24: TV Spending
Shift paid media funds to organizational efforts and other means of connecting with voters. Other Information:
Political campaigns have a tendency to do the same things they've always done because that is how they've run campaigns in
the past. This won't cut it anymore. Throughout this report, there are examples of how the Obama campaign was innovative and
applied the standard fundamentals of a grassroots campaign in a modern world. We must learn from its success and recognize
our challenge in this respect. One glaring example of our tendency to conduct campaigns on autopilot is spending on TV. Simply
put, TV spending is out of control. Outside groups spent approximately $1 billion on TV ads in swing states in the final six
months of the 2012 campaign. Despite the extraordinary amount of money that was invested in TV by outside groups in 2012,
the final results of the election barely differed from the polls six months earlier. There are lots of arguments for why this
is the case, and we don't believe we lost because of third-party TV ads. However, the pendulum has swung too far when it comes
to spending on TV ads. TV is important and is still proven to be one of the best ways to drive a message; however, it is becoming
less important to reaching many voters. Yet, the incentive system rewards expensive TV buys, despite the fact that most campaign
committees and conservative organizations tightly negotiate these fees and make sure that decision-makers are not rewarded
based upon TV ad commissions. The incentive system does not reward nuts-and-bolts organizing and development of field staff,
data collection and analytics or rigorous testing, where we must renew our focus to effectively compete with the Democrats.
As a Party, we need to recognize the return on investment opportunity is incredibly ripe in developing our ground game, and
friends and allies should shift material amounts of their paid media funds to organizational efforts and other means of connecting
with voters. We must also improve our education of donors to our friends and allied organizations about this process and the
incentive structure of the groups to which they are giving money.
Objective(s):
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