The Growing Sophistication of Political Marketing: Perspectives from an Emerging Economy

Marketing strategies in political campaigns improve candidates’ image and assist sourcing of funds in matured democracies like the UK and the USA. Similarly, the social media serves as an alternative means of communication where candidates reach out to voters during campaign. These coordinated strategies have also been used by candidates to attract voter attention and generate funds in emerging democracies, indicating a shift in the nature of electoral campaigns through the use of social media. Recent developments in political campaigns in developed and emerging democracies suggest strategic use of social media to influence voters’ and influence donations. The recent Nigerian presidential election witnessed such activities with the APC presidential candidate targeted voters and encouraged campaign donations using the social media. This study attempts to understand the use of social media to generate awareness in winning voters and influence financial donations in an emerging democracy. To achieve this, the study will focus on the just concluded Nigerian presidential election where the social media played a key role in generating brand awareness. A single case study approach is used to focus on the Buhari campaign in the Nigerian 2015 presidential election. The content analysis results suggest the target audience are divided into three groups based on their social and financial status. To attract voters’ attention, the campaign developed a theme ‘change is possible’ with other supporting themes consistent with the party policy. This paper extends previous studies on the political marketing activities by showcasing development of political campaigns. It also offers understanding of the development of fundraising and promotion campaign through the social media in a section of the world that is gradually becoming important at the political and economic level. The paper contributes to understanding the influence of alternative media to generate awareness in political marketing.