Embracing the Political Window

With our home office located in the Quad Cities, Media Link Software® is part of an Illinois/Iowa bi-state market. So, we have political windows more often throughout the year and our political advertising seems to be twice as much as in other parts of the Country. So, needless to say its impact on available ad inventory is a central theme in 2020 with media in this area.

In the United States, commercial broadcasters need to meet requirements to maintain their FCC licenses. They need to make time available to candidates running for federal office during defined political windows. Those candidates are then able to schedule their ads within these windows at the lowest price paid for each available program or daypart.

Given the unusual nature of cash flow in political campaigns and the extreme tolerance for diminishing returns through increased frequency, political ad buyers tend to focus on speed and saturation. This type of buy affects traditional advertisers who already scheduled their ads during the same period.

Media Link Software® is uniquely equipped to handle these situations. You can easily upload invoices to identify spots which did not run due to political campaigns. It helps you negotiate make goods right away by calculating their value compared to the original spots. Make good spots can then be embedded in the existing order and tracked moving forward.

Yes, you can certainly avoid broadcast TV during political windows. In this case, Media Link Software® allows you to compare substitute platforms like Outdoor, Radio, Publications, and other digital options like OTT to your originally expected broadcast TV performance. Simply halting all advertising for months is usually not an option, so this is an ideal time to get creative.