Are Dealers Competing With Donald Trump For Airtime?

Dealers are among the most consistent buyers of local TV ad space. As political races heat up, so does competition for local ad space on local TV stations.

A report by Bloomberg indicates dealers sometimes find themselves in a fight for local TV ad space. The competitor opposite dealers in the bid for local airwave space is political ads. Political ad spend can get intense enough that some dealers, in certain areas, have claimed a loss in revenue during elections.

The dealerships who most felt the impact seemed to be those in swing states such as Ohio. In the Cleveland, Ohio dealership market during October 2012, there was a measurable drop in the amount of dealership TV ads (4,553) or 16 percent year-over-year, while the number of political ads shot up by 27,000 during the same time period. Bloomberg cited an study by Ken Goldstein, professor from the University of San Francisco which indicated the political ad flood “…may have slowed the rise of new auto sales on average by 1 percent in September 2012 and 1.5 percent in October 2012 and could have been three times as much in the most intensely targeted political markets.”

Alec Gutierrez, analyst for Kelly Blue Book spoke to Bloomberg on the subject of political ads impacting dealers saying, …”Depending upon on what economic conditions look like around the election this year, there certainly could be a little bit more of an impact this year than we’ve seen in the past.”

A question you may have is how this impacts dealers who don’t rely as much on their traditional ad spend versus digital? As Bernie Moreno, a Cleveland, Ohio area dealer told Bloomberg, “This cycle, we are expecting the exact same situation (as 2012), except we don’t see an issue for sales. We have completed almost a complete transition to digital and only spend a very small part of our budget on TV.”

Should dealers be concerned with political ad spend? Have you experienced any issues with getting your message out around election time?