The Greens have scored success adopting a real-time, crowd-funded advertising strategy ahead of this weekend’s State election, calling on its supporters to help push its campaign over the finishing line.
Only three days out from polling on Saturday, the Greens struck gold with a page three print ad in Wednesday’s Sydney Morning Herald on the back of a last-minute crowd-sourced initiative which saw it raise the $17,688 required for the booking.
The Party hit email and social networks on Tuesday evening, asking supporters to contribute to the ad placement, which it said would allow them to reach the SMH’s 757,000 Wednesday print readers. Party organisers confirmed to AdNews that they reached the target in six hours.
Julie Macken, who oversees communications for the party, explained to AdNews: “The SMH was an opportunity to remind readers of who we are and what we stand for."
She added, "Clearly our supporters also thought it made sense because we were able to raise that money within six hours – that’s the great thing about our supporters; they are smarter than your average bear and they wouldn't give us the dough if they didn't think it was money well spent.”
The SMH advert is the latest in the line of four real-time, crowd-funded campaigns which have been rolled out by the party, as they go head-to-head with the above-the-line whitewashes afforded to the larger parties.
The other three include the booking of a billboard at St Peters station carrying a ‘Stop Westconnex’ slogan; the ‘Vote 1 Greens’ corflutes and most recently, the ‘Don’t Change The Channel, Change Your Vote’ video which, despite failing to raise enough funds to secure commercial TV airtime, has notched up more than 250,000 views on YouTube and Facebook.
Unlike Labor and Liberals, the Greens do not take corporate donations. Consequently, the party is largely unable to access conventional, and more often expensive tactics, to market their policies to voters. For example, it does not keep an ad agency on retainer, instead organising all planning, booking and creative in-house.
The lack of funding also means that an upfront media strategy is more difficult to construct. However, Greens communications and social media strategist Luisa Low explains how the party has effectively harnessed social media for all its fundraising activities. “Strategy for all social is determined centrally,” she said, and “is driven by the policies and policy launches for the election.”
Low added: “There is some pre-determined strategy to release our policies and initiatives to the community, however as The Greens, we listen to the communities concerns and interested and responded to them as we have gone-along. We don't dictate to the community, we listen to it and spark a conversation.”
The party has also scored above-the-line activity, via its local candidates and their own fundraising activities in local press and on local radio. Meanwhile, like their Labor and Liberal counterparts, they have also taken advantage of the ad-time made available on ABC and SBS outlets.
Email Nicola at nicolariches@yaffa.com.au.