political ads

Media outlets use CU News Corps material

Anonymous — Sun, 14 Dec 2014 07:00:00 +0000

Media outlets use CU News Corps material Anonymous (not verified) Sun, 12/14/2014 - 00:00

This fall students at Colorado University in Boulder analyzed political ad spending during the 2012 election season. The CU News Corps received national coverage in a number of prestigious publications. Below is a list of articles relating to these efforts. The Columbia Journalism Review ran an article detailing the News Corps findings.

The Denver Post used the data to show the dominance of TV advertising in Colorado.

During the height of the election, the Denver Post used the CU News Corps findings to highlight where some of the biggest dollars were flowing.

The Longmont based TimesCall.com ran a post-election article detailing total spending over the 2012 election season in Colorado.

Colorado radio station KUNC (91.5) also published the CU News Corps data relating to Colorado local elections, showing that even on-line advertising was dominated by large political as spending.

NPR’s “It’s All Politics” blogs mentioned the News Corps’ work. 9News used our data for a story.

And Colorado Public Radio featured the News Corps’ work on Colorado Matters.

The Daily Camera wrote a story about the beginnings of News Corps.

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Metro area TV stations air ads worth $20 million

Anonymous — Wed, 05 Dec 2012 07:00:00 +0000

Metro area TV stations air ads worth $20 million Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 12/05/2012 - 00:00

This story also appeared on iNewsNetwork / Denver Business Journal / Denver Post / Daily Camera / Durango Herald

Coloradans troubled by a sense that political advertising on TV truly is unremitting this late summer, the broadcast equivalent of a jackhammer breaking up an old sidewalk, may take some comfort in knowing their concerns have merit.

In fact, there’s almost $20 million worth of merit to those concerns. That’s the total spent by 21 groups on an astonishing 18,956 political ads. And that’s only for political spots at the four largest Denver stations, KCNC, KDVR, KMGH and KUSA.

To put it another way, if you sat down at noon Sunday and watched each airing back-to-back, you wouldn’t emerge until six days and 14 hours later, missing everything but Monday Night Football the following week.

The analysis by the students of CU News Corps covers political advertising contracts uploaded by the stations to the Federal Communications Commission as of Sept. 11 for ads purchased to run between July 30 and Nov. 6. It does not include contracts purchased prior to the FCC’s deadline requiring the contracts to be posted online.

Denver is the No. 3 media market for presidential campaign ads this year, according to the Wesleyan Media Project, which examines political advertising nationally. Only Las Vegas and Cleveland have seen more spots between April 25 and Sept. 8, according to the group.

“It’s unbelievably crowded,” said Erika Franklin Fowler, an assistant professor of government at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Conn., who directs the project. “Colorado has a front and center seat for this campaign.”

Even so, as with advertising targeting all the swing states, the spots are aimed at a narrow slice of the electorate, said Kyle Saunders, an associate professor of political science at Colorado State University.

“These ads are aimed at somewhere around 15 percent of the people inside those 10 competitive states who are going to determine the outcome of this election,” Saunders said.

The July 30-Nov.6 numbers for the four Denver stations do not include contracts purchased prior to the FCC’s deadline requiring the contracts to be posted online.

Even so, the numbers are impressive:

Twenty-one groups are spending almost $20 million on 18,956 ads. At 30 seconds each, that’s almost 158 hours – at an average price of $1,050 per spot.
The largest spender to date is Obama for America at $4.6 million for 5,732 spots. The Obama campaign has purchased advertising through Election Day, with more than 100 spots planned on each station for most weeks.
The Romney campaign has spent more than $1.4 million for 1,596 spots. Thus far, the campaign only has slots purchased through Sept. 18.
Super PACs account for about $4.5 million of the ad buys with 3,425 spots. Priorities USA, the super PAC supporting Obama, leads the way with $1.9 million spent, followed by the Karl Rove-led conservative PAC, American Crossroads at $1.2 million.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has reserved $2.1 million in ad buys while the National Republican Congressional Campaign Committee has spent almost $2 million on buys. These ads are aimed at Colorado U.S. House races. The GOP ads ran mostly in August, while the Democratic ads are slated to begin later this month and run through Election Day, according to the analysis.
In the 7th Congressional District, incumbent Democrat Rep. Ed Perlmutter has scheduled almost $1.4 million worth of advertising, while Joe Coors, his Republican challenger, has booked $989,000 in ads. Both candidates have purchased ad time through the November election. Coors reserved additional ad time through Election Day before the stations were required to file political ad files with the FCC.
In the 6th Congressional District, incumbent Republican Rep. Mike Coffman has contracted for $660,315 in ads, while Democratic challenger Joe Miklosi has contracted for $723,725.

