Political TV Saturation Creates Opening For Radio, Podcasts.

As political campaigns spend billions of dollars ahead of November's midterm elections, a digital media firm says radio, streaming audio and podcasts represent an opportunity to reach voters that increasingly saturated television buys may be missing.

The argument comes from the advertising intelligence platform Digital Remedy, which has released survey findings showing one-third of voters say being overexposed to political advertising leaves them annoyed with a campaign.

But rather than arguing campaigns should spend less on television, Digital Remedy Chief Revenue Officer Matt Fanelli says the lesson is that media buyers need a better understanding of how different platforms work together — and that audio can play an important role in extending a campaign's reach.

"Audio represents an important opportunity as campaigns look to extend reach beyond traditional TV buys," Fanelli says. "While our survey didn't specifically measure audio consumption, it did show that voters are consuming political content across multiple platforms, reinforcing the need for campaigns to think beyond any single channel."

The company's survey of 1,000 registered voters in April found political messaging is now widely dispersed across media, with 54% of respondents recalling campaign messages on social media, 39% through local news and 35% on streaming television. At the same time, one in three voters said seeing too many political ads makes them annoyed with the campaign behind them. That suggests campaigns risk wasting money by repeatedly reaching the same audiences.

Fanelli cautions against interpreting the findings as evidence that television is becoming less effective than other media.

"I don't think the takeaway is that one channel is inherently less annoying than another," Fanelli says. He says the survey instead highlights that campaigns need a better understanding of how media works together, especially as voters encounter political messaging across multiple platforms.

"As campaigns expand across streaming TV, social, local news, digital audio and other channels, it's easy to end up delivering the same message repeatedly to the same households while missing others entirely,” he says. “That's where household-level measurement becomes so important. It helps campaigns identify where they're generating true incremental reach versus where they're creating unnecessary frequency.”

To that end, Digital Remedy has unveiled a new planning and measurement tool designed to help campaigns better understand how often they are reaching the same households across media platforms by giving them data on where their frequency is excessive. That could benefit audio since it will help to identify which media channels are adding incremental reach rather than duplicating impressions.

"Rather than viewing TV and audio as competing channels, we think the greater opportunity is using them together as part of an omnichannel strategy," Fanelli says. " Different channels play different roles in reaching voters. The key is understanding how they complement one another and using measurement to ensure each extends reach instead of duplicating it."

Fanelli also points to broader industry research that suggests audio remains significantly underrepresented in advertising budgets. Digital audio accounts for roughly 30% of consumer media consumption according to research by GWI, but Emarketer says audio attracts only about 3% of advertising spending despite advances in programmatic buying and audience measurement.

“For political advertisers, the opportunity isn't simply shifting dollars from TV to audio. It's understanding how channels work together,” Fanelli says. “Audio can help campaigns reach voters who may not be reached as efficiently elsewhere, but the real advantage comes from measuring those channels holistically to identify incremental reach, manage frequency, and make smarter budget decisions throughout the campaign.”

Working in local station’s favor are voters. Digital Remedy’s survey shows nearly 80% of voters say political messaging should feel relevant to their local community, reinforcing the need for district-level targeting and measurement.