One of the first major recommendations to come from the New Politics Institute was a simple one – Buy Cable. In 2005 our research showed that the political and advocacy worlds were significantly behind the private sector in adopting this important new tool in an area where most of the money in politics goes – television advertising.

One estimate from PQM Media estimated that in 2004 the commercial advertising world put 4 dollars of advertising dollars on cable for every 5 for traditional broadcast television. This study found the ratio in politics to be 1 dollar on cable for every 18 on broadcast. (check). Given the billions spent in politics every two years on television advertising, this was clearly a problem that needed addressing.

Our research showed that the reason why the commercial world had shifted tens of billions of advertising dollars to cable was simple – more people today watch cable than broadcast, and it offers much more precise demographic and geographic targeting than traditional broadcast television. The latter is particularly important for politics, since geographic targets do not fit neatly into the more than 200 media markets across the country.

So we aggressively advocated to progressives that they should learn more about and experiment with buying more cable as part of any paid media campaign. There was no one cookie cutter solution, and certainly cable is not as easy to buy as we want it to be, but much more consideration needed to be given to this potentially valuable new tool.

We are pleased that many did take our recommendations and shifted some of their advertising to cable. The same study cited earlier found that the broadcast-cable ad spend ratio in politics went from 18:1 in 2004 to 10:1 in 2006. We know from anecdotal evidence that many groups acted upon our advice and changed their advertising strategies. In some cases the changes impacted millions of dollars of advertising, ensuring a much greater return on the valuable dollars invested in reaching the target audience.

But in this process we learned a lot about not only how to buy cable, but how to buy it smart. That’s what this paper, “Buy Cable Smart, A Checklist” is about.

Finally, there is another reason why it is critical progressives learn how to buy cable now. Television, the preeminent medium of politics, is going through a dramatic transformation. It has been altered significantly by the rise of cable and satellite over the past 20 years. But now it is being radically altered by the movement of video to the internet and mobile phones and the rise of digital video recording devices. The way we move video to people, long dominated by our 20th century broadcast distribution system, is giving way to something much more 21st century in its construct, where traditional broadcast will be just one of many options of how to get video messages to people.

What this means for those of us in politics and advocacy is that as television and video change, we must become used to a period of intense, constant experimentation. Doing things as one did them 2, 5, 10 years ago is not an option. Think about this – in 1986, 90 percent of people watching television were watching live broadcast television. In 2008 it will be about 30 percent. This year, right now, there are tests underway that will allow us to deliver a television ad directly to someone’s set-top box, meaning that one would be able to target video messages to a household, or even person, as we do direct mail, phones and door-to-door campaigns today. Depending on the adoption rate, this one-to-one use of television could actually become an important part of the media environment in this election, but certainly it will be essential no later than 2010.

So buying cable smart is not just about buying cable. It is the first step in learning how to adapt our politics to a new whole new era of political communications no longer dominated by broadcast television.

Why Should Progressives Buy Cable?

1) More People Watch Cable

Simply put, the broadcast audience has dramatically declined as a percentage of the television viewers. At any given time, only one-third of all people watching television in the United States are watching real-time broadcast programming.[i]

Political advertisers must go to where the voters are, and today, that means expanding beyond broadcast and investing heavily in cable. Political advertisers can no longer consider cable advertising a peripheral expenditure and instead must consider cable a key part of the media buying strategy.

The chart below outlines Prime Time audience share, according to Nielsen. As you can see, network-affiliated TV station viewership has consistently dropped since 2000, while cable, including ad-supported cable, has consistently risen.

2) Cable Allows Advertisers to Target Ads Geographically and Demographically

Political advertisers face a unique advertising challenge. Commercial companies are not restricted by geography: Tide is Tide no matter which Congressional district you live in. But because campaigns want to target very specific areas, broadcast TV is a blunt political instrument. The district you are targeting for a campaign or candidate will often make up only a fraction of any given media market.

Cable can provide advertisers with the ability to focus on specific cable systems within the district or state of interest. Though the cable system lines won’t match up with the state or congressional boundaries exactly, most of the time there will be far less geographic waste with cable than broadcast.

Cable also provides enormous demographic targeting opportunities. Cable networks are targeted heavily towards specific demographic groups, allowing advertisers to follow suit. Whether the target audience is women, men, senior citizens, younger voters, Hispanics, African Americans, or Democratic primary voters, cable is a very effective and efficient voter persuasion tool.

