million online display ad impressions in June, while Sen. Obama ran 80 million impressions, Shields noted, citing Nielsen Online data. 

View additional Nielsen Online advertising data for the 2008 presidential candidates.