Democrats make a big investment in Olympic ads

Clinton campaign will spend at least $5.5M on NBC airtime

Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign is planning to spend more on political ads broadcast during the Summer Olympics than either nominee four years ago.

The Democratic effort has placed at least $5.5 million (U.S.) on reservations on the NBC network, which owns Olympic broadcast rights, during the 17-day games in Rio de Janeiro, according to data from Kantar Media/CMAG.

Based on reservations placed so far, almost 40 per cent of her television spending next week will be on the national network.

The advertising during the sporting extravaganza, which opened with a ceremony Friday evening, comes as Clinton seeks to build on polling gains over Donald Trump following the completion of the Republican and Democratic national conventions last month.

The Republican nominee, meanwhile, hasn’t spent anything on television ads since early May and has no time reserved as of now for the rest of the summer or fall.

That’s despite having raised $82 million in conjunction with the Republican National Committee during July and having $37 million in his campaign account at the start of August. Clinton raised $90 million with the Democratic National Committee last month, and had $58 million in her campaign fund. Ads during the Olympics might help Clinton connect with a demographic group where she has struggled: men.

“The ads are a good way to go after Donald Trump’s base,” said Neil Oxman, co-founder of the Campaign Group, a Democratic firm that makes political advertisements.

The Olympics also draws a large audience of young adults, another group Clinton hopes to attract in bigger numbers before Election Day.

NBC expects record-high overall viewership for the games after drawing an average 31 million viewers in prime-time for the 2012 Olympics.

During the 2012 games, President Barack Obama’s campaign spent an estimated $4.5 million on NBC, while Republican challenger Mitt Romney’s campaign spent an estimated $2.8 million, the Kantar Media/CMAG data shows.

Presidential candidates typically target most of their advertising dollars in battleground states like Ohio and Florida, since that’s a more efficient approach than blasting ads nationally.

After spending an estimated $8.4 million this week on broadcast, cable and satellite television, reservations so far for next week show Clinton’s campaign spending a combined $7.7 million on national NBC, national cable and local broadcast stations.

The local stations are in Florida, Pennsylvania, Ohio, North Carolina, Iowa, New Hampshire and Nebraska.