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Political advertisers spend heavily on football games, 'Dancing with the Stars'

Anonymous — Wed, 05 Dec 2012 07:00:00 +0000

Political advertisers spend heavily on football games, 'Dancing with the Stars' Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 12/05/2012 - 00:00 Zach Cook

This story appeared in the Denver Post and the Daily Camera.

If you’re looking to escape political advertising in the next few weeks, you’ll have to turn off the television. Whether you are watching football, Dancing With the Stars, Days of Our Lives, or the evening news, the presidential candidates and the super PACs supporting them have an ad – or several – for you.

For a show like Dancing With the Stars, incumbent U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman, a Republican in Colorado’s 6^th Congressional, spent $6,000 for a 30-second spot virtually every week through election day. His Democratic competitor Joe Miklosi also bought spots during that show for around the same price.

“We want to reach as many people as possible, and Dancing With the Stars is a popular show, and we want to reach those voters,” said Owen Loftus, Mike Coffman’s spokesman. “Our ads change based on what show and what we need to do to get our message out.”

Broadcast political advertising is at an all-time high in spending compared to the 2008 presidential election in Colorado. Analysis by the CU News Corps shows that from Aug. 2 through Sept. 26 found more than $23.1 million spent on 23,000 ads contracted to run on Denver’s top four television stations. That’s up $4.4 million and 4,200 spots since the last CU News Corps analysis on Sept. 12.

Where are the ads? Virtually everywhere. Both presidential campaigns bought weekly time slots on the soap opera Days of Our Lives on KUSA ranging from $900 to $1,350 per 30-second spot. Mitt Romney and the Republican Party advertised on Grimm, a show about supernatural fairy tales, paying $1,400 for a 30-second spot. Obama’s campaign bought two 30-second spots on the popular crime show NCIS at $3,750 each. Each of these political spots are repeated weekly up to election day.

Pro football is the costliest ad buy. Last Friday, the Obama campaign spent $104,000 for a two-minute spot to run just before the Broncos-Raiders contest Sunday. Republican super PAC American Crossroads spent $45,000 for a single 30-second spot during the Sept. 9 Denver Broncos game on KUSA. And the Obama campaign plans to spend $60,000 for two ads during the Oct. 28 Denver Broncos game and $20,000 for two 30 second ads during an NFL game on Nov. 4, two days before the election. A Notre Dame game the day before is considerably cheaper at $1,000 for the Obama campaign.

Why advertise during a football game?

“A lot of people watch football in this state, especially the normally hard to reach male demographic,” said Mark Cornetta, president and general manager of KUSA. “Not only do a lot of men watch football, but so do a lot of women, meaning that these ads can reach a lot of people.”

The most common buy for political ads is the local news. Campaigns want to reach the news-watching demographic the most, with ads in local news for Miklosi totaling 180 spots over several weeks during KMGH news broadcasts, for example.

“It is very important to get our message across,” said Ryan Hobart, spokesman for the Miklosi campaign. “We want to reach those people [watching Dancing with the Stars or some other show] so we can influence their vote.”

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Swing state campaigners push for online advertising in 2012

Anonymous — Wed, 05 Dec 2012 07:00:00 +0000

Swing state campaigners push for online advertising in 2012 Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 12/05/2012 - 00:00 Katharina Buchholz

This article appeared on KUNC.org.

