$1 billion political ad dollars are flowing into CTV
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From sea to streaming sea: CTV to reach up to 17 percent of U.S. midterm ad spend
By Ilyse Liffreing
There’s more ad spend being poured into this year’s U.S. midterm elections than any other election in the nation’s history, and digital — especially connected TV (CTV) — is taking a larger piece of the media mix.
A record $9 billion is being spent across TV, digital, and radio, more than double compared to the $4 billion spent during the last midterms in 2018, according to Kyle Roberts, CEO of nonpartisan ad tracker AdImpact, which tracks every campaign in the country — over 4,000 in real time. Digital advertising — across desktop, social, and CTV — is estimated to comprise roughly 25 percent of that spend, or roughly $2.25 billion. CTV alone is expected to account for 14 percent to 17 percent of all political spend, Roberts tells The Current.
“For this cycle, CTV is the big player. It’s entering the political scene and it’s going to be north of $1 billion. That’s pretty serious,” says Roberts, who only expects CTV spend to increase for future elections, taking a bite out of linear spend.
“As you have an increase in content, a move toward time-based viewing, and people buy more smart TVs, the impression base on CTV will only grow,” Roberts says. “Outside of sports and a couple of other major events, the linear numbers are not as large as they used to be. Now you really need to think about audience-based buying and more sophisticated campaigns that try to figure out who their audiences are.”
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From Barbie to Squishmallows, the toy industry is reinventing itself for a digital age
By Chris Brooklier, Illustration by Holly Warfield / Getty / The Current
Whatever fond memories we have of childhood visits to Toys“R”Us or KB Toys, today’s children are more likely to be entranced by iPads and microtransactions on video games like Minecraft and Fortnite.
Even so, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, the toy industry has had a revival, posting record-breaking sales in 2020 and 2021. And that’s because toy brands, all competing to share in a $38 billion business in the U.S. alone, are figuring out new ways to reach digitally savvy kids.
“It used to be that you would just look at movies,” Azhelle Wade, toy marketing expert and president of The Toy Coach, tells The Current. “You were planning your entire production run and your next fall assortment on what movies are going to be released. But these days it’s more about [asking ourselves], how can we reach our target demographic on as many social platforms as possible? What can we do on streaming sites? What can we do on TikTok? What can we do on YouTube to create content that reminds them of this brand?”