Presidential Candidates Efforts to Create Awareness

I know what your all thinking, “not politics, this has no place in this class” Well hear me out first before you burn me at the stake. It seems all we are hearing about is the 2016 presidential election. From late night shows, to radio, to print ads, the media everywhere is swallowing up politics. I am not a die-hard political guru like some but recently politics and the election have caught my attention. The amount of money and effort put into political advertising and marketing campaigns to capture certain demographics attention has been really interesting to follow.

With todays fast moving digital world in order to reach several demographics you really need to be utilizing several if not all areas of advertising as possible in order to fully reach your target audience. There’s a lot more than the traditional TV and Radio ads with today’s available channels.

Presidential candidates and their teams are figuring out ways to create awareness and capture those “on the fence” voters through a strong presence and recognition through a variety of outlets. One example I’m sure most of you have seen is candidates appearing on late night shows such as Jimmy Fallon or Kimmel.

While appearing on a late night show will certainly get people tweeting about you, its important to stay on top of the conversation and get involved with topics people are discussing. This may be one of the most challenging outlets to stay on top of as there are so many people who quickly respond and re-tweet what candidates are discussing. If done right, these social media conversations can go a long way.

Another interesting focus of presidential candidates advertisements is the actual ad itself. Some of the candidates are using fairly aggressive strategies to reach those anti Hillary voters. After seeing the topics of choice on the presidential debates, I’m sure most of you can see how many of the topics discussed are candidate’s responses to allegations from other candidates. It’s a much different approach to winning an election than we have seen in the last decade. Money really needs to be placed in all areas of digital formats as well as in traditional outlets such as TV, Radio, and print in order to successfully compete with candidates and actually take the lead in the election.

As I sit back and watch all this effort being released from politicians I ask myself the question, are the tactics and strategies being used effective? Do I better understand their political stances? What are they saying to lure me into voting for them? Certainly all this money spent will pay off for at least on candidate right?

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References

http://www.npr.org/sections/itsallpolitics/2015/08/19/432759311/2016-campaign-tv-ad-spending