As the 2024 election season enters its final stride, political ad spending is breaking records across channels. With over $12 billion projected to be spent on political advertising by Election Day, the competition for attention in the media landscape is fiercer than ever. While out-of-home (OOH) ads are seeing historic levels of investment, the impact of political dollars isn’t limited to billboards and transit ads. From digital platforms to TV and Connected TV, brands must be prepared to navigate rising costs,crowded channels and quick-changing consumer behavior. The Political Spend Surge According to recent data, political ad spend is reaching unprecedented levels: •Digital OOH: Political ad spend in OOH has quadrupled compared to 2020, with digital formats seeing a 7.5% spike. •Total OOH Spend: Q2 2024 saw a 3.4% growth, pushing total OOH spend to a record $2.78 billion. •Digital Channels: The 2024 cycle will see $3.46 billion spent on digital advertising, a 156% increase from 2020. But it’s not just OOH and digital feeling the squeeze. Political campaigns are increasingly turning to CTV and streaming platforms, where ad spending is projected to grow 24% over midterm levels. This shift is reflective of changing voter behaviors and the rise of sophisticated targeting capabilities on streaming platforms like Hulu, YouTube, and Amazon Prime. How Non-Political Brands Are Affected For non-political brands, the influx of political dollars is more than just a news headline—it’s a real challenge. With political advertisers snapping up inventory across digital, TV, and OOH, ad prices are spiking, and premium placements are harder to secure. This creates significant obstacles for brands that rely on fourth-quarter sales, especially as Election Day falls right at the start of the holiday season. Whether it’s higher CPMs in social channels or competing for airtime on linear TV, advertisers across sectors are having to rethink their strategies to maintain visibility without overspending. In key battleground states, where political ad spend is the highest, brands are finding it especially difficult to secure ad space without paying a premium. Beyond just cost, the flood of political ads can also impact consumer behavior. Voters’ emotions and priorities are shaped by the political messaging they see. For example, a viewer bombarded with ads about the economy may feel more conservative about discretionary spending, while another voter inspired by messaging on climate action might be more inclined to invest in green products. Staying Nimble: An Omnichannel Approach In this environment, agility is key. Brands must be prepared to pivot quickly as inventory fluctuates and opportunities arise. An omnichannel approach—one that spans digital, CTV, social, and DOOH—offers flexibility, allowing marketers to move resources where they’ll be most effective, even as political campaigns dominate the landscape. Digital channels like CTV offer not only a cost-effective alternative to traditional TV but also more precise targeting, allowing brands to reach specific audiences without the inflated costs of linear TV. Being nimble means adjusting placements as needed, reacting to inventory availability, and taking advantage of less-crowded moments in key channels. How LocalFactor Can Help As brands navigate this shifting landscape, LocalFactor offers a solution to cut through the political noise. Our LFG Performance Engine enables advertisers to adapt to changes in ad spend and quickly pivot to channels that maximize reach and engagement. With tools like Geo-Graph™, we help brands target the right audiences based on audience-infused geographic segments rather than legacy identifiers, ensuring your message hits the mark, even in a crowded marketplace. By leveraging a comprehensive mix of channels such as CTV, digital audio, and DOOH, our advertising partners maintain visibility and thrive during election season. And with our Attention+ creative technology, we ensure your campaigns capture consumer focus, regardless of where the competition is spending. Political advertising isn’t slowing down, and as the 2024 election sprints to the finish, brands need to stay flexible to avoid inflated costs and maintain effective reach. LocalFactor’s omnichannel strategies can help you stay ahead of the game! Contact our team today to discover how we can optimize your advertising strategy and maximize your investments in this dynamic political season.
Redefining Seasonality: How Marketers are Breaking Free from Traditional Holiday Cycles
In the fast-paced world of marketing, the concept of seasonality is undergoing a significant transformation. Gone are the days when holiday and promotional cycles were strictly confined to their traditional timeframes. Today, savvy marketers are reimagining the calendar, seizing opportunities to engage consumers year-round. This shift reflects both changing consumer behavior and the evolving strategies of brands seeking to stay ahead in a competitive landscape. The Shifting Landscape of Seasonality Historically, the marketing calendar was defined by predictable peaks: Back to School in late summer, Halloween in October, and Christmas in November/December. However, these once-clear boundaries are now blurred. For example, this year’s Prime Day in July saw retailers promoting Back to School deals earlier than ever, while Christmas promotions are creeping into the summer months. This shift is driven by changing consumer behaviors, with people shopping earlier and more frequently throughout the year. In fact, 49% of consumers plan to start their holiday shopping before Halloween this year, up from 41% last year. What’s more, 25% now consider holiday shopping a year-round activity, highlighting a significant change in how people approach these seasonal events. The traditional Black Friday-Cyber Monday weekend is no longer the dominant starting point, with only 27% of consumers waiting until then to begin their shopping. The Early Bird Advantage The motivation behind these extended promotional cycles is clear: brands are eager to capture attention as soon as possible, often in an attempt to outpace competitors. Advertisers are increasingly moving their messaging and product placement up, sometimes well before the actual season. This strategy not only allows brands to stand out but also offers financial benefits, such as cheaper CPMs during less competitive periods. For instance, one brand launched its Father’s Day campaign a week earlier than usual, capitalizing on lower advertising costs while boosting awareness, traffic, and impressions. This incremental shift may seem minor, but it’s part of a broader trend of stretching seasonality to maximize impact. As traditional seasonality fades, it’s being repurposed as a tool for understanding and targeting consumer behavior. Brands are now adjusting their marketing cycles based on when consumers are most likely to be receptive, rather than sticking to historical timelines. This adaptive approach allows brands to align more closely with consumer needs, whether