January 25, 2023
Iowa Political TV: Cruz Airs More Unique TV Spots, Clinton Grabs Most TV Ad Time
- by Wayne Friedman , February 2, 2016
A key
element of Sen. Ted Cruz's win in the Iowa Republican caucus might have been his specific TV targeting, leading up the Monday vote.
Cruz aired 29 unique TV spots from December 1 through January 30, according to Political TV Ad Archive -- more than any candidate of either party. This tally includes commercials for specific political candidates and their affiliated super PAC (Political Action Committee) spots.
Hillary Clinton -- who appeared to be in a virtual tie with Sen. Bernie Sanders, but eked out a victory on the Democratic side -- aired 21 different spots, followed by Sen. Marco Rubio also at 21. Sanders aired 20 different spots.
Three Republican candidates were next: Jeb Bush was at 15, Ben Carson, 7, and Donald Trump had a mere three.
But far and away, it was Clinton and Sanders who occupied Iowa TV airwaves for the last two months in terms of duration. Clinton compiled 5,268 advertising minutes, and Sanders totaled 5,011.
Rubio, who had a strong third-place showing on the Republican side, was at 3,473 minutes of total advertising time.
The next three Republicans were in a virtual tie for the next position: Cruz with 1,893; Trump at 1,836; and Bush, with 1,801.
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Interesting, given the results in Iowa, it looks like the number of unique TV ads (a likely proxy for targeting different creative and/or messages) and the total number of TV minutes of exposure (which impacts both reach and frequency of exposure for the TV ads), both yielded some impact. On the Democratic side, Clinton barely edged out Sanders on number of unique ads and time of TV exposure, and likewise barely edged out a win. On the Republican side, Rubio has the highest number of unique ads and time of exposure, and he climbed the most in terms of results versus polling prior to the caucus. Of course correlation does not ensure causation, as other factors like the candidate strengths/weaknesses and ground game certainly played a role. Nevertheless, TV looks to have positive impact on results.