Types of Political Campaigns mean different angles of elections’ marketing that are meant to help voters understand and make a better choice. I believe campaign types are the foundation of contents to send and communicate to potential voters and sell a candidate. In political advertising, there is no all-conquering approach to massively luring voters to a candidate or political party – different political campaign types will sell to different voters. For example, what will attract educationists, will be different from traders in the marketplace, things that resonate with experienced and advanced citizens may be different from that of teenagers and amateurs; again, messages that will appeal to employers of labor, will be different from employees, etc.
These mean electorates will vote a candidate for divergent reasons; election campaigns types are meant to reach, inform, and persuade as many personas as possible in a given location to vote for a candidate or party. All pull together will lead to winning an election at any level. There are different types of political campaigns. Listed below are 7 main types of political campaigns:
1. Id – the id campaign type is often used in the beginning of political campaigns; it helps a candidate to relate with voters, tell them office he/she is for, also this is a time to make electorates fully understand correct spelling, writing and proper pronouncing of the candidate’s names, etc. Example, for persons who don’t understand Yoruba, Yomi and Yemi is the same; for non-Igbo speaking people, Kanu and Kalu means the same, etc.
2. Bio– the bio campaign reviews the candidate’s biography in full, his/her pedigree, why the candidate came out for this position, and so on. This helps to let voters see his/her qualifications that made the candidate the most suitable for the office.
3. Issue – the issue campaign type tells the voters the issue the candidate will address when elected. In some cases, a candidate comes out because of a strong feeling about a single issue; however, unless the majority of the voters share the same feelings, is advisable to include all other areas that will resonate with most voters.
4. Negative – the negative political campaign focuses on opponents; this exposes rivals weaknesses, dangerous policies and their stand on issues voters care about. The essence of Negative campaign is to warn and let voters know implications of voting competing candidates, and scare potential voters away from voting them.
5. Comparison – the comparison political campaign compares the candidate with his/her opponents. The essence of comparison is to highlight the differences and make voters see why the candidate is more suitable to handle the office than opponents.
6. Micro/Unstructured– this campaign type can reinforce any of the above campaign types. It’s depending on things happening in the political environment and relies on stories, narratives and other depictions. For example, what public figures (activists, religious leaders, past government officials, etc) are saying about a particular candidate can make or mar candidate chances of winning a seat. This means it can work in favor or against a candidate depends on who is talking. For example, during the presidential election in Nigeria, a popular catholic reverend father known as Rev.Father Ejike Mbaka called then incumbent president, “ a bad-luck to Nigeria” this scared many voters away, because it came from a reputable servant of God.
7. GOTV – this means “get out the vote”, this campaign type reminds the voters to vote; this is often run before or on the day of the election.
These are main types of political campaigns.
Source: AdHang.com
