• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, March 4, 2025

Analyses of post-election analyses offer brands an opportunity to apply demographic insights and campaign performance.

Campaigns that succeed in 2025 will come from advertisers that recognize these are not just election trends, but permanent shifts in how media is consumed, according to Robin Porter, head of political at LoopMe.

“What we observed during the 2024 election should act as essential intelligence for how advertisers approach fragmentation in today’s media landscape,” she said. “The multi-channel reality — where TV maintains significance, but digital channels collectively dominate — isn’t just an election phenomenon. It reflects big changes in how Americans currently consume content.”

Technology company LoopMe and media agency Assembly on Tuesday released research revealing the most influential advertising channels during the 2024 presidential election and provided insights that can help marketers when running future campaigns.

TV’s dominance and digital’s rising influence survey took place from October 25-28, 2024, and was based on 43,514 respondents across Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Houston, Omaha, and Chicago.

The data analyzed the significance of digital vs TV for reaching voters, the impact of oversaturation on voters, including in key battleground states, and a demographic breakdown of data insights.

The importance of balanced multichannel targeting in political advertising that occurred in 2024 gives advertisers direction on how to approach 2025

Data released today reveals TV remained the biggest channel to see political ads during the 2024 presidential election, citing 41% of Americans. However, digital channels were where 59% of voters saw the ads.

Some 52% of adults ages 55 to 64 saw the most political ads on TV, but the number fell to 25% for those ages 18 and 24. While 21% of 18- to-24-year-olds were receptive to political advertising on YouTube and online video. Just 6% of 55- to-64-year-olds viewed the ads on mobile apps.

Oversaturation of political messages led most voters to suffer audience fatigue. Fifty-one percent said they had seen “too many” political ads during last year’s presidential election campaign. This was elevated for those living in key battleground areas, with 64% of respondents in Philadelphia and 69% in the pivotal Omaha saying they felt overwhelmed by political ads.

This oversaturation was detrimental to brands. Seeing too many political ads led consumers to tune out, with 40% saying they paid less attention to other ads at that time.     

As a result of the oversaturation, Assembly developed an intensity index and tool to help clients estimate how crowded a given market will become during an election cycle.

Measured in a scale from 1-10, the methodology for Assembly Market Intensity Index (AMII) analyzes multiple factors, including the size of the DMA, the number of races, how stiff the competition is among the races in that DMA, expected outside or issue group involvement, spillover into competitive districts and states, and geographic location of the market within an already competitive state.