Coalition’s final week advertising strategy under fire after historic loss
Coalition strategists have drawn criticism for their media buying, messaging and policy platform as the Liberal Party reckons with defeat.
The Coalition’s decision to delay most of its advertising spending until the final week of the campaign has drawn criticism for its failure to account for a massive turn out in pre-poll voting, as new data showed television networks raked in $54 million during the election.
Toby Ralph, an election marketing expert who has worked on 50 elections including all of former prime minister John Howard’s campaigns, said the Coalition had not only left its advertising campaign too late but was hamstrung by a weak message.
“I mean, they came in a bit too late, yes. And of course, by Saturday morning, there are 18.1 million registered voters, I think it is, and 8.5 million have voted by Saturday morning,” Ralph told Capital Brief.
“So the old thing of, ‘Wait ‘til you see the whites of their eyes on polling day’ — which is traditionally how you do your media buy — is long gone.”
