By
Sarah Johnson
With the ever-changing technology landscape, it can be difficult to decide how you want to reach voters, especially when it comes to your media investment. Campaigns can choose from a wide range of options — from long time staples such as mail, phone calls, and TV commercials — to digital tools such as Facebook ads, peer to peer texting, and online video. All of these options have their own unique benefits to reaching voters, but we want to share some insights with you about one of our favorite tools: Over The Top ads — commonly referred to as OTT.
What is OTT?
An OTT ad plays before or during content on apps within Connected TV streaming services such as Roku or Hulu. It’s an impactful and proven way to get your message in front of your voters. Traditional TV is often too expensive for local campaigns — especially in expensive media markets like Chicago or Los Angeles. On the other hand, OTT is both reasonably priced and highly targetable. Instead of a 15 second spot shown to a blanket audience across your region, OTT can target segments such as likely voters, civic activists, or newly registered voters — ensuring your message is shown to only your desired audience.
Why invest in OTT and why now?
In addition to improved targeting, your campaign is able to reach your target audience where they are spending their time. More than ever, the average American is abandoning traditional television for Connected TV devices such as Roku or Apple TV. By 2026, households who don’t pay for cable or traditional TV will outnumber traditional pay TV households by 25 million. With cord cutter households set to outnumber pay TV this year, it’s more than an oversight to ignore OTT ads this campaign cycle. Plus, adults in America are spending two hours of their day on a Connected TV device, making OTT an advantageous tool for communicating with voters.
How to place OTT ads.
OTT is accessible to campaigns up and down the ballot. One option is to leverage self-service tools like Hulu’s Ad Manager and directly place ads on their platform. Netflix also offers a self-service platform, but unfortunately, they don’t accept political ads. To streamline set up and reporting, you can also leverage digital media buying services such as The Media Studio, by SpeakEasy to cut through the noise and place OTT ads on campaign-safe streaming platforms. With access to top inventory and a media team ready to help you optimize, The Media Studio is a powerful means of getting your ad in front of voters without sacrificing your entire war chest.
When your campaign is budgeting for election season, don’t leave OTT on the sidelines. Invest in this crucial tool to help your campaign succeed.
Our team is standing by to support the candidates and campaign teams who are stepping up to run. Should you have any questions — or if there is anything our team can do to support your media planning — we’ve included the option to book a time to chat here:
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