TV isn’t the only place those annoying political ads are popping up this election season.

They’re also on YouTube, Hulu and Facebook, where campaigns are targeting younger potential voters, who don’t watch traditional TV.

More than $277,000 in online ads have targeted Colorado voters so far, according to Federal Election Commission data analyzed by the CU News Corps. That likely leaves out national online advertising for presidential candidates that doesn’t target specific states.

“All I get is political ads. I think I’ve gotten one or two other types of ads recently,” said Brent Hebert, a junior at the University of Colorado. “Some are really long and you can’t skip them. It’s almost gotten me to get AdBlock. Normally I am like, ‘It’s OK, they paid for it,’ but it’s getting absurd.”

Political groups will spend an estimated $9.8 billion on advertisements this election cycle, according to a report by advertising consultants Borrell Associates Inc. The $159 million spent on online advertisements seem like a drop in the campaign bucket, but online spending is up 615 percent from the last election cycle.

Anupam Gupta, CEO at Mixpo Inc., a Seattle-based advertising company specializing in online video, said that Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign set the trend for political advertisers to go online.

“To be honest, political has been one of the sectors that has been kind of late to the online game,” Gupta said. “Digital has become a key piece of any advertising strategy, even political, and that’s why you are seeing more activity this year than last time.”

The type of online advertising campaigners can’t get enough of is called pre-roll advertising. It’s the videos users see when YouTube or Hulu tells them that the “content will return shortly.”

Incumbent U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman, a Republican from the 6th Congressional District, is using online video ads in his reelection campaign. Coffman for Congress 2012 paid $9,000 to a Florida e-marketing firm in September. Spokesman Owen Loftus said the campaign was using pre-roll as well as user-activated banner video.

“This is a great way to reach voters. More and more people are using the Internet to get news. More and more people are using it to watch videos online or TV shows online,” Loftus said. “This is just another opportunity to reach them.”

Loftus said the right media mix was important for political advertisers. Coffman’s campaign puts interactive video banners on news websites such as Denverpost.com to reach older online users who don’t use YouTube as frequently as younger voters.

Democratic opponent, Joe Miklosi, spent almost $3,000 on Facebook advertising. Spokesman Ryan Hobart said that paid ads on the social media platform helped create followers for the Miklosi Facebook page that number more than 5,700.

“They are people who are very engaged and will share information with people who friended them on Facebook,” Hobart said. “It’s a good way to give information to people who are interested in the campaign and have them share it with their wider network.”

He added that social media was not a substitute for more traditional means such as TV ads, which reach people who might not have prior interest in the campaign.

Colorado’s U.S. House candidates have spent more than $188,000 on online advertisements and web video targeting Colorado this election season, according to Federal Election Commission data.

Independent groups have spent almost $89,000. The biggest independent online spender in the state was conservative super PAC FreedomWorks for America, which spent $85,000 on web ads supporting Coffman and opposing challenger Miklosi.

Campaigners like online advertising because it can target specific demographics and interest groups.

“Online has always had good targeting capabilities that have only been getting better,” Mixpo CEO Gupta said. “If you want to target based on what kind of content they are reading, what kind of interest they might have, you can do that.”

Google AdWords charges 15 cents per play of a YouTube ad targeted at 18- to 24-year-old Coloradans. Ads aimed at the state’s 35- to 44-year-olds cost 17 cents, but promise only half of the maximum 40,000 views per day viewers under 24 are supplying. Priced at 18 cents per play, ads targeting Coloradans 45 to 54 provide only 8,000 views per day.

At an additional cost, advertisers have the option of attaching their message to YouTube videos from a category such as sports, arts and entertainment or pets and animals. They may also target viewers of specific interest groups, a category YouTube users are assigned to based on videos they watched in the past.

Interest group targeting, however, adds to the confusion of some viewers. Marissa Sieck, a senior at the University of Colorado, said she was receiving Spanish language ads.

