By Jordan McDonald
Over the next month, political parties will target people like me.
While I stay across political news in my work with 55 comms, outside of the office I’m like many of my generation: I’ll be watching streaming services, scrolling social media or engaged in other interests that politicians find hard to reach.
But we’ll all be voting on May 21.
So how do you get messages in our changed media world to our generation?
Social media and connected TV will be major battlefronts for this political campaign.
Broadcast video on-demand (BVOD) platforms such as 7plus and 9Now will be used by political parties to engage specific audiences with important messages.
Clive Palmer’s United Australia Party ads have been a regular interruption during my viewing over the last few weeks but now that the election date is set, the competition will increase considerably.
These ads will need to be punchy and concise because ad interruptions annoy viewers.
If the messaging isn’t effective, parties could disadvantage themselves among voters by being seen as disruptive political spam that bombards valuable quality time.
Although this might sound exaggerated, young voters quickly tune out if the messaging isn’t meaningful to them.
Social media will be the biggest battleground.
In the hours following the election announcement, the Labor Party and Coalition were posting at least once per hour.
The Coalition began pumping out messaging, including a stab at Labor leader Anthony Albanese.
That post followed an interview during which Albanese failed to name the cash rate and unemployment rate.
Paid advertisements will play a critical role and the Coalition and Labor have active ads.
The Government and Opposition have already spent hundreds of thousands of dollars but that’s modest compared to Clive Palmer’s United Australia Party who will reach tens of millions in the lead-up to the election.
Across social media, the focus is changing according to current events.
Under Meta’s (formerly Facebook) new transparency policy, users can view any active or inactive ads a Facebook page has posted although there have been early teething problems.
Try this link to analyse the Liberals’ ads and spending: https://bit.ly/3jOkprh
This link shows Labor’s tactics: https://bit.ly/36pncnx
A quick glance shows the approach: Labor is heavily invested in Albanese’s image; while the Liberals are focusing more on their track record while raising questions about Albanese.
But Facebook isn’t the only platform worth noting.
This election will be different because of TikTok.
The social media platform didn’t play a role in the 2019 poll. But TikTok has stormed into the socials scene and the election will prove a popular topic.
TikTok is an incredibly useful platform when engaging younger demographics.
A short clip of Albanese’s press conference blunder published to TikTok by 9News was viewed over 40,000 times.
News outlets have adopted the social media platform because they found short news clips interested audiences.
Viewers can engage on topics and compare their beliefs with others.
The Labor Party are the more established party on TikTok.
They’ve has posted 33 videos to TikTok in the last 30 days, gaining over 400,000 likes and 15,500 new followers.
The Liberals launched their TikTok account earlier this month but have posted 32 videos already and gained 1,278 followers and 12,400 likes.
A critical element to the messaging of these videos will be addressing social issues important to young people whilst adhering to TikTok’s strict policies preventing advertising for political parties.
Put simply, political commentary is allowed, political advertising is not.
As a younger voter, political messages reach me via social media and ad breaks between my favourite shows.
Politics isn’t a popular topic among friends and I’d guess most people have little knowledge of what each party wants to achieve if elected.
Social media enables political parties to influence our vote by appealing to social issues that matter to the younger demographic, like climate change, racism and housing affordability.
Incidents like Albanese’s press conference mistake will be amplified on social media.
As always, there are plenty of contrasting views on social media. While some users have written off Albanese’s chances after the first-day blunder, others say it will have no impact on voting.
All I know for sure is the election campaign has well and truly begun.