Political Parties Need to Look at How Brands Control Their Media Narrative
This year has proven to be an interesting year for advertising; and one area in particular that has stood out has been global politics. On the global stage, it began with Brexit and ended with Trump, bringing to the forefront the power of social media in influencing political decisions; but also that, while advertising has experienced significant developments in 2016, there is still a lot to learn in political advertising. ExchangeWire speak with Angie French, managing director pan regional EMEA, Xaxis, about advertising, politics, and what political parties can learn from marketers.
ExchangeWire: The rules of advertising differ greatly between US and Europe, especially in politics – will European advertising evolve to emulate US standards? Does social media have a role to play in the evolution of advertising in general?
Angie French: We are starting to see an evolution in European political advertising; but the keyword here is ‘evolution’, which is slow. The landscape, brand connection, and advertising regulations are very different between the US and Europe. Political advertising is banned in the UK and heavily controlled in many European markets. Some examples are: in Belgium, the constitutional court forbids advertising during election periods on TV, radio, cinema, and the internet. Norway allow political advertising during a very short election campaign window, but not on TV or radio. South Africa does allow TV advertising, but it is heavily regulated by their broadcasting body. Many other European nations limit financial contributions and campaign spending to control political advertising, unlike in the US, where we see political campaign spends of USD$700m (£479m), such as the Obama campaign; so, while we may start to see gradual political reforms in some EMEA markets, it will likely never match the scope of the US.
Social media is a huge influence in today’s society and so, in my opinion, does have a role to play in the evolution of advertising. However, as we have seen this year during Brexit and the US Presidential Election campaigns, there can be huge backlash over false news and misinformation. Social media platforms still have a lot of work to do to ensure that it is used in the right way, as a platform where we as consumers can trust that the information we are viewing is reliable and accurate.
Do politics embrace emerging advertising trends? Are political parties effectively utilising digital advertising to engage with the younger voting audience?
No, not at all. Political parties can learn a huge amount from brands and how they advertise effectively. The millennial generation are growing up with technology in their hands; so political parties need to work out a way to engage with them as they are likely to be their target voting demographic.
Look at how brands control their media narrative; through advertising campaigns, they position themselves in a positive light making them look ‘cool’ and appealing to their target audience, exactly what political parties want to achieve. Brands are fantastic at motivating activists using their digital platforms to create communities and engage with their audience. We are also seeing a gradual increase in comparative advertising, where one brand tries to demotivate customers from using a similar product bought out by their competitor, for example Apple versus Microsoft. Political parties want to interfere with each other’s competition strategies, but haven’t quite found the right way to do so yet, something that brands are already achieving very effectively. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, is how brands successfully use digital advertising to influence the undecided. This should be a key consideration for political parties; however, in the last UK election, the Conservative party spent £5.83m, a third of their campaign budget, on direct mail – something which doesn’t reach the 18-35 age group, one of the largest and most important voting demographics.
Advertisers today can use data and analytics to best place their digital campaigns and capitalise on their campaign spend. We know the youngest audience, the ‘Millennials’, are the lowest-engaged demographic for voting or being politically active and, as I said before, they are also the generation with the digital world at their fingertips; so I can’t help but think that political parties really missed a trick here.
Will this then bring brand safety more to the forefront of advertiser priorities?
Brand safety should always be at the front of any marketer’s mind, no matter whether the advertiser is promoting a political view or brand. There are so many examples of poorly placed ads from major brands, such as the underwater iPad Air ad being placed above an article about Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 crashing into the Indian Ocean on the New York Times website, or the Uber ad on the Washington Post next to an article about an Uber driver breaking into a passenger’s house. These kind of examples reinforce that marketers need to work with platforms integrated with best-in-class brand safety providers and that we should all be encouraging the industry to be having detailed conversations with marketers early on in the campaign planning stages as part of the campaign key objectives.
How does the political atmosphere affect advertising for brands, agencies, and vendors? Should there be cause for concern? What opportunities can be drawn from it and the more general economic state?
The political atmosphere does create a degree of uncertainty in financial markets, confidence, and planning. Marketers need to increase their focus now on selecting partners who can demonstrate clear accountability for any investment they are going to make.
With the recent political events in the US, there is a potentially changing landscape for marketers – the Trump administration have highlighted they see a requirement to make a tax reform that could directly cost the ad industry an estimated USD$169bn (£115bn) over the next ten years. However, we are unlikely to see a similar impact in EMEA because of political diversity across the region.
That said, the political outcome in the US earlier this month is likely to have an effect on many global or US-centric brands, which could be a cause for concern not only for them, but the agencies and vendors, too. Therefore, the ability to demonstrate value through the complete advertising chain will be crucial. When we see increased focus on advertising efficiency, it drives innovation on both sides, from marketers and their demands on agencies, to how we think about using and applying technology and building new platforms to address that.
What do you predict 2017 holds for technology and digital advertising innovation?
I think we’ll see a surge in Augmented reality (AR). We know users are ready to engage with AR; and marketers have had a taste of the earning potential from it. Pokemon Go is a fantastic example of this. It’s proven that we can deliver effective yield at scale and demonstrated that technology works at scale, so marketers will now be trying to apply that to their own brands.
The post Political Parties Need to Look at How Brands Control Their Media Narrative appeared first on ExchangeWire.com.