There’s no question that buying cable for local and regional advertising is more difficult and time-intensive than buying broadcast television. There are far more cable than broadcast networks to choose from, not all TV viewers subscribe to cable, there is less inventory (advertising time) available to buy on cable than on broadcast, and there is far less uniformity amongst cable systems in regards to buying practices than there is amongst broadcast stations. However, progressives don’t have a choice. To reach the voters we need to motivate and persuade, so we must buy cable.

The Buy Cable Smart Checklist:

This Buy Cable Checklist is designed to empower progressives with information and the questions to ask when working with media buyers to ensure that we’re not only using the new tools of politics – in this case, cable television – but using them as smartly and efficiently as possible.

Our checklist is designed for anyone who wants to better understand the complex world of cable advertising to be empowered to work with media buyers on an advertising strategy that is targeted and smart.

QUESTION #1: What does it really mean to “buy cable?”

Let’s start at the beginning. There are several ways in which political and private sector media buyers buy advertising time. Sometimes, advertisers make national buys by buying national cable or national broadcast. For example, you can buy a thirty second spot on ABC’s Lost or CNN’s Late Edition that will be seen by everyone in the entire country.

However, the vast majority of political advertisers buy spots locally. Let’s use a Seattle Mayoral race as an example. To pursue a broadcast and cable strategy, the media buyers would place spots on local Seattle broadcast stations by calling each station. This could include the NBC affiliate, the ABC affiliate, the CBS affiliate, the WB affiliate, the Fox affiliate, and perhaps even Univision. Then, the media buyer would call the cable company or companies servicing Seattle and place buys on any cable network that accepts locally-inserted advertising, such as CNN, TNT, Lifetime, Home and Garden, and Discovery.

Broadcast ads are seen on all three of the distribution platforms, cable, satellite and broadcast due to the fact that broadcast signals must be carried "as is" by cable networks.

Note that satellite subscribers do not see ads on the cable networks because satellite TV companies currently do not allow locally-inserted advertisements to be purchased on cable networks...

So when we at NPI say, “Buy Cable,” we simply mean that political advertisers must go beyond just purchasing airtime on network-affiliate broadcast stations and buy time on cable networks.

QUESTION #2: What is the cable penetration rate in the media market I’m advertising in?

It’s important to know the cable penetration rates—the number of households in a media market who receive cable television—of the district or region in which you are advertising. Generally speaking, cable penetration is very high nationwide with combined cable and satellite penetration over 80 percent in urban and suburban areas (80% to 90%) and lower in rural regions.

Knowing the cable penetration rate is important to understanding the true measure of your cable buy (more on that in a moment) and to help with an overall voter contact strategy.

QUESTION #3: What is the targeted audience, and what research is available?

Before a cable buy is crafted, advertisers must be able to define a target audience as narrowly as possible: where do they live? What do they watch on television? What are their demographics?

There are one hundred cable stations that air advertising, many of which draw very specific, targeted audiences. With the tools of good market research, such as polling and through the market research firm Scarborough (available to all media buyers, but expensive), a media buyer can very effectively target advertising to a specific audience. But the first, most basic step is to know your audience.

It’s worth noting that cable and the other new tools of politics mandate higher levels of market research and microtargeting. We now have the technology and tools to target video persuasion – better known as television ads – to narrow slices of the electorate, and soon we will be able to target individual households and voters. However, none of that will be useful unless we have sophisticated research tools and targeting capabilities. Conservatives are ahead on this front, having used research and microtargeting for mail and field campaigns for several cycles. In fact, Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign is already using microtargeting research and running advertising on cable and broadcast aimed specifically at Republican primary voters in the early states, and also running national cable ads aimed at Republican fundraisers, activists, and party leaders[ii]. It’s a highly sophisticated marketing campaign that puts new tools to use. Progressives need to catch up.

QUESTION #4: Should we buy through the cable system interconnect or through individual systems?

There are two ways to buy advertising locally on cable networks: through each individual cable system, often called the “soft” systems, or through an “interconnect” which allows you to buy multiple cable systems across a region.

What is the better choice? There is no right answer to this question, but it’s a question worth discussing with a media buyer.

Buying the cable interconnect can be more efficient and may allow advertisers to purchase more inventory and better-targeted inventory. However, because the interconnect includes several cable systems, sometimes buying the interconnect can be just as geographically wasteful as buying broadcast. Buying only the “soft” systems that reach your target audience may be much more efficient.

