It’s only October 2007, and the political season is already looming large for the media department. With 2008 predicted to be the largest political year in history in terms of advertising spending, us Media types are working hard to ensure we’re prepared. Here’s how it breaks down for us. Political advertising runs in highly-viewed areas, such as prime and the fringe areas. Regular local advertisers are no longer able to run in those areas, due to being bumped by the candidates, referendums: “Say No to Proposition 107”; “Say Yes to Proposition 107”; “What is Proposition 107?”; “Are You Sure It’s Not Proposition 108? (I’m Just Saying, This Whole Voting Process Can Have Its Occasional Hiccups)”, and so on. So where do the regular local advertisers have to go when they can’t run in their standard dayparts? Right smack in the middle of daytime, which is the lead generation bread ‘n butter for Direct-Response advertisers in the career college sector. While the candidates are duking it out for who will be the better local sheriff, we in Media are preparing to duke it out with advertisers encroaching upon our prime advertising space. How are we preparing, you may ask? Planning ahead. This year, we’re already working on negotiating our annual agreements with stations to lock in rates as early as possible in anticipation of the upcoming political season. It’s a win-win for both our clients and our vendors to have our schedules laid in well in advance for the coming year. Clients can rest assured we’re already ahead of the curve and we should see fewer preempts due to political advertising than other advertisers who are less prepared for the rough and tumble year that 2008 is projected to be. Vendors are also set up for a good 2008, as they already know in October 2008 what our clients’ general advertising plans are for the coming year. With annual buys already locked in place, the sales people we work with on a continual basis can breathe a sigh of relief in the assurance they’ve got at least one of their clients prepared for 2008. And that kind of assurance for both the client and vendor lets us in Media know we’re not leaving anyone hanging like a chad.