Media braces itself for political ad frenzy as Prime Minister calls double dissolution election
Millions of dollars of government ad spend will disappear from the bottom line of media companies for the next eight weeks as Canberra goes into caretaker mode, as Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull today called a double dissolution election for July 2.
Millions of dollars of government ad spend will disappear from the bottom line of media companies for the next eight weeks as Canberra goes into caretaker mode, as Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull today called a double dissolution election for July 2.
Instead media companies will be competing for millions in party ad spend on campaign ads, as Labor looks to topple the Coalition government at the first attempt.
PM Turnbull returns to Parliament House pic.twitter.com/0ndq5y3DC3
— andrew meares (@mearesy) May 8, 2016
For Government ad campaigns to continue requires bipartisan agreement from the main parties, with anything seen to be pushing the agenda of a particular minister needing to be pulled.
That could well see the $28m National Innovation Agenda campaign taken off air and other properties including newspapers, digital, outdoor and TV, pushing a number of different initiatives.
The ‘Innovation Economy’ is likely to be one of the key campaign platforms for Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull as he looks to promote Australia moving from a resources-based to services based economy.
However the recently released National Security campaign, telling people to look out for signs of terrorist activities amongst neighbours, is set to run until the election as is a domestic violence campaign.
Instead TV and radio networks will also be looking to take big slices of millions of dollars of party spending, as they look to spin their messages to the public.
At the last election media monitoring company Ebiquity estimated the Liberals spent $6.75m and Labor $4.04m on campaign ads across all media.
However the $3m spent by the Palmer United Party will be missing after Clive Palmer announced he was not standing for re-election.
The fierce electioneering may also scare off other advertisers as rates for prime ad slots are pushed higher by the competition.
This time out social media is expected to play a larger part in engagement strategies for the main parties to reach more potential swing voters.
Another interesting dynamic will be how Malcolm Turnbull navigates the conservative media, and in particular the perceived Liberal power broker in Sydney, 2GB’s breakfast show host Alan Jones.
Turnbull has refused to appear on the station for the last two years after Jones tried to make him pledge not to challenge then Prime Minister Tony Abbott after the budget in 2014.
The Conversation carries an interesting analysis of Jones’ audience and waning influence in an election special released today.
Alex Hayes
