Donald Trump was undoubtedly one of the most exciting candidates ever who has fought for the president’s position. Moreover, he is the only president who has ever been in WWE and has an official profile on the WWE website. A man with such credentials, when he decides to run for president, is sure to kick up a storm in media houses. That may be one of the reasons why Donald Trump received $2 billion worth of free media coverage.
A man with such credentials, when he decides to run for president, is sure to kick up a storm in media houses.
Clinton Received $746 Million Free Media Coverage, Trump Got More Than Twice That
Trump personally spent about $10 million on his ad campaigns. It is a paltry sum when compared to what Hillary Clinton spent on her media campaigns. However, if we compare the value of free media earned by them, then Trump beats every other presidential candidate not only in 2016 but ever in the history of the presidential campaigns in America. While Clinton received $746 million in free media coverage, Trump has earned more than double that.
A survey was done by mediaQuant where analyzed media coverage of every candidate in the run and then assigned dollar values to the coverage by the advertising rates. The term media includes all types of media, including social media like Facebook and Twitter, print, news channels and broadcasts.
Trump was continuously participating in interviews by phone with news channels, which is quite rare for a presidential candidate. During his run, it was found that Trump occupied the top three popular news channel’s night time slots. Apparently, media houses like them considered Trump as good for business. With his fascinating background and his new attitude, it was indeed so.
Trump was continuously participating in interviews by phone with news channels, which is quite rare for a presidential candidate.
$66 Million From Trump’s Own Pockets Part of Campaign Fund
Trump was a bit famous even before he decided to run for President, but after that decision, he was thrust into the spotlight. People of America were curious to know him better and his ways. He used to use his own money for traveling and used to conduct rallies at his hotels. He even paid a part of the campaign funds from his own money, about $66 million. All these facts were enough to ignite some serious interest in him.
Donald Trump has never been someone to shy away from social media. He extensively used his Twitter account and the 140 characters to reach out to his supporters and the public. He did not follow the usual rules that were followed by his predecessors and his opponents. Other than Twitter, he also used Facebook for his digital campaign. He had a team that would go through more than 50,000 Facebook ads to see if they were fit enough to be posted. Every aspect of those ads was taken into account to get the maximum effect.
Trump’s Figures Blows Competition Out of the Water
Let’s compare Donald Trump’s free media coverage with some other popular presidential campaigners. From the Democrats, Bernie Sanders has earned $321 million in ad coverage. Moreover, from the Republicans, Marco Rubio received $204 million, and Jeb Bush drew a slightly more free media coverage of $214 million. These statistics are enough to show how far Trump is when it comes to receiving free media coverage.
His entirely different attitude and his slogan “Make America great again” did grab a lot of eyeballs.
His entirely different attitude and his slogan “Make America great again” did grab a lot of eyeballs. However, all those media coverage and popularity do not mean it was all positive. According to a source, 23% of the free coverage earned by him was negative, while for Clinton it was just 12%. However, whatever may be the case, Trump was a genius regarding the use of media and in creating interest in the minds of the Americans. Now its time to see whether the trend continues in the next presidential campaign.