that means promoting Back to School items during Prime Day or launching holiday sales months in advance. Consumers Drive the Change It’s not just brands that are shifting their approach; consumers are also playing a crucial role in redefining seasonality. Social media platforms like TikTok and Pinterest are fueling this change, with influencers and content creators posting Back to School hauls and holiday inspiration months ahead of time. This early exposure prompts consumers to start shopping and planning earlier, further blurring the lines between seasons. Moreover, the economic pressures of recent years have made consumers more budget-conscious, leading them to seek out deals and inspiration well in advance of traditional shopping periods. This shift in consumer behavior is pushing brands to rethink their promotional strategies, ensuring they remain relevant and top-of-mind throughout the year. How LocalFactor Can Help Marketers Adapt As the lines between seasons continue to blur, marketers must adapt by embracing flexibility and creativity in their strategies. That’s where LocalFactor comes in. Through our advanced Attention+ technology,, brands can seamlessly repurpose creative assets across multiple channels, ensuring their messaging stays relevant no matter the time of year. Attention+ provides valuable insights into what content resonates most with audiences, enabling marketers to make real-time adjustments to optimize performance. In this new era of stretched seasonality, it’s crucial for brands to activate and optimize their campaigns across the channels that are driving results, whether that’s CTV, Audio, or DOOH. LocalFactor’s Performance Engine is designed to provide seamless cross-channel activation and comprehensive data on campaign performance, helping brands identify the most effective channels and adjust their strategies to meet consumers wherever they are. The Future of Seasonality in Marketing As the traditional holiday cycle fades, marketers have an opportunity to break free from the confines of old timelines and create lasting connections with consumers year-round. By leveraging flexible, data-driven solutions like Attention+ and our Performance Engine, brands can stay ahead in this evolving landscape, delivering impactful campaigns tailored to today’s consumer behavior. At LocalFactor, we’re committed to helping brands navigate these shifts and thrive in the new world of marketing. Ready to redefine your approach to seasonality? Let’s talk.
Attention+: Bridging the Gap Between Walled Gardens and the Open Web
Brands are constantly challenged by the evolving social media landscape. Despite the significant investment and effort poured into creating engaging social media posts and stories, these efforts often reach only a small percentage of a brand’s total following. On average social accounts with 10-50k followers only reach 19.2% of their followers with posts and 6.5% through stories. As follower counts increase, reach rates actually get worse, with accounts over 200k reaching only 5.5% of their audience with posts and 1.2% with their stories. The shelf life of these posts is short, with content quickly getting buried under the constant flow of new updates. With marketing teams consistently tasked to do more with less, these numbers can be frustrating as they strive to maximize impact with constrained resources. Introducing Attention+: Unleashing the Power of Your Vertical Video Assets Enter Attention+, a powerful tool designed to transform how brands, agencies, and publishers leverage their existing vertical video and social stories beyond traditional platforms. Attention+ stands out by repurposing video assets from platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook, extending the life and reach of these videos. No longer confined to a single platform or a brief lifespan, a brand’s videos can now provide a greater return on investment by engaging audiences across the open web. Creating Compelling Ads with Ease One of the standout features of Attention+ is its ability to create engaging cross-screen ads quickly and effortlessly. Imagine turning any vertical video into customized full-screen ads on mobile, Connected TV or DOOH, creating multiple variations that captivates viewers, extending time spent with the brand and encouraging action. This extended engagement is crucial for brands looking to strengthen their connection with their audience. Attention+ excels in this speed-to-market environment, enabling you to create compelling ads swiftly and effortlessly. This not only maximizes the return on your investment but also ensures that your messages reach more people, helping to bridge the gap between your brand and your audience. For instance, consider a beer brand whose core consumers are heavy baseball viewers and they have partnerships with several MLB teams. Using Attention+, the brand can pull in team-specific stories and posts, targeting heavy up in the relevant markets. By adding interactivity with voting widgets, Attention+ keeps the audience engaged and the beer brand top of mind as they prepare to watch games each week. This seamless integration and rapid content deployment highlight the speed-to-market capabilities of Attention+, driving both engagement and brand recall effectively. Seamless and Engaging User Experience The user experience with Attention+ is seamless and engaging, no matter the channel. For example, display ads generated by Attention+ catch the eye with dynamically selected snippets from your videos. When users tap on these ads, they are taken to a full-screen story page where they can engage more deeply with your content. Custom call-to-actions (CTAs) within this immersive environment guide users to your landing pages, driving meaningful interactions. Enhanced Reporting and Insights Attention+ provides enhanced reporting and insights, shifting the measurement focus from traditional click-through rates (CTR) to time spent with the brand. This approach considers increased time spent as a critical success metric, far exceeding the engagement levels of traditional display ads. By analyzing performance in real-time, Attention+ provides valuable data to understand how creative is performing, allowing for continuous optimization and improving campaigns from impressions to meaningful actions. Always Improving Attention+ is a core component of the LFG Performance Engine and creates dynamic creative delivered to custom LFID audiences. The LocalFactor team has an exciting product roadmap that will continue to enhance Attention+’s creative decision-making and optimization in the coming months. Elevate Your Omnichannel Video Strategy with Attention+ In the fast-paced world of digital marketing, harnessing the full potential of video content is a game-changer. Marketers must do more with less, Attention+ offers a powerful solution to extend the life and impact of your digital media investments, ensuring your brand reaches its full potential. Discover how Attention+ can elevate your social stories and drive meaningful engagement today.