PA-06, a congressional district outside Philadelphia, provides an example of the geographic waste that can occur in media buying. The goal is to reach the 263,592 households living in PA-06. If you buy advertising purchased on broadcast TV in the Philadelphia media market, which reaches 2,941,450 people, then more than 90 percent of your buy is wasted.

Buying the cable interconnect is more targeted than broadcast, but there is still geographic waste as seen in the first map below. (The congressional district is the thin red line at the top of the map, and the green area is the entire cable interconnect.) Selecting the specific “soft” cable systems that cover PA-06 will still result in some geographic waste, but overall it is a much more targeted way to reach the voters in PA-06. See the second map, where the red line is the congressional district, and the colored areas are the local cable systems that can be bought individually.

In this example, it is more geographically efficient to buy the Philadelphia However, there are some states and districts where it makes sense to buy the interconnect even when there is more geographic waste, because the total cost of the spots when bought through individual “soft” systems may be greater than buying the spots through the interconnect. Therefore, advertisers must ensure that they are equipped with the information and the data to make the right choice. “soft” cable systems.

Often times, good cable buyers will buy cable spots through both an interconnect and the “soft” system in order to achieve the frequency desired. And of course, always keep in mind that the goal is cost-efficiency. It may be cheaper to purchase broadcast or the interconnect, despite the “wasted” impressions outside a district’s boundaries.

There is no right answer, but all the options must be explored to determine which strategy makes the most sense for the campaign.

QUESTION #5: Which cable networks and programs are we buying, and why?

Too often, political cable buys only include cable news stations like CNN or MSNBC; or sometimes buyers buy all the stations available rather than targeting the buys at all. The right approach will vary from market to market, and race to race, but there’s no question that a good cable buy should have a well-thought out strategy behind it: is it targeted at Democrats? Independents? The demographic that is most likely to be undecided, according to polling?

Below, find the cable networks ranked in order of popularity among Democrats who always vote in Presidential elections. If an advertiser were aiming to deliver a message to true-blue Democrats, combining this data with the advertising cost would determine which networks are the most efficient.

Source: Scarbrough Research

 

Keep in mind that some of the most widely-viewed programming on television is sports and other specials aired on cable. Every week, a list of these programs is available through the cable systems and media buyers should obtain these and build or adjust the cable buy accordingly.

QUESTION #7: Are we buying specific cable programs, or are we just buying dayparts?

On broadcast, buyers select the specific program during which their ad will air. However, some cable stations – particularly more rural stations – do not allow local advertisers to specify which programming they are buying advertising for; rather, they only allow advertisers to buy a daypart or time slot such as 6 pm – midnight. Therefore, the advertiser does not really know during which show the advertising will run – it could be on the higher-rated Law and Order rerun, or on a lower-rated show at a different time, yet the price for the spot will be the same.

Even when the cable system allows specific-show buying, the cable system will almost always charge a premium. If an advertiser has the choice between spot buying and daypart buying, follow a few general principles: first, sports programming is almost always worth buying the actual program instead of the daypart; second, if an advertiser is buying heavily enough, it is less likely to be worth the cost of buying specific programming instead of the more cost-effective daypart because the frequency will almost ensure placement on the most desirable programming; and finally, be wary of networks that have teenage-heavy syndicated shows in the daypart you’re buying.

QUESTION #6: How is the buyer measuring the cable buy?

Traditionally, there are two ways to measure the strength of a cable buy: some buyers measure cable based simply on number of spots running a week, because, until relatively recently, no ratings were available for cable. So until recently advertisers could only say they were running “100 spots per week”, instead of “50 Gross Rating Points (see sidebar definition) per week” on cable. Other consultants now use the ratings points and oftentimes combine it with broadcast points to give clients a total number of points per week.

We advocate a uniform measure for broadcast and cable points. We believe it is critical to see the overall strength of a media buy measured uniformly across cable and broadcast.

This is why it is important to know the cable penetration rate and whether or not the buyer is factoring it into the GRP measure.

For example, let’s say there are two cable systems in the region you care about, Congressional District 1. Cable System A has 90% cable penetration; Cable System B has 60% cable penetration. If the exact same buy is made on each system, more voters living in the region serviced by Cable System A will have seen the advertising. Therefore, the buy in Cable System A is a “bigger” buy and will have more GRPs behind it.

In sum, 1000 GRPs should have the same reach whether the buy is all-broadcast, all-cable, or a blend of broadcast and cable.

QUESTION #7: How much cable should we buy?

We advocate running a blend of broadcast and cable advertising. The precise formula will vary from state to state, district to district, and will be based on several key factors including the cable penetration rate, the efficiency of buying broadcast, and polling data.

