• by Sue Inkrot , October 24, 2012

With all of the debates leaving the nation and the candidates fully winded, we’re two weeks away from the conclusion of the 2012 elections. Empower MediaMarketing’s election analysts are among the many who are counting down the days until this near-daily disruption disappears.

But while most are looking forward to their Facebook feeds, phones, mailboxes and TV schedules returning back to normal, media planners and buyers are looking forward to a normal workday. The following timeline quantifies the disruption that election ad spending can bring to a market buy for a single client campaign. In some cases, it has taken three times as long to guide a buy from plan to air date. We have changed company names in this timeline of an actual buy to protect the innocent.

May 2012

The election ad season usually kicks off in August. But because so much Super PAC money is pouring into the campaigns, ads begin hitting in battleground states in May.

WEEK ONE

Friday, July 20th:   The client, “Acme,” is planning a campaign for early September. The client team releases client-approved plans with buys due at the end of August.

Monday, July 23rd:  TV stations in the target market are notified; the media buying team uses current in-house rates from another client.

Wednesday, July 25th:  Local TV Affiliate 1 notifies the media-buying team that its current rates won’t work. Local TV Affiliate 1 sends new rates which are, in most cases, twice the original rates.

Friday, July 27th:  Media buyer notifies Local TV Affiliate 1 that its new rates are so much higher that they will prevent the agency from making the buy with their station. Local TV Affiliate 1 instructs media buyer to use the lower rates, and they will look into a different option. Media buyer notes that the buy must be booked on Monday, July 30th.

WEEK TWO

Sunday, July 29th:  Media buyer reviews the Acme campaign’s local market buy, including Local TV Affiliate 1’s portion of the buy.

Monday, July 30th:   Media buyer pre-books a tentative, holding buy with Local TV Affiliate 1 and continues working on the rest of the market buy.

WEEK FOUR

Monday, August 13th:  Other TV stations in the market start changing rates due to the election. The Acme client team's August 21st deadline is just one week away.

WEEK FIVE

Monday, August 20th:   The campaign buys are complete, including the revised buy with Local TV Affiliate 1. In a normal buying season, most of the work for the buy would be complete. 

Friday, August 24th:   Local TV Affiliate 1 informs media buyer that the prime access (PA) daypart that Acme was scheduled for is no longer available. As a result, Local TV Affiliate 1 would like to move ACME from 7-7:30 p.m. to 7:30-8:00 p.m. Despite the earlier negotiations, Acme is pre-empted and the makegood offer is accepted.

WEEK SIX

Wednesday, August 29th:   Local TV Affiliate 1 credits back the PA Acme dollars. Not only will the original rates not work in the new time period, the station has nowhere to put the newly preempted spots. The client loses their spots and the station salesperson loses his commission. The station credits the dollars back to Acme.

Thursday, August 30th:   Media buyer works to replace this buy with another station that can make-good the dollars and GRPs needed to achieve the client's campaign goals.

WEEK SEVEN

Tuesday, September 4th:   The Acme campaign begins in local markets as planned.

WEEK NINE

Tuesday, September 18th:   Local TV Affiliate 1 informs the media buyer that it set their rates too high. As September dollars came in much lower than anticipated, Local TV Affiliate 1 has lowered its rates and asks the buyer whether it wants to run the Acme spots after all. The media buyer informs the station that the dollars have been moved to another station. 

WEEK TEN

Tuesday, September 25th:   The media buyer for the Acme client team checks with stations involved in the market buy to confirm that the client's schedules are clearing. With only a few minor changes, the campaign is proceeding as planned.

WEEK TWELVE

Tuesday, October 2nd:   Local TV Affiliate 2 informs the Acme media buyer that a politician has placed five spots in each of the National League Championship Series baseball games for a rate 43 percent higher than Acme's originally purchased rate. This makes the Acme spots the Lowest Unit Rate for these games. If the Acme client team wants to add spots to this buy, predicated on the Cincinnati Reds moving past its playoff series with the San Francisco Giants, the higher rate would apply. But the Giants won and ensured this wasn’t an issue for Acme.

Friday, October 5th:   The media buyer confirms with stations in the market that the remaining schedule is currently intact and running as planned.

Three Times the Disruption

Media planners and buyers prefer a flexible TV schedule where a client team can capitalize on changes as a result of everything from the weather to breaking news to a clients’ benefit. But the above example, turning a four-week process into a twelve-week process, fits outside the definition of a flexible schedule.

From planning and buying to preemptions and makegoods, potential schedule interruptions are the norm during the election season. The client, the agency and the stations can all experience issues. And while stations did reap the benefits of Super PAC-funded inflation, even they are looking forward to a life of normalcy after the dust from November 6th clears.