According to the stereotype content model, negative campaign messaging should induce the greatest perception of threat and promote greater campaign participation when a political candidate presents the outgroup candidate as lacking in warmth but possessing a high level of competence. However, the current political environment suggests that political campaigns can also induce perceptions of threat by focusing on the external circumstances that provide the outgroup candidate with opportunity to enact their malevolent agenda. To examine this possibility, we conduct a between-subjects experiment and test a three-way moderated mediation model in which participants (N = 259) were asked to imagine that the outgroup candidate would inherit either a unified (high opportunity) or divided (low opportunity) government, should they win the election. In line with expectations, results demonstrated that the role of perceived competence in moderating the direct relationship between perceived warmth and perceived threat was weaker in the unified government condition compared to the divided government condition; however, its role in moderating the overall indirect relationship between perceived warmth and campaign participation did not differ across the unified and divided government conditions.
This paper examines how Twitter was strategically used during Greece's 2023 parliamentary elections, focusing on the two main political contenders. We address critical gaps in political marketing literature regarding social media campaign strategies in Southern European parliamentary elections, specifically examining how Twitter functions as a strategic communication platform during electoral competition in post-crisis Greece. Limited research exists on Southern European democracies, technocratic versus populist communication approaches, and post-pandemic electoral strategies. Through comparative frame analysis of 574 tweets from the pre-electoral period, we explore how political actors construct and disseminate narratives to influence public opinion. Our research identifies divergent framing patterns: Greek PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis projects a stable, technocratic, performance-driven leadership brand, while Alexis Tsipras adopts movement-oriented, emotionally charged, anti-establishment discourse. Through systematic qualitative frame analysis, the study demonstrates greater strategic consistency and branding coherence in technocratic approaches than fragmented oppositional strategies in post-crisis electoral contexts. These differences in strategic communication correlated with differential electoral outcomes, though our qualitative methodology examines communication patterns rather than establishing causal effectiveness. Future research should examine how these digital campaign strategies translate across different platform ecosystems and electoral systems, particularly regarding the long-term effects of technocratic versus populist digital branding on democratic engagement.
The 2024 U.S. presidential election was historically unprecedented, featuring the first Black woman on a major party ticket, a late-stage Democratic nominee replacement, and the return of former President Donald Trump. This study provides a longitudinal analysis of how mainstream news coverage shifted in topic salience and tone before and after the election. Using socially mediated news articles from five high-circulation U.S. newspapers (January 2024-January 2025), we filtered for coverage of Joe Biden, Donald Trump, and Kamala Harris and applied topic modeling, network-based content analysis, and sentiment analysis to examine shifts in media narratives. We find that coverage was dominated by campaign strategy and legal conflict, while policy-focused topics declined as the election approached, consistent with research on strategy framing. Sentiment analysis reveals persistent negativity across candidates, particularly in coverage of Trump and in cross-candidate reporting, reflecting negativity bias in political news. In contrast, Kamala Harris experienced a temporary increase in positive tone following her nomination, consistent with post-nomination "honeymoon" effects. These findings demonstrate how mainstream media reconstruct electoral narratives in response to political shocks, reinforcing core theories in political communication.
An estimated $1.1 billion was spent on broadcast and cable television ads in the fall 2024 U.S. presidential general election campaign, at least $335.6 million was committed to digital ads on the major platforms, and $346 million was spent on connected television (CTV) through streaming channels. Ad spending was more widely dispersed across platforms than in any race in the past-and a majority of the money came not from the candidates' campaigns but from outside groups, including super PACs, 501c organizations and hybrid PACs. We use television ad tracking data and information from several digital platforms to provide a comprehensive analysis of advertising in the 2024 presidential campaign, focusing on both spending and the content of ads (including tone, goals, and issue mentions). We find considerable variation in ad content both 1) across campaign sponsors (groups v. candidates), 2) across the digital platforms and 3) across television and digital. Our research highlights a complicated ad landscape that is widely distributed and highly differentiated across platforms and sponsors-and a landscape in which outside groups play a large role.
This study develops a model of joyful political campaigning by integrating the social marketing paradigm into political marketing. The concept of "joyful" is grounded in the integrative theory of joy, which defines joy as a feeling that arises not from mere pleasure, but from doing what is right, acting ethically, and engaging meaningfully with others. The social marketing paradigm is used to reframe political campaigns that promote voluntary behavior for individual and societal well-being. The S-O-R framework provides a logic model to explain how campaign stimuli affect voter responses and behavior. Using a mixed-method design, Study 1 (n = 398) identifies eight attributes of joyful campaigns through qualitative thematic analysis, linked to three outcome domains: voter well-being and virtues (positive affect, peace of mind, and moral character), social dynamics (amicable society and social cohesion), and candidate evaluations (attitude and image). Study 2 (n = 1732) validates these relationships using PLS-SEM approach and reveals that skepticism toward joyful campaigns may weaken candidate evaluations. This study offers a novel contribution by applying social marketing principles to promote positive political behavior, extending the scope of political marketing theory and practice.
