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Harris campaign books $370m ad blitz focused on swing states

Campaign will place some ads on daytime television on Fox News Channel as well

Ariana Baio
Sunday 18 August 2024 17:42 BST
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The Harris-Walz campaign is focusing on digital advertisments in the weeks leading up to the November election
The Harris-Walz campaign is focusing on digital advertisments in the weeks leading up to the November election (AP)

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Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign is reaching out to potential voters through cellphones and streaming platforms, reserving more than $200 million for digital advertising, a memo from the campaign announced.

The Harris-Walz campaign revealed on Saturday that the investment in digital ads will take up the majority of the $370 million they have reserved for advertising – only $170 million will be geared toward television ads.

For nine weeks, ads will air on popular digital platforms like Hulu, Roku, YouTube and Spotify – mainly focused in battleground states. It does not include spending on social media.

The campaign said they believed it was the largest digital ad reservation in American politics. Streaming has become more popular than traditional television over the last few years.

Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign is spending $200m on digital advertising to reach voters in the weeks leading up to the election
Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign is spending $200m on digital advertising to reach voters in the weeks leading up to the election (AFP via Getty Images)

Quentin Fulks and Rob Flaherty, the deputy campaign managers for the Democratic candidates, said in their memo that they are still reserving ad spots on cable television but were being more deliberate about when those ads would air – like during high-viewership times.

That includes sporting events for the NFL, WNBA, NBA, NHL and MLB as well as season premieres of The Golden Bachelorette, Wheel of Fortune, Abbott Elementary, Jeopardy and Survivor.

The campaign will also place ads on daytime television on the Fox News Channel to try and reach conservative-independent voters.

“Our data is clear that the hundreds of thousands of Nikki Haley voters in the battlegrounds and other conservative-leaning independents are moving towards us and we’ll be meeting them where they are,” Fulks and Flaherty said in the memo.

The announcement arrives after polling from The New York Times and Sienna College show Harris rapidly catching up to the former president in Sun Belt states like Arizona, North Carolina, Nevada and Georgia.

The Trump-Vance campaign has not announced its fall advertising plan but a pro-Trump super PAC has reportedly planned a $100 million ad blitz leading up to Labor Day in swing states.

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