Forget the purported 15-year-old -- with a name worthy only of a 15-year-old -- that’s “running” for president. There’s an actual independent movement happening that has the potential to influence the 2016 election and, perhaps more significantly, future elections. It comes in the form of programmatic ad tech.
New forecasts from Borrell Associates, released earlier this week, painted a wilting picture of broadcast TV as it relates to political ad spend. Broadcast TV is expected to see $6 billion in political ad spend next year along -- up from roughly $5.75 billion in 2012 -- but that number is forecasted to dip to $5 billion by 2020 in favor of digital political ad spend, which “will have risen to within 30% of broadcast TV levels.” By 2020, Borrell estimates digital political ad spend to account for $3.5 billion.
The estimates make it clear that while broadcast TV is still the king of political advertising -- it’s expected to account for over half (52%) of all political ad dollars between now and the 2016 election -- marketers are expected to cast more votes for digital in the next half-decade or so.