Social media has revolutionized political marketing by enabling candidates to shape public opinion and voter behavior through strategic digital engagement. This study contributes to political marketing research by introducing a pre-campaign model that integrates political marketing on social media, candidate image, and the Theory of Planned Behavior to explain and enhance voter intention. The current study makes a significant theoretical advancement by introducing candidate image as a mediating construct within the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) to better explain how social media-based political marketing influences voter intention. Drawing on survey data from 891 Indonesian voters during the 2024 pre-campaign period, the study employs Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) to assess both the measurement and structural models. Results indicate that political marketing on platforms such as Instagram and WhatsApp significantly affects voter intention both directly and indirectly through its impact on candidate image, attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control. This multidimensional TPB-based model addresses a notable gap in political marketing literature and offers new insights for political consultants and campaign strategists by underscoring the importance of digitally curated candidate personas in building voter trust and engagement. The findings contribute to the literature on political branding in emerging democracies and provide actionable strategies for optimizing candidate positioning in the digital age. This paper extends political marketing research by demonstrating how candidate image mediates social media strategies within a TPB framework in Indonesia's 2024 election.
This paper examines brand awareness as a boundary condition to explain the extent to which the characteristics of a vice-presidential candidate (VPC) inform their selection. A survey was used to gather data from 50 core and swing constituency executives. Subsequently, 500 questionnaires were distributed to party executives in the sampled branches and constituencies. Data from 350 completed questionnaires were imputed in SPSS version 25 and analyzed using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) in PLS version 4 to test the set hypotheses. The study established that candidate demography, electability, education, experience, personality, and brand awareness are significant considerations when selecting VPCs. Apart from H8, the study finds personality, experiences, electability, and demography as significant antecedents in creating brand awareness of a VPC. Although H14 was not supported, the finding suggests that brand awareness has mediating influences on VPC selection. The study finds that brand awareness partially influences the relationships between candidate experiences, demography, electability, personality and selection. The study finds the Ticket Balancing Theory, Aaker and Keller Brand Equity Models, useful in VPC research from a political marketing lens. The study extends the VPC scholarship beyond political science knowledge. It provides political marketing insights to presidential candidates to improve VPC selection decision.
Social media is increasingly used by mainstream politicians to fashion their public image while campaigning and governing. As the UK's finance minister from 2020 to 2022, and Prime Minister until 2024, Rishi Sunak was the first governing politician to employ an in-house brand consultant to run a continuous social media branding campaign. A content analysis of all 412 Tweets issued from the department's Twitter feed, @hmtreasury over a 10-month sample period identified 80 short films fronted by Sunak that showed a consistent overall branding scheme with 17 sub-brands. His contribution to the videos included appearances, speeches, informal visits, walkabouts, documentary footage, interviews, pieces to camera, and voiceovers. In October 2022, this carefully curated branded persona helped him to become the youngest and least experienced UK Prime Minister of modern times, with a recognition factor far higher than his two closest and more experienced rivals. Less than two years later, he led the Conservative party to its worst result in the party's 190-year history. The Conservatives were almost certain to lose anyway but did Sunak's branded persona undermine his credibility by simplifying, even contradicting, political realities? Can personal political branding from within government be considered as a form of disinformation?
Social media has reshaped political communication, creating new opportunities and challenges for engaging younger generations. Despite its growing role in electoral campaigns, little is known about how digital political marketing influences the voting behavior of young voters in Portugal. This group is particularly relevant as it is both highly digitalized and politically volatile. Existing research highlights authenticity, legitimacy, and engagement as key drivers of voter trust, yet their combined effect on voting intentions remains underexplored. This study examines how perceived authenticity, perceived legitimacy, engagement, and the importance attributed to voting influence voting intentions among Portuguese voters aged 18-30. An online survey was conducted with 278 respondents, and data were analyzed using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). Results show that perceived authenticity significantly enhances perceptions of legitimacy, while engagement levels and the importance of voting are strong predictors of voting intentions. These findings highlight the nuanced interplay between digital political communication and electoral decision-making. The study contributes to political marketing theory by clarifying how social media communication shapes young voters' attitudes and behaviors, while also providing practical guidance for political actors seeking to design effective strategies to mobilize youth participation.
Political parties nominate celebrity politicians to maximize votes and maintain official power. There is a lack of research in the literature on the strategy of the celebrity politician and its impact on voting intentions. Regardless of voters' inclination toward a political party, research seldom investigates how partisan identity affects voting intention in light of the mediating roles of perceived image and attitude, and the moderating roles of brand affinity and celebrity politician profession. A representative national sample of Lebanese voters was set using the stratified proportional random sampling method with 1269 eligible voters. Structural Equation Modeling was used to examine the relationships. Differences in attitudes against the celebrity business people negatively predicting voting intention and the moderating positive impact of brand affinity on public intellectuals' perceived image and voting intentions were underlined. This study discusses the contribution of expectancy-value theory and provides promising future research directions.
