Michael Bloomberg spends over $100 million on political TV ads causing rates to soar for other candidates
His massive ad buys makes the other Democrats look like paupers.
Democratic presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg has spent $100 million on digital and TV ads in his presidential campaign so far.
It’s hard to ignore “late to the game” presidential candidate and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. The billionaire businessman has already shelled out millions during the first week his television ads ran across the country in hopes that all of America would become more familiar with where he stands on the issues. In doing so, however, a new analysis conducted by Advertising Analytics shows that Bloomberg has caused ad rates to explode across the board.
The New York Post reports that all of this spending is having a ripple effect on advertising costs for the other candidates and even other advertisers.
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According to Advertising Analytics, “the typical [TV] market increased their rates by 22 percent as the political spending poured in.”
“Houston was among the markets that responded most actively to the new advertiser,” it added. “This is partially attributable to Bloomberg’s $1 [million] buy increasing the political spending in the market tenfold. This shock spending increase was matched by a 45% increase in rates, which is among the highest of any market.”
Bloomberg spent an average of $25.5 million a week on campaign ads since announcing his Presidential candidacy just last month in November. Since then, he has booked $119 million in TV ads. He is also tapping into the digital ad space booking $15.2 million in digital ads, reports Advertising Analytics.
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There’s no historical comparison to Bloomberg’s early ad spending, said John Link, Advertising Analytics vice president of sales and marketing, to the NY Post.
According to the data procured by Advertising Analytics, which breaks down the spending even further, Bloomberg spent nearly $6 million on YTV ads in both the Los Angeles and New York City markets, $4 million in Houston, $3.8 million in Dallas/Ft. Worth, $3.6 million in San Francisco, $3.5 million in Miami, more than $2.6 million in Chicago and Orlando, $2.4 million in Seattle/Tacoma, $2.2 million in District of Columbia and about $2 million each in Philadelphia, Boston and Tampa.
The total is a whopping $135 million in TV and digital ads alone and he hasn’t even participated in a debate yet.
If the Bloomberg campaign continues at this pace, it’s being said that the former mayor could spend up to $357 million on TV ads by the time the March 2020 primaries come about. Remember, this doesn’t include the costs necessary to actually run the rest of his campaign which will include staffers in various cities to spread the word about his political ideology across the country. If he wins the Democratic nomination, experts believe the final price tag could cost Bloomberg more than $1 billion.
Is it worth it? Although there has been a huge bump in the polls since he put his name in the hat, the spending spree will continue. The Bloomberg campaign repeated its mission on Friday that another four years of Donald Trump would be devasting to the country and so they are willing to spend “whatever it takes” to beat him next year.
