Analysing election campaign fever and key messages

THE EDITOR, Madam:

With the 2025 general election fever having subsided, it’s time to look at the parties’ marketing campaigns as a pure business case study.

Marketers and event planners are aware of the importance of getting to know their audience as a necessary element in their planning for events and/or campaigns. Also important are the key messages.

A key message is the single most important idea or piece of information that a communicator (like a brand, speaker, or organization) wants their audience to understand, remember, and potentially act on. So beyond knowing the audience, one must also know what to say to them and what line or message will or is likely to find resonance with, moving them to action – in this case, to vote.

It was interesting to see each political party evolve different key messages, refining as the campaigns progressed to reach and impact the target audience.

The People’s National Party (PNP) started its campaign with the key message ‘Time Come’, a simple and effective message but which begged the question ‘For what?’

In short order, this key message was refined to ‘Time come for a better life’, thus clarifying for the audience ‘the assignment’.

The Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) also had key messages that evolved as the campaigns intensified. First up was the message ‘Choose Jamaica’, but, again, what does that mean? In my opinion, this message, too, needed a little more.

Next up was ‘Choose the JLP’, which was a more direct call to action for electors. As to why individuals should ‘Choose the JLP’, that was promulgated in the streets.

A final message from the JLP was ‘Doing more for you’, which focused on its achievements as a ruling party, and which was elaborated as they compared their performance to that of the Opposition while maintaining that the JLP was the party from which electors stood to benefit more.

These two marketing campaigns remind us of the flexibility that exists, especially in digital marketing, where a marketer can quickly assess and adjust marketing elements to ensure an effective and successful campaign. It is also sensible for any brand to refresh, renew and reintroduce itself to its audience, to remain relevant. Again, in addition to identifying your target audience, now that you know them, what do you want to say to them? In shaping your message – it must be concise, yet clear, but also consistent, so it creates resonance.

Congratulations to the marketing communications professionals on both sides on well-executed marketing campaigns. We saw evidence of an integrated marketing communications approach, which featured both traditional and digital marketing strategies, as well as direct marketing/community engagement tactics. With all the channels available, the critical element was having the right key message(s) for the audience to consume and to act on, which is a principle that can be applied for any brand, product or service.

STEPHEN DAVIDSON

swmdavidson@gmail.com