Presidential candidates should ramp up TV ad spend, NBC News political director Chuck Todd says
Political director at NBC News Chuck Todd thinks that 2016 presidential hopefuls should start investing more heavily in television ads now if they’re serious about winning.
Speaking about the candidates and their strategies at Ad Week New York, Todd said that Ohio Governor John Kasich has done things “the old-fashioned way” and has seen success in the polls with his TV ad push in New Hampshire.
According to ad-spending data NBC retrieved from SMG Delta, Kasich had spent $3.7 million on TV advertising, all in New Hampshire, as of 1 September.
Even though Trump is still the frontrunner in the Republican race and has yet to spend money on TV ads, Todd said that the crowded field of candidates means that there will be that many more super-PACS spending money on TV campaigns in the coming months.
Since demand will be so high, he said that candidates who don’t get a head start risk having their ads pushed to middle-of-the-night slots once the election gets closer unless local TV news stations decide to dedicate more time to political ads.
“Early advertising is going to pay more dividends,” said Todd. “People are going to regret that they didn’t go up earlier and you’re going to be stuck with 3 am time slots.”
Yet he did acknowledge the fact that this has been an unconventional race since those who are spending the least on television, like neurosurgeon Ben Carson, are at the top of the polls.