Stay on Schedule During Political Season

Over the previous two weeks, we’ve talked about the very concrete ways that the 2020 political campaign affects your advertising campaign. In part one, we explained that getting your message out to the car-buying public requires an experienced campaign manager. In part two, we gave some specific strategies to help you avoid overspending on your campaign. In our final installment below, we’ll look at what the political season means for the scheduling of your ads.

 

How your schedule works

When you establish your budget and schedule your time slots, you expect your ads to run in the window you’ve selected. But during the pre-election windows, you can be certain that your campaign will not go exactly according to schedule.

 

Why? During election season, there is a very real chance some of your ads will be bumped by political spots airing in your pre-purchased daypart. Political candidates have the right to purchase time slots of their choice during election season, so there are instances when their choices will bump your spots off the air.

 

However, with the right insight and solid, ongoing relationships with radio and TV station personnel, there are ways to ensure stations make up for many of these bounced ads.

 

Broad reach and frequency

Election season or otherwise, the importance of getting your message to a broad audience of potential car buyers … and getting it to them as frequently as possible cannot be overstated.

 

The majority of dealers – most business owners of all stripes, for that matter – have little to no experience with such situations. It’s difficult enough to determine the right media mix at any time of the year; during election season it’s nearly impossible.

 

Don’t be “that dealer”

Don’t be the dealer who is left to wonder what happened when he sees a significant portion of his ads bumped during political season.

 

Don’t be the dealer who waited until the last minute to schedule his ads. During election season, these spots fill up even faster than normal – for obvious reasons.

 

And above all else, don’t be the dealer who didn’t seek help for solutions to all the pitfalls that election season brings. With the assistance of a skilled, experienced automotive agency like JKR, you’ll get as close to “business as usual” as possible when it comes to scheduling ads during election season.

 

JKR Automotive Advertising: The car dealer ad agency.