Addressable TV advertising – the ability to show different ads to different households while they are watching the same program – is being employed heavily this election cycle. According to recent data collected and published by Ad Age, there are 36 states where political advertisers are running TV spots targeted directly toward specific households. Unique political advertisers are running addressable ads through D2 Media Sales, and addressable TV partnership between AT&T’s DirecTV and Dish. Politically charged addressable adds are being run nationwide; with the most activity in Nevada, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania.
Addressable ads are being used to supplement cable and broadcast TV buys, direct mail and digital ads. Voter file data is being used to inform the and target the ads. In addition to enabling advanced targeting, addressable TV allows for targeted messaging, such as running ads in different languages for bilingual households.