“It’s interesting, depending on the different music I am listening to, the specific ads that come with it,” the international affairs major said. “I listen to a lot of Spanish and Latino music, which then turns into Spanish ads for Obama.”

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Outside spending, negative ads rampant in Colorado 2012 election

Anonymous — Wed, 05 Dec 2012 07:00:00 +0000

Outside spending, negative ads rampant in Colorado 2012 election Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 12/05/2012 - 00:00 Jordan Wilsted , Greg Ellison

This article also appeared in Daily Camera / KUNC.org

Political television advertising is breaking records in Colorado this election season –

and much of that advertising is negative.

But academics who study the impact of such ads question how effective they are.

Candidates and super PACs contracted for almost $36 million at just the four top
Denver stations between Aug. 2 and Oct. 23, based on information filed with the
Federal Communication Commission and analyzed by the CU News Corps.

Of the 32,470 spots that money will pay for, President Barack Obama’s campaign
will spend more than $9 million for 10,005 of them. That compares with 4,209 ads
for Republican Mitt Romney’s campaign at a cost of almost $5 million.

Michael M. Franz, co-author of The Persuasive Power of Campaign Advertising, says two things stand out to him in this election.

“One, that there is more negative advertising than there has been in past years,” he
said. “[Second] is that it’s being driven a lot by the fact that the outside spending
from third party groups has been much higher than we’ve seen in previous
elections.”

In fact, the Wesleyan Media Project at Wesleyan University in Connecticut
examined advertising in battleground state television markets from Sept. 9-30
and found that 58 percent of the 7,770 ads that aired in the Denver market were
negative. That compares with 70 percent of the 4,661 ads that aired in Grand
Junction and 64 percent of the 4,878 ads that aired in Colorado Springs.

Super PACs’ limitless fundraising has caused a significant spike in the number of
television ads this election, Franz and other academics say.

Obama’s campaign tops the list with more than $9 million in contracts since Aug. 2.
But five GOP groups contracted for $6.7 million – and that doesn’t count what they
spent before Aug. 2. That compares to $3.3 million contracted by three Democratic
groups.

Between Oct. 2 and Oct. 22, American Crossroads almost tripled its ad contracts at the top four Denver stations, from $1.3 million to $3.6 million. The group was founded in 2010 by GOP strategist Karl Rove and former Republican National Committee chairman Ed Gillespie to promote Republican candidates.

On the Democratic side, the super PAC supporting Obama, Priorities USA Action, has contracted for $2.3 million in political ads since Aug. 2.

Because the candidates themselves have no direct say in how a super PAC spends its money, the outside organizations spend their money “pretty exclusively on negative advertising,” says Elizabeth Skewes, a teacher of political communication and media ethics at the University of Colorado.

Is all this spending worth it?

Not necessarily, says Travis Ridout, associate professor of political science at Washington State University and co-author of Campaign Advertising and American Democracy.

“The effects of ads are always quite small in a presidential race,” Ridout says.

For voters who have already made their choice, like Joan Ringel of Denver, negative
advertising is more frustrating than it is persuasive.

“This year’s political ads make me sad and frustrated. They have no effect on my
choices… I hope that the disgusting saturation makes people immune to (negative
political ads),” says Ringel, who wouldn’t reveal who she plans to vote for.

In most cases, political advertising isn’t powerful enough to make people vote across
party lines. Experts refer to these rare cases as “party defectors.” Franz says it’s
highly unlikely all the political ads will connect with potential party defectors unless
they have “already become disillusioned with their party.”

And negative advertising may impact an elections outcome by keeping undecided
voters away from the polls.

“Negative ads can cause some people to stay home,” Skewes says. “If you’re a
candidate and you’re slightly ahead in a state, a barrage of negative advertising can
have the impact of keeping undecided voters at home.

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Campaigns, PACs spent $41M on 35,225 ads in Colorado

Anonymous — Wed, 05 Dec 2012 07:00:00 +0000

Campaigns, PACs spent $41M on 35,225 ads in Colorado Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 12/05/2012 - 00:00

Almost $41 million and enough TV ads to fill more than 12 days of airtime, 24 hours a day.

