New marketing tools can bring voters and political parties closer together, and can increase voter turnout.<\/p>\n
This is according to political marketing expert, Professor and Dean Phil Harris. He spoke at the University of Copenhagen\u2019s political marketing conference Tuesday, attended by over 200 students and marketing enthusiasts.<\/p>\n
\u00bbMarketing is used to get more people involved in the political process, \u00ab he says, emphasizing the importance of packaging political ideas. <\/p>\n
Harris, who is from the UK, says the recent election\u2019s televised leader debates were produced by the same team that made popular TV programmes like X-factor \u2013 a show that has a wide viewership in Denmark and throughout the world. <\/p>\n
\u00bbThe number of young people who wanted to vote shot up after [the debate],\u00ab Harris says, explaining that young voters identified with the programme\u2019s style. <\/p>\n
\u00bbEngagement with the young is a big issue.\u00ab<\/p>\n
His message was in line with the other lecturers at the conference, including Majken Schultz of Copenhagen Business School and J\u00f8rgen Goul Andersen of Aarhus University.<\/p>\n
Each emphasized long-term marketing strategies to builder closer relations between the party and the voter. <\/p>\n
\u00bbIt\u2019s about the way that we involve citizens, and we can use marketing to turn them on, or turn them off,\u00ab Harris says.<\/p>\n
None of the presenters attached much importance to social media, despite the well-known success it played during U.S. President Obama\u2019s 2008 campaign. <\/p>\n
\u00bbWe automatically think social media is a big turn-on for voters, but it\u2019s just part of the process,\u00ab Harris says.<\/p>\n
He was thankful for the availability of geo-demographic data to understand the political landscape.<\/p>\n
\u00bbThe big issue today is how we target different generations,\u00ab he says, adding that a higher voter turnout is possible if parties became more strategic.<\/p>\n
\u00bbPolitical marketing is an exchange process between the party and the voter,\u00ab he says.<\/p>\n
uni-avis@adm.ku.dk<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
UK election debate was inspired by popular TV series. New \u2018social\u2019 media marketing, important in recent US election, can’t win elections single-handedly, says political marketing expert<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":22857,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22856","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","expression-news_article"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"yoast_head":"\n