With an election date secured, Australia now awaits an avalance of political advertising hitting our screns. In this five part series, creatives weigh in on what makes great election advertising. This article first appeared in AdNews print - if you want to read it hot off the press you better subscribe here.
What makes a good election campaign?
The lazy answer: Lynton Crosby. I’m sure he’d cringe at the title, but if politicians and political parties are brands (and I think they tick most of the boxes), Crosby is arguably Australia’s most successful marketing director. He’s certainly our most successful political export, having had a guiding hand in winning more election campaigns in more countries than anyone else.
He wasn’t involved in David Cameron’s first run at No. 10, which I worked on, but the consensus is that if he had been, the Conservatives might not have had to share power with the Lib Dems.
Cameron made sure he was on board five years later and the resulting Tory landslide confounded everybody in the country – everybody, that is, except the man the UK media was by then routinely referring to as The Wizard of Oz.
As far as I can tell his view of advertising’s role in the process is one that an agency appointed by any party would do well to remember: in the run up to an election, advertising cannot – and should not try to – change the views or opinions of the target audience – not least because those opinions have often taken decades to develop and you only have a few months to put a dent in them.
But what advertising is very good for, according to Crosby, is confirming or reinforcing those entrenched views and opinions. That might mean being selectively positive about your client’s manifesto or being negative – even viciously personal – about his or her opponent.
All’s fair in love, war and political advertising.