A virtually uncontested presidential race in California and a cakewalk for incumbent Sen. Barbara Boxer meant fewer campaign ads were aired in the state in this election cycle than four years ago.
Television and radio ad spending on both sides of the 16 propositions on the Nov. 2 ballot made up some of the slack, but not enough.
“There were some late flurries, but they were late-breaking and sporadic. Numbers are substantially down” at KNX-AM (1070) and KFWB-AM (980), said Pat Duffy, vice president and market manager of Infinity news stations.
Orders for proposition-themed TV and radio spots did roll in during the final month of the campaign, with some stations reporting a majority of their revenue during this time.
Jeff Thomas, director of AM sales for KFI-AM (640), KLAC-AM (570) and XTRA-AM (690/1150), said nearly 80 percent of the money came in from Oct. 1 to Nov. 1. But Thomas said that revenue was 25 percent less than during the 2000 election.
On television, it was more of a mixed bag.
“As opposed to the 2000 election where there were a couple of propositions spending the most money, so many more of them were buying time this year,” said Michael McCarthy, vice president of sales at KNBC (Channel 4). “But there really wasn’t a huge loss or gain over 2000’s numbers the volumes of ads places matched our expectations. There really was no surprise here.”
The big difference between the two elections lies in the number of spots for presidential candidates: President Bush and Sen. John Kerry ran less than 10 TV ads here in 2004 as they poured their money into the battleground states. Bush and Gore aired just under 9,000 TV ads four years earlier.
Filling part of the void was the more vigorous market for ads related to the 16 propositions on the statewide ballot. More than 40,000 ads ran from Dec. 29, 2003 to Oct. 17, 2004, according to Nielsen Monitor-Plus. The biggest spenders were the groups against Proposition 68 and the ones supporting Propositions 64, 68, 70 and 71.
Four years earlier, when there were half as many ballot propositions, just under 19,000 TV ads appeared statewide.
The total amount raised on California ballot measures for the 2004 general election was more than $200 million, according to data from ElectionTrack.com. By comparison, 2000 ballot propositions generated just under $134 million in contributions, according to the California Secretary of State.
The increased spending benefited TV, where proposition campaigns tend to target their advertising, more than radio.
The campaigns for and against Indian gaming Propositions 68 and 70, along with supporters of the stem-cell initiative, Proposition 71, accounted for nearly 90 percent of political advertising at KTLA (Channel 5) during the campaigns, said Steve Duarte, the station’s national sales manager.
Nancy McLachlan, senior vice president and regional broadcast director at media-buyer Initiative, said the propositions bought heavily during the morning and evening news programs following the usual pattern and hit the demographics in primetime with their messages.
“But the ones that didn’t spend a lot didn’t make an impact on the market,” said McLachlan. “People have short attention spans and not all of the propositions can spend all that money.”
