One of the most expensive political US races is expected to top the 2010 electoral spending on print-based advertising.
Although noting that spending 
fell behind TV and radio, commercial print spending for the run-up and during the 2012 Presidential election, that saw the successful re-election of President Obama, increased exponentially, reports PrintWeek.
Although erring on the side of caution, noting that “no one is kidding themselves – 2012 didn’t mark some sort of political printing renaissance”, PrintWeek reports that direct mail, wide-format signage and specialty printing performed strongly during the period.
Frank Romano, Rochester Institute of Technology Printing Emetitus, commented: “I got more pieces this year than in any other election year and they all said ‘Dear Frank’ printed digitally. I also saw more postcards than any other pieces. I got a few self-mailers and even a few letters – but I would say postcards and especially the jumbo postcards were number one.”
Romano continues to note the proliferation of garden signage compared with previous election years, stated as a symbol of the spread of wide-format: “Many of the signs in peoples lawns now have the picture of the candidate on them – this is because of wide-format inkjet. In the past these were done with screen printing, but today they’re done with inkjet.”
The Printing Industry of America has speculated that election years contribute an additional one percent to US commercial printing revenues, although PrintWeek state that for states such as Ohio, Florida and Iowa, the election year represents the “first positive development in their business since the 2009 recession”.
Romano continued: “Commercial print overall is down, but what is going to make this a good year is the elections – and because of the Olympics. You saw a lot of promotions tied to the Olympics that caused a surge in print, though that was not shared by all the printing companies.
“However, when we move into next year, there’s nothing major happening. So you can’t really use 2012 in the trend lines for the US printing industry – it’s going to be a blip. And we’re going to have to wait until 2013 or 2014 to know where we really are in print.”