Elección y modificación de la RNA para clasificación de campos visuales

Print advertising Radio advertising B roadcast new s Print new s Online news Australian Labor Party

Victoria 2010 D irect m ail

Social m edia W ebsite Doorknocking Email Flyers/leaflets Polling booths N /A T V advertising O nline advertising Print advertising Radio advertising Ambient advertising B roadcast new s Print news Online news Liberal Party of Australia South Australia 2010 D irect m ail Social media Doorknocking Email Flyers/leaflets Website Polling booths N /A T V advertising Radio advertising Print advertising Ambient advertising B roadcast new s Print news Online news Australian Labor Party' South Australia 2010 D irect m ail Social media Doorknocking Email Flyers/leaflets Website Polling booths N /A T V advertising O nline advertising Radio advertising Print advertising Ambient advertising B roadcast new s Print news Online news

Source: compiled by author based on content analysis and interviews with party representatives.

NOTE: CN /A ’ indicates that no evidence was located regarding parties’ use o f these particular tools. This does not necessarily mean that the parties did not do so, only that the document analysis and interviews did not generate evidence o f this.

Beyond winning, p a rty goals and campaign strategy in A u stra lia n elections

Importantly, employing a mixed communications repertoire also allows parties to be more targeted in their messaging to appeal to different audiences. The interviewees particularly highlighted the value of social media and online advertising as communication tools, reporting that these allowed them to deliver highly focused messages to small and specific segments of the electorate that were deemed strategically important.63 This increased focus on targeted

engagement was matched by a decline in the perceived value of more traditional tools such as print media and radio, as almost all of the interviewees reported that they had greatly reduced their use of these in recent campaigns. The only exceptions to this were the two National parties, whose representatives reported that local print media and regional radio continue to occupy a significant place in the daily lives of their target voters. As a result, these tools also maintained a prominent role within their campaigns.64

It is worth briefly noting a few other things about these parties’ chosen communications repertoires. Firstly, none of the government-seeking parties appeared to use internal, indirect channels to any great extent, and in five of the nine case studies, no evidence was located to suggest that they did so at all.63 This may simply be because community events, rallies and stunts leave less trace than flyers and advertising, although evidence o f such activities was located for many of the other parties in the data set. Rather, it seems that the limited use of such channels may reflect the different risk calculus for these parties. In campaigns, major parties now seek to avoid negative publicity as much as to generate positive exposure (Gawenda, 2013). If a party leader or senior figure attends a community rally or open public event, they risk being heckled, put on the spot about a controversial issue or even simply losing their way in an unfamiliar environment. This can generate negative or mocking media coverage which far outweighs any benefits the party gained by conveying its messages to those present. For this reason, it makes sense that the parties in this group would prefer to communicate through more contained and controlled channels. The campaign launches and the leader ‘debates’ participated in by these parties provide a good illustration of this— in the past these events were relatively open and unscripted functions that allowed parties to indirectly disseminate their messages to a diverse group of real voters. More recently, they have become tightly managed events which are scripted

63 WA-HQ-LIB; QLD-HQ-LNP; SA-HQ-ALP; VIC-HQ-ALP 64 NSW-HQ-NAT; VIC-HQ-NAT

65 Local candidates and individual members from each of these parties would presumably have carried out some internal, indirect engagement with voters in their own electorates, as this is an expected part of running for office locally. However, our focus here is on the statewide, centralised campaign run by party head office, and so we only sought to map the activities managed or directed at that level.

Beyond winning, party goals and campaign strategy in A u stra lia n elections

Chapter Five— Government-seeking strategies

for the media, and delivered before groups o f handpicked supporters to portray exacdy the right image of dynamism and positivity (Young, 2003).

Secondly, analysis of available campaign spending figures suggests these parties were able to pursue a broad communications mix, and match particular tools and channels to their chosen audiences, in part because of the size of their budgets (see Table 8, p.77). Although each of the

interviewees indicated that they would have liked a larger budget, most also acknowledged that

the amount available to them was sufficient to mount a high quality campaign and indicated that they did not feel unduly restricted by resources. As shall shortly be seen, this is in stark contrast with many of the other parties in the data set, whose choices regarding their communications repertoires were far more constrained by access to resources.