This study provides a comprehensive analysis of how political parties in Greece utilized both organic posts and Meta paid ads during the 2023 elections. While previous research has explored various aspects of digital campaigning, few studies have systematically employed the Meta Ad Library to document and assess the content and timing strategies of political parties. This research fills this gap by examining the digital communication strategies of parties during the pre-election period. The findings reveal how political parties strategically leveraged both organic reach on platforms like Facebook and Instagram and paid advertising on Meta to engage voters. A significant finding is that posts targeting specific issues are more likely to be sponsored, whereas posts with ambiguous issue orientations tend to be organic. Additionally, posts focusing on health, infrastructure, and transportation issues are disproportionately represented in paid ads compared to organic posts. These insights contribute to the broader field of political marketing by emphasizing the role of data-driven strategies in digital campaigns. The study offers valuable implications for optimizing digital campaign strategies tailored to platform affordances and voter priorities. Directions for future research are discussed as well.
This study investigates social media platform TikTok's global sport sponsorship strategy, seeking to explore the geopolitical motivations and implications of the firm's partnerships over a four-year period. Taking a multifaceted approach, a network analysis of the brand's sponsorship agreements was undertaken over a four-year period from 2020 to 2023, providing insight into the platform's use of commercial partnerships to access and integrate within the Global North. Central to this analysis is the recognition of TikTok's place and prominence within the growing attention economy of social and digital media, and the brand's efforts to legitimize and stabilize its place within Western markets where its legal standing has been challenged. The study's findings highlight the growing platformization of political sponsorship strategy, evolving beyond merely the exertion of soft power and increasingly emphasizing the integration and amplification of brand presence in core markets. Here, this work offers a new lens through which to examine sponsorship networks and relations and highlight the increasingly prevalent political dimension of sponsorship strategy on an international level.
The purpose of this study was to evaluate selected branding elements (political brand trust, political brand meaning, political brand image and political party brand personality) as well as external influences (political campaigns and the media), in relation to their impact on political party brand preference within a South African context. Non-probability sampling was adopted with 427 voters providing feedback regarding their perceptions and preferences in relation to political campaigns of the leading South African political parties. The data was processed in SPSS 29 and AMOS 29, with descriptive statistics and structural equation modeling conducted respectively. The study found that political brand trust, political brand image and political campaigns have a significant impact on political party brand preference. The study also established that political brand meaning, political party brand personality and the media have an insignificant impact on political party brand preference. Although this research is a political marketing study, it is grounded in branding and, from that perspective, it contributes to a deeper understanding of the extent to which the media and political campaigns impact voters' perceptions of political party brands.
This study examines how political consulting, a crucial component of the professionalization of politics, has changed globally. Fifty-three peer-reviewed publications from databases like Scopus and Web of Science were systematically analyzed using predetermined inclusion and exclusion criteria. Recently, in the last few years, political strategists have played a significant role in election campaigns. The nation's structure and the deinstitutionalization of political parties are two reasons this analysis identifies driving the expansion of political consulting in different countries. Americanization, professionalization, and other trends are the main findings in the global market for political consulting. There is standardization of campaign tactics, heightened voter monitoring, and greater emphasis on candidate personalities. The function of consultants may change based on the situation; in certain nations, the method is top-down, beginning with presidential campaigns, while in others, it is bottom-up, concentrating on local elections. The obstacles of upholding ethical standards, adjusting to local circumstances, and dealing with the seasonal nature of the profession persist despite the growing influence of political consultants. Additionally, this study emphasizes the necessity for more investigation into political decision-makers' viewpoints and political consultants' influence on democratic governance.
This study analyzed political marketing micro-targeting effectiveness based on mobility and digital consumption data during the 2021 municipal elections in El Hatillo, Venezuela. Using data from 3,450 participants across five socioeconomic strata, the research employed difference-in-differences analysis, spatial econometric models, and Bayesian hierarchical modeling to assess marketing impacts. Results showed that targeted messaging increased voter participation by 5.9 percentage points overall, with an inverted U-shaped relationship across socioeconomic levels-middle and lower-middle classes showed strongest effects (7.4-9.2 percentage points), while impacts were minimal in highest and lowest strata. Location-based strategies outperformed social media and SMS approaches in the political marketing mix, with multi-channel integration yielding optimal results (6.7 percentage points). Digital consumption patterns showed greater predictive power in areas with higher internet penetration. The findings extend political marketing theory by documenting how local economic, social, and technological factors shape campaign effectiveness in polarized settings, challenging assumptions about linear relationships between socioeconomic status and marketing responsiveness.
