Sharpe's Opinion

Bus Advertising – Not just for Atheists?

Mike Smithson makes an interesting point about UKIP’s advertising strategy for the EU and Norwich North elections:

Unlike most of of the other parties a key part of UKIP’s communications strategy at both the June 4th elections and ahead of last week in Norwich has been the heavy reliance on paid-for billboard advertising.

The party did not join the massive leaflet extravaganza in the by-election but invested a lot in creating a presence on the streets through posters and innovative placings such as on telephone kiosks and on the sides of buses as in the picture above. Judging by their results at all levels in the past eight weeks, including council by elections, the strategy is working well.

I ended my recent piece on campaigning by saying I think campaigning is ineffective whatever happens, but I think this is interesting, and chimes with what Alix Mortimer was saying: that what you do isn’t nearly as important as making sure you’re the only one doing it. A distinctive campaign probably goes a lot further than a well-executed-but-pedestrian one.

Costigan Quist puts it best, though (don’t know why I didn’t link to this earlier) – hard work has no substitute.