A cable buy can deliver a targeted message to a targeted audience, or it can be identical to the message a candidate is running on broadcast television. If the cable buy is delivering a stand-alone message, there should be no less than 200 gross ratings points (GRPs) per week running in order to ensure the ad message penetrates the target audience.

If the cable buy is reinforcing a broadcast message, fewer points running per week are acceptable as long as the total buy (broadcast and cable combined) is more than 500 GRPs over the period of that week. Note, however, that an overall buy of only 500 GRPs is not sufficient for a message to truly penetrate the electorate– running advertising at this level would require airing the same advertisement over two to three weeks.

It’s also important to note that while a typical broadcast buy is between 800 points per week and 1200 points per week (sometimes increasing to more than 2000 points per week right before an election), an extremely heavy cable buy is between 300 and 500 points per week because there simply isn’t the inventory on cable that exists on broadcast. You must take this into account when considering cable-only buys and the amount of time your ad must run to make an impact. Size of market matters as well – there is more cable inventory available in big TV markets such as New York City and Philadelphia than in smaller TV markets.

QUESTION #9: How many spots are we running per network per week?

Generally speaking, every spot you run on cable is about 40 to 50 a GRP, so 200 points on cable equals approximately 400 spots. Because there are one hundred cable networks that accept advertising, a common mistake in cable buying is over-dilution of the spots. Most media professionals will argue that advertisers should run between 50 and 100 spots per cable network. If you have budgetary constraints, run your spots on fewer networks so that you can hit the 50 spots per week minimum. Otherwise, you are running too few spots on the network to make a real impact.

Broader Implications of a Buy Cable Strategy for Progressives

To fully take advantage of the targeting implications and efficiencies of cable, there are several things the broader progressive community should do.

Market Research. First, we must make a greater investment in market research. This means everything from larger sample sizes for benchmark polls (in order to have smaller crosstabs that really mean something demographically), buying consumer data lists, and utilizing the microtargeting tools that the conservatives have already mastered.

Run Ads for Longer Periods. Thinking of television advertising as one thinks of direct mail starts to change the very model of a traditional political advertising campaign. A lot of research and experimentation will have to go on, and certainly the primacy of the current model - enormous buys in the final weeks of a campaign - will need to be re-evaluated and re-imagined. This new tool of cable allows an advocacy or political campaign to do targeted, small things that one simply couldn't do with television even a few years ago. This makes the option of television much more reasonable for many groups or campaigns.

Progressives should give very serious consideration this cycle is going up much earlier in the campaign at much lower point levels and staying on the air for 6-12 months rather than for 3-6 weeks. Remember that while cable offers much more precise geographic and demographic targeting, it does not offer the reach and penetration of broadcast. You can't buy the same number of GRPs on cable as you can on broadcast. So to get the advantages cable offers, ads will have to be on the air for longer periods off time to reach the same number of people a broadcast ad would.

Gear Up to Produce More Ads. We also need to consider producing more ads. We must start to think about television advertising as video persuasion, and in the same way that we target mail to senior citizens or to women, we need to target television ads to specific voters as well. For example, with the proper research and the tools, candidates can target television ads to pro-gun Democrats or women with children in school. The ability to reach narrow slices of the electorate is meaningless unless we are producing content as targeted as the buy.

Re-evaluate the financial incentives. Last, we must acknowledge that executing a sophisticated cable ad buy is more difficult and time-consuming than executing a traditional broadcast-only advertising buy. However, the consultants and buyers are almost always paid the same rate for cable and broadcast. The financial incentive, therefore, is to produce an easier-to-build big broadcast buy. We should consider new and innovative ways to financially compensate the political professionals that better reflects the time, effort, and expertise required to plan and execute the kind of sophisticated, targeted ad buys we are talking about here.

Finally, it is worth noting that while political advertisers need to more effectively use cable, the cable systems throughout the country also need to understand the needs of political advertisers as well - most importantly in regards to inventory availability, ensuring ad traffic changes are executed in a timely manner, and providing up-to-the-minute rate and competitive information to candidates and organizations.

Conclusion

In conclusion, while the increased media fragmentation means that it is harder and harder to reach voters through a traditional, big-three network strategy, today there are narrow-reach cable networks that will allow you to reach the audience you want with the message you want. In the near future there will be powerful new tools and technologies exponentially increasing our ability to reach the exact voters we need to reach. Progressives must innovate and master these new tools of video persuasion. Stay tuned to NPI for more on this coming soon.