Hasta La Creative!

In 2012, President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign led the pack in TV arbitrage — buying underpriced cable spots to reach niche voter groups. Though insiders say plenty of opportunities remain for such efficient TV buying by political advertisers to perpetuate in 2016, don’t expect a repeat that will match the scale of the Obama operation.

“I did huge arbitrage” for the 2012 Obama campaign, said Carol Davidsen, former director of integration and media analytics at Obama for America who now serves as VP of political technology at TV data firm Rentrak. But this time around it will be more difficult to replicate the approach she was instrumental in bringing to political TV buying through the “Optimizer” system she helped build for OFA.

“Arbitrage will never go away because sellers will never have the same appreciation of a buyer’s target audience; however, in the 2016 cycle there will be more balanced information between buyers and sellers about the value of inventory through the political lens,” suggested Ms. Davidsen.

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