That’s the political advertising tally at Denver’s top four stations based on contracts filed between Aug. 2 and Nov. 14. The CU News Corps entered data on the contracts filed with the Federal Communications Commission and analyzed them throughout the fall campaign.

President Barack Obama’s election victory in Colorado reflected a dominance of the airwaves in the Denver market as well.

In the end, Obama’s campaign contracted for $10.3 million and 10,616 ads starting Aug. 2, compared with GOP opponent Mitt Romney’s $6.1 million and 4,848 ads.

Super PACs supporting Romney narrowed the ad difference, with five spending almost $7.7 million on Denver ads, compared with three Democratic-leaning groups spending $3.9 million on Obama’s behalf.

2012 set a record for the total number of political ads aired, according to the Wesleyan Media Project, which used privately collected data to examine ad spending nationally. Denver ranked as one of the top markets for presidential ad spending nationally.

Super PAC ad spending potentially kept Romney and other Republican candidates competitive, said Michael Franz, co-director for the Wesleyan Media Project and a political science professor at Bowdoin College.

“They didn’t really win anything that they were hoping to win,” Franz said of the GOP super PACs. “We don’t know what the races would have looked like if those ads were not on the air.”

Obama’s buy-early tactic also may have been a factor.

By early September, the Obama camp had scheduled ads every week through Election Day, while the Romney campaign made week-to-week buys. That strategy proved economical, with the Obama campaign paying $969 on average for spots compared with an average of $1,251 for the Romney campaign.

“The Romney campaign going from week to week, it allowed them to be a bit more nimble, but it also meant that their dollars didn’t go as far,” Franz said.

The economy turned out to be a reliable predictor of the election outcome, said Seth Masket, a University of Denver associate professor of political science.

“That doesn’t mean that the ads didn’t matter, though,” Masket wrote in an email. “Ads are designed to get people to think about the economy, or other issues, in certain ways, and they get voters to use their feelings about the economy when they cast their votes.”

For many viewers, however, the onslaught of political ads didn’t make a huge difference.

“This year’s political ads made me sad and frustrated,” said Joan Ringle, a Denver resident who voted for Obama. “They have no effect on my choices. I wish we as voters made our choices on policy substance rather than talking points that at best are an exaggeration and at worst is lies.”

Franz said the election outcome might motivate conservative donors to look at alternative ways to spend their money in the future.

“One of the things that will probably be reconsidered is whether or not it’s worth spending money on other types of electioneering, whether it is ground mobilization, peer-to-peer contact, Internet outreach, things that are cheaper, things that the research suggests might have longer term effects,” Franz said.

Some details on contracts between political campaigns and the top four Denver TV stations filed on Aug. 2 and after.

Largest single contracts: Obama for American paid $557,225 for 770 ads to run on KMGH between Oct. 2 and Nov. 6. The Romney campaign paid $407,620 for 199 ads on KCNC between Oct. 31 and Nov. 6.

Top station: KUSA contracted for more than $15 million of the advertising haul, most likely because of the station’s top ranking for local news and Sunday night football games. KCNC came in second with $10.6 million, reflecting the station’s Sunday Broncos coverage. KMGH contracted for $9.6 million, while KDVR, the Fox affiliate, contracted for $5.5 million.

Most expensive ad: A two-minute, $104,000 spot by Obama before the Sept. 30 Bronco’s game on KCNC. The Republican National Committee spent $55,000 on a 30-second spot advocating for Romney during the Nov. 4 Broncos game on KCNC.

Cheapest buy: Obama and other Democratic candidates paid $25 for 30-second spots on super-early morning spots on KMGH and KUSA. By super-early, we’re talking 4 a.m.

A single ad: Women Speak Out PAC spent $24,000 on a single, one-minute ad opposing Obama and abortion on KUSA before the Oct. 3 presidential debate.