Democratic presidential candidate U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris greets members of the public at a campaign rally at United Auto Workers Local 900 on August 8, 2024 in Wayne, Michigan.
Andrew Harnik | Getty Images
The Harris campaign announced Saturday that it has booked at least $370 million worth of TV and online advertisements in key battlegrounds between Labor Day and the November election.
During the nine-week sprint before Election Day, the Harris campaign it holds $170 million in TV advertising and $200 million in digital advertising on platforms such as Hulu, Roku, YouTube, Paramount, Spotify and Pandora.
Nearly a month since President Joe Biden dropped out of the race and endorsed Harris, he is working to define himself to voters before former President Donald Trump does first.
Saturday’s announcement by the Harris campaign is an attempt to get the first commercial spots ahead of the Republican presidential campaign.
“By booking early, the Harris-Walz campaign ensures inventory at prime-time moments like major sporting events and other national programming before they sell out,” Harris deputy campaign managers Quentin Fulks and Rob Flaherty wrote in a campaign memo .
Those prime-time spots include the season premieres of TV shows like ABC’s “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Golden Bachelorette,” along with live sports like NFL, WNBA, NBA, NHL and MLB games, the campaign said.
“Prices go up the closer you get to the broadcast date, and there’s also less inventory to choose from. So by buying later, Trump is spending more per ad buy and making ad placements worse, particularly for prime-time programming like live sports,” Fulks added. and Flaherty.
Trump’s campaign dismissed the idea that it had to catch up with Harris and said her campaign’s new ad campaign is a case of overspending.
“Ads supporting President Trump are actually being seen by more people than they are [Harris] ads, which proves that her campaign is spending recklessly and frivolously because they have no idea how to run a winning campaign,” Trump campaign spokesman Steven Chung said in a statement to CNBC.
The Harris campaign’s choice to spend an additional $30 million on digital ads reflects a growing push for campaigns to move beyond the traditional TV ad model and reach voters in today’s more fragmented media environment.
Since Vice President Kamala Harris launched her presidential bid, her campaign has aired more than $33 million worth of TV and radio ads, according to the tracking firm AdImpact. The Harris Victory Fund has spent more than $43 million on Facebook and Google ads, the most of anyone in the presidential race so far.
“We believe we are on pace to spend more on digital persuasion than any political organization ever has,” Fulks and Flaherty wrote in a campaign memo.
The Harris campaign is also placing daily ads on Fox News in an effort to reach “a more moderate audience,” including supporters of former GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley, who it believes it can persuade to vote blue.
The Harris campaign’s fall ad blitz will come during the race’s crucial last mile, when both parties’ conventions are over and Democrats and Republicans are making their final moves to sway state voters.
Compared to Biden’s 2020 race, Harris’ campaign said it is spending twice as much on TV ads in Pennsylvania, more than twice as much in Wisconsin, four times as much in Georgia and six times as much in Nevada.