Local Government Elections in Trinidad and Tobago

Well Trinbagonians, Local Government Deflections are upon us, and it seems like we’re in a national movement away from partnerships! The NACTA polls have revealed that the People’s National Movement, PNM, has taken the lead with 7 corporations favoring them. Now we know the obvious truths that with so many splits around us, PNM remains a powerhouse among a group of smaller brands. But what have we not noticed? Is this the only reason our former “DO SO” nation seems to be embracing the Movement all of a sudden?

This article will attempt to outline the small marketing changes the PNM has embarked on as they silently chant “slow and steady wins the race”. As a marketer myself, I regularly confess to the overuse of trending buzzwords like Trending (oops), Consumer Insights and Data Driven Marketing. It seems to me like someone in the PNM has his/her nose in some serious New Age Marketing, with the ILP not too far behind, the UNC, quite far back and the COP on a random digital billboard on the highway (sorry guys).

Every time we have an election in our beautiful country, we’ve grown accustomed to walls littered (emphasis on littered) with “official” campaign posters, (and some, not so official), interruptive television advertising, full page, full colour press ads, and motorcades on a quiet Sunday. In more recent times, we’ve seen the growth of the Facebook page, the Twitter feed and the website. Here’s how the campaigners are implementing newer marketing concepts to win this election:

Deeper understanding of the voter

It’s no secret that with the use of online marketing tools, we now use quantified data analytics to understand the behavior of our target. The more engaged users you have online, the greater the sample size of people you can actually observe, who act as though they’re not being observed. We’ll  use the Facebook Likes metric because it’s the one platform that all the parties can be compared on.

PNM: 22152 Facebook Likes 

UNC: 1248 Facebook Likes 

 ILP: 6219 Facebook Likes 

COP: 4514 Facebook Likes

PP: 7292 Facebook Likes

All this to say that while ILP is clearly the fastest growing brand in politics now, PNM has the advantage of numbers. So with these growing numbers, a party is able to track activity and engagement patterns of its Fans. Have you noticed that this year some PNM candidates are now making their regional corporation walks in the mornings? With insight into people’s behavioral patterns, the Party has been able to alter its direct engagement strategy to speak with a changing, busier, population when they’re actually at home. And there’s a lot more insight to be had.

 

What’s Trending?

I couldn’t help but notice the wide and integrated online presence that the PNM has. In addition to the online content being created in the form of web updates (championed by ILP and PNM), the Movement’s website forms its central hub of web activity. Now here’s an interesting twist, PNM has the most unofficial pages, groups and public profiles of all the parties. This increases the PNM conversation and inclusion in the Facebook sphere. Don’t start a comment-argument (argcomment?) with these guys! And finally, guess who’s pioneering the Instagram movement.

 

That’s it for now, be sure to vote, and NO I AM NOT SAYING TO VOTE FOR ANY PARTY IN PARTICULAR, just think about it amidst all the deflections and vote for a party that resonates with you. 

My next post will discuss the new partners in the Partnership, hopefully the makeup artist is on standby.

 

Thanks Google Images: http://www.melvillecity.com.au/about/local-government-elections/copy_of_local-government-election-candidates/image.jpeg/image_mini