Print media provides platform for advertising and promotion of various products; marketing of politicians seeking elective positions inclusive. Print media has the advantage of making a larger impact on the readers’ minds because it has a high level of credibility based on the readers’ perception. Print media, especially newspapers, are very vital in political discourse because it remains an important and sought-after media regardless of what it used to be.
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Political advertising focuses primarily on putting an idea into voter’s heads so that voters can be influenced into believing that a candidate is fighting for them. This can really help convince the voters; they’ll also be more likely to remember the unique messaging from the candidate on election’s day as political advertising focuses primarily on putting an idea into voter’s heads. Politicians and political organizations across the country will continue to be enjoying rebates based on multiple insertions of adverts.
Equally, they will get additional or complimentary contents. Media houses are bound to use satisfactory contents to woo the politicians and political parties. They should however do this with highest level of decorum in order not to tarnish and dent the image of the company. In all these, media managers should watch-out for libelous materials and reject them accordingly.
It must be noted that some medium will never secure patronages from some political parties or politicians based on the newspapers’ leanings in terms of news reports prior to this time. It is a statement of fact that each and every newspaper has a soft spot for one party/candidate or the other. No newspaper is neutral in this context. Critical reviewing of Managing Directors and Editors personal social media handles will reveal their positions, politically.
The expectation of influx of political adverts into the print media is very high following the lifting of ban on presidential campaigns by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Wednesday, September 28, 2022. In fact, some newspapers published wrap-around, bottom strip, two inner pages (coloured) adverts on September 28, 2022. Things are beginning to look good and there is a possibility that the office seeking politicians and their political parties will continue to make use of their platforms to reach the target audience in the coming months.
Advertising is the non-personal communication of information, usually paid for by a named sponsor and it is always persuasive in nature. Advertising or space sales is a major source of income when compared to copy sales. Cost of a full page coloured advert is equivalent of almost 5,000 copy sales of any newspaper.
Political parties and politicians, especially during election years, are one of the biggest advertisers. They do not always ask for circulation figures and demographic profile of the newspapers’ readers. If they do, none of the newspapers will be used for advert placement in view of their abysmally low circulation figures and reach. They are spending less on print advertising than on other media because consolidation and effectiveness of television, radio, bill-boards, digital/online adverts, etc have more impact.
Concerns of media managers should be on how to key-in into the campaigns instead of going after the crumbs that will be falling from the tables. It is unfortunate that some will be interested in forging alliances in form of media partnership i.e media mentioning for a fee. This will not pay the company but individuals. If the management is not vigilant enough, money that should ordinarily go into the company’s account will be easily diverted into individuals’ accounts.
There is no need of carrying political adverts on credit; it should be pre-paid. Recovering cost of adverts after the election especially if the involved party or candidate did not win will be an herculean task. Some staff members, especially those that have not been paid salaries for months will collect advertising proceeds and pay themselves. There can be a waiver under a water-tight arrangement i.e. a staff guaranteeing an advert must sign letter of undertaken. Policy guiding placement of adverts should be made available to all the staff members.
Management should be wary of advertising material or message that will be converted by unscrupulous staff member into a news item. All adverts must be boxed. In the recent past, interview of a particular politician was published in some newspapers, and was paid for. One vigilant Managing Director discovered that the same material was in his newspaper but not paid for. He queried the staff writer who had no reason for such an inglorious act. He was subsequently laid off and his entitlements converted to neutralize the involved amount. Sequel to this type of behaviour, audit department should up its game by tracking all placements and payments. Any political material tagged “For the Records” must be properly investigated or scrutinized.
Some media houses made money from adverts during the last election but the impact was not felt by the staff members who are still being owed months of salaries. The money might have been used to settle debts incurred during ‘better times’. At the end of election campaign period, each media house should be able to isolate the amount realized from political adverts and how it might have been spent.
Marketing team should be more focused in ensuring that patronages are enjoyed from the political parties and candidates. As a form of encouragement, ‘generous’ commission should be given to anyone who facilitates any of the political adverts.
Many large and failure disasters in newspapering were failures in marketing! What all these disasters had in common were that media managers who thought they knew what their readers/advertisers wanted when in fact they did not. Unfortunately for those managers, their mistakes of not knowing what their customers wanted cost millions of naira and perhaps their jobs. In this instance, the Managing Director/Editor-In-Chief is part of the marketing team because he is not only in “charge but in full control”.
Abiola Ayankunbi is MD/CEO at AbingMO3 Marketing Management Consultancy
0802 305 1315.
abiolaayankunbi@yahoo.com.