Thirdly, the parties in this group— along with many others in the data set— specifically highlighted polling booths as a medium for communicating with voters. Recognising that a percentage of electors do not make up their minds about who to vote for until they are physically entering a polling place, many of these parties reported deliberately attempting to influence that decision through signage and messaging at booths/'6 The presence of friendly, polite and smiling party volunteers at booths was also identified by these interviewees as an important way to connect with voters at the point of casting their ballots. This is interesting because few, if any, voters would presumably admit that the signage and scrum of supporters outside a booth influenced their decision. Yet the interviewees consistently emphasised their polling place presence as a specific and important medium for communicating with voters. This suggests that either the parties overestimate the impact of this, or, more likely, that voters are swayed by what they encounter at their local booth in ways they are not consciously aware of. While a survey of existing political science literature did not turn up any empirical research addressing this, it would align with the vast psychological literature on how subconscious influences can affect product choice in a commercial setting (Fitzsimons et al, 2002 and Theus, 1994 provide good summaries of this literature).

Finally, phone canvassing was frequently mentioned in the interviews as a valuable and

important communication tool. This involves using party volunteers to contact individual voters with highly tailored messages reflecting their interests or local concerns. While phone canvassing is by no means a new tool, it has enjoyed a revival in recent years because it is seen as a critical 66 WA-HQ-LIB; WA-PL-LIB; QLD-PL-LNP; NSW-PL-NAT; NSW-HQ-NAT; VIC-HQ-NAT

Beyond winning, party goals and campaign strategy in Australian elections 127

component of Barack Obama’s landmark win at the 2008 presidential election (Osborn, McKlurg and Knoll, 2010; Masket, 2009). Although many of the interviewees in this group acknowledged its value, they were notably reticent to talk about whether, or how much, their own parties actually engaged in this. Based on discussions with them and wider reading of the Australian campaign landscape, it appears that this is because major parties see this particular aspect of their communications repertoire as a current source of competitive advantage. Australia’s compulsory voting system means that local parties have not traditionally engaged in canvassing to the same extent as parties overseas, and they appear to still be working out how to use this most effectively in combination with other data-driven targeting and mobilisation systems. In this context, it is not surprising that the parties would be loathe to discuss their canvassing activities, as this would involve giving away insights or innovations their opponents may not yet have mastered. As an emerging medium, it will be interesting to watch the

continuing evolution of phone canvassing within Australian campaigns. Its prominence and visibility in the campaigns for the 2013 election compared with the campaigns in this data set certainly suggests that the major parties have become fairly sophisticated users of this medium within the space of just a few years (for example, ABC TV, 2013; Bramston, 2013).

In terms of what this discussion reveals about the government-seeking parties’ overall strategic choices, it highlights that the parties in this group adopted a common multi-channel approach. Each of these parties were seen to emphasise direct internal and external tools such as television and direct mail, while also making use of a range of other mediums to connect with voters. As has been discussed, most steered clear of internal, indirect channels and saw print and radio as less valuable than online, targeted engagement tools, although these more traditional mediums did still form part of the communications repertoire for their campaigns.

C o n clu sio n s

Having considered issues, targeting and communications tools and channels in turn, it is evident that the government-seeking parties discussed here made many similar strategic decisions in each of these three key areas. Specifically, all appear to have taken a mixed approach to issue

ownership, chased voters more than mobilising supporters, and adopted a broad and varied communications repertoire which prioritised direct and mass-reach channels. What’s more, these choices appear to have been quite consciously directed in support of the parties’ common governing goal. That is, by demonstrating a well-rounded focus on issues which mattered to the electorate, targeting resources towards seats which they needed to win or retain for a

Beyond winning, p arty goals and campaign strategy in A u stra lia n elections

Chapter Five— Government-seeking strategies

parliamentary majority, and engaging voters across a range of channels, these parties specifically worked to build a governing mandate.

However, as should be clear from the above discussion, this does not mean that all of the government-seeking parties ran identical campaigns. It has been shown that there was a good deal of variation in several areas, including how aggressively parties pursued votes over the representation of policy, which specific audiences were the focus of their targeting, and how intensively they emphasised leaders and other party constituencies. These variations appear to have come about as a result of the different opportunities and pressures bearing down on parties at each individual election, including those relating to the closeness of the race, the popularity of the leader and individual seat dynamics.

While this chapter therefore provides some early support for the assertion that parties with similar goals make similar strategic choices, it also highlights the importance of a range of other factors in shaping parties’ campaign decision-making. This tension between goals and other influences will be explored further in the following chapter, while examining the strategies adopted by preservation-seeking parties.

Beyond winning, party goals a n d campaign strategy in A u stra lia n elections