Political advertising as we know it from the past is dying. The new era of political advertising is about using digital and social media as a delivery mechanism of messages. The political advertising of campaigns past, delivered via older media methods such as television, print and radio, has lost much of its effectiveness as a tool even though there is still blind belief in it from some practitioners.
Instead political advertising has seen a rebirth in the mediums of the new millennium: social, digital and mobile. What we are seeing now is the very start of a new era in political advertising and its parent discipline of political marketing . The new methods of political marketing are vehicles that are more effectively, more accurately and more interactively delivering political advertising messages at a micro-target or even individual level, something the old methods long dreamed of but could never accomplish.
They allow for a more effective integration of grassroots style campaigning as by its nature social media matches up perfectly to engaging a mass market in a more personalised and market driven way. These new methods of political advertising are no longer just delivering messages where we dwell, but wherever we happen to have access to media. They recognise we have moved from being involuntary receivers of message to being at times active information seekers and creators, voluntarily participating in the political communication process through how we may have created a news feed on one of our social media apps.
But digital and social media have also allowed for not just the rapid creation and delivery of political advertising, but the rapid creation and development of political brands , some of which either started on the internet , such as Italy’s M5S, or heavily utilise digital methods and technology to act as disruptors in the market, such as the Pirate Party in nations such as Iceland and the Czech Republic.
The new political advertising methods and strategies, when used well, has made these brands come to life, offering more personalised and deeper engagement and experiences than what a one-directional advertisement on television could ever offer.
Yet there is a sense that political campaigning is still in need of reform and innovation. Whilst new media offers excitement and enthusiasm, this is more to do with the innovation of those specific platforms than anything that is happening in political advertising.
There still is an overuse of negative advertising and negative communications as a way of offering value to the consumer, yet the modern markets want more aspirational value offerings, they want to be engaged with in a positive way that gives them hope that their government and nations will be better places to live in. Negative advertising does not achieve that.
Political advertising on social media though is finally making the discipline take notice of a fact that it has long ignored: the role of information on advertising effectiveness. Far too many political advertisements in the past in old media campaigns were cram sessions of information, dumping information on consumers in a way that further alienated them from the brand and offered little chance of achieving any behavioural objectives through engagement and experience. One of the features of this book is how it will be amongst the first to explore the role of information on the effectiveness of political advertising, especially in the context of digital and social media.
This book cannot hope to cover all there is to know about political advertising, new or old, and that is not its aim. It only seeks to provide an analysis and overview of how some of the newer methods of political marketing and advertising are being used and what this may mean for stakeholders and society in the years ahead.
There is advice for practitioners , even a complete chapter dedicated to what practitioners can learn and use from the developments in social, digital and mobile marketing being used in campaigns around the world. Again, this is not a DIY guide on how to run a campaign, merely suggestions on what could work if a campaign wanted to use some of the aspects of those methods as discussed in this book.
It is also the author’s hope that the following pages will provide a thought-provoking discussion on the implications for practitioners and academics of political advertising expanding into new horizons provided by the digital age. The author welcomes feedback and ideas on the areas discussed in this book. Most importantly it is wished that those reading this book do not regret doing so and enjoy the time they spend on the following pages.
Outline
The following provides a brief abstract and outline of each chapter in the book.
Chapter 1 introduces the reader to the overall outline of the book and the content to be covered. It will outline the motivation for the book and what value the reader can expect to receive by reading and using the book.
Each chapter will be discussed in brief and provides an overall road map for the reader. Where necessary these outlines may provide some brief definitions that will help lay the foundation stones in the reader’s mind of the conceptual, empirical and practitioner areas that will be covered by the book.
Chapter 2 outlines the theory behind exchange , value co-creation and a stakeholder perspective on political marketing . This is important in understanding why what we see in practice works and what doesn’t as it is these foundational theories that support the use and reasoning behind the marketing communications used in a campaign.
A stakeholder perspective is important in political marketing as this does help explain why, as Lang (1991) so correctly identified, political advertising is a unique subset of integrated marketing communications . It also helps explain why advertising is targeted and used at some stakeholders , such as individual voters, yet for others other communication tools or public affairs methods are preferred.
Chapter 3 is by far the most theoretical chapter in the book. It is necessary though as it outlines some of the key theories in advertising, communications and political marketing . Understanding some of the theory behind advertising and communications will help you know why campaigns are starting to adopt social, digital and mobile political marketing.
It also explains and gives some examples of the different types of political advertising, like negative and positive advertising, and the importance of political advertising as a method of integrated political marketing communications.
It will discuss why, using the latest research that used psychophysiological methods, television advertising can no longer be used as the primary means of communication with an audience. There will be an examination and discussion of these findings for practitioners in the context of campaigns and the use of social, digital and mobile marketing.
Chapter 4 will examine how political advertising is being used on websites and social media. Whilst social media is broad, for the purposes of this book it will be categorised into those applications that use or incorporate video or dynamic advertisements and those that don’t.
There will be a brief discussion on the emergence and growth in videography and image-sharing websites, such as YouTube and Facebook , and their importance as a communications tool.
After this there will be analysis and discussion of the three distinct sub-categories that are emerging as areas of interest for those interested in political advertising and communications : video applications such as Vimeo, Facebook and YouTube ; livecasting through Periscope and Facebook ; and the multi-platform ways like Facebook , Twitter , Instagram and Snapchat.
This will be linked to the following section that will take a practitioner -focused approach by looking into the relationship between using these types of apps and developing higher levels of engagement , experience and interest in relationships with key stakeholders . It will be proposed that using this type of communication on these types of apps is allowing deeper and stronger relationships between consumers and political brands . Findings from evidence-based research and examples will be used to discuss the practical implications for practitioners and researchers.
Chapter 5 will look at how political advertising is moving from just one-directional mass communication traditional media to two-way communication and relationship building with new media. It also enables political organisations and candidates to obtain real-time data and feedback on policies and thus allows a much more market-driven approach.
This chapter will also examine how political advertising on social media is being used for awareness raising and to connect and engage with current and potential volunteers who may not be party members, something the Obama campaign pioneered in 2008.
There will be a discussion on how social media applications, when connected with a database progr...