Facebook videos, targeted texts and Clive Palmer memes: how digital advertising is shaping this election campaign
Does flinging money at election ads, like Clive Palmer has done, actually work? Why does the level of youth engagement in this election matter? And what does it mean for this to be the first digitally-driven election campaign in Australia’s history? These are the questions Andrew Hughes tackles in this crossposting from The Conversation.
This year’s election will be the first in Australia where the parties will be advertising more on social and digital platforms than traditional media (TV, radio, newspapers and magazines).
There are a few key reasons for this. First, cost-wise, social media is far cheaper, sometimes as low as a few cents per click. Unlike heritage media, digital and social is extremely targeted, and can be done in the “dark,” so your opponents may not even be aware of the message you are pushing out.
Digital and social advertising can also be shared or even created by users themselves, further increasing the reach of a party’s messaging. This gets around the Australian Electoral Commission rules on advertising – technically they are not ads since no party is paying for them to be shared on people’s feeds.
Throw into the mix laws on political advertising – which allow parties to advertise up to and on election day on social media, but not traditional media – and we are likely seeing the first largely digitally driven election campaign in Australian political history.
