MMM: 2024 US Presidential Campaign Advertising Spend Trends; Peacock Leads Peers in NFL Week One Streaming Demand

Key Takeaways:

• Excitement driven by Kamala Harris’s nomination, in addition to the election drawing near, has prompted top Democratic advertisers to ramp US ad spend by 160% over the past 30 days, vs the previous 30 days (before Biden dropped out of the race). Comparatively, US ad spend amongst Republican advertisers has increased by 170%, driven by a whopping 660% increase in spend by the Trump campaign in the same timeframe

  • In the 9 weeks that Harris has been campaigning, “Harris” and “Kamala” are two of the most frequently used keywords amongst top Democratic advertisers’ creatives, appearing in 23% and 18% of ads, respectively, while “Trump” still appears in 20% of ads, down 13ppts vs the 30 days before Biden exited the race.

  • Republican advertisers mentioned “Biden” in 15% of creatives while he was the nominee, but since Harris received the nomination, the keywords “Kamala” and “Harris” only appear in 8% of creatives

• The NFL made its highly anticipated return last week, spurring a wave of consumer interest in streaming platforms showing week 1 games. Per ST data, the NFL app, Peacock and Fox Sports exhibited the most material growth in US app downloads during week 1 of the 2024 NFL season (week of 9/2/2024), up 599%, 389% and 144% WoW, respectively

• Peacock US app downloads during the premiere of week 1 of the NFL in 2022 and 2023 increased 74% and 46% WoW, respectively, vs 389% in 2024, displaying that the platform has more effectively reached consumers interested in sports this year. This is perhaps driven by loftier investments in advertising as Peacock US ad spend during week 1 of the 2022, 2023 and 2024 NFL seasons increased 29%, 5% and 87% WoW, respectively

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