Political Ad Spending Great in 2008

OCTOBER 22, 2007

Are you already tired of the campaign? Just wait.

Media looks like an early front runner in the 2008 election.

Spending should be impressive even without politicians. Interest groups have already opened their wallets, spending $6.2 million on TV ads in 2007 so far on state and local ballot measures, according to the TNS Media Intelligence/Campaign Media Analysis Group.

"Next year, spurred on by the largest outlay for political campaign advertising in US history, total media ad spending will shoot past the $300 billion barrier for the first time," said David Hallerman, senior analyst at eMarketer.

"What we expect to see between now and the end of the primaries and through the general election, is groups will take a more aggressive stance on their advertising and actually target candidates," said Evan Tracey, chief operating officer at TNS-MI, in a CNN.com article.

"With 17 Democratic and Republican candidates running for president, CMAG predicts that more than $800 million will be spent on TV ads in the battle for the White House," Mr. Tracey said.

The presidential elections will also help online ad spending growth increase from 18.9% in 2007 to 22.1% in 2008, according to eMarketer.

PQ Media predicted that political online ad and Web-development spending would reach $80 million in the 2008 election cycle, as cited in The Wall Street Journal.

TNS predicted that TV ads alone would reach $3 billion.

The eMarketer Political Marketing report will be published in January 2008. Please click here to be notified when it is released.