Oliver Lutz is Senior Digital and Content Marketing Manager at the UPC Switzerland. Here, he is responsible for esports.ch, an online portal all around Swiss e-sports. We met in Zurich on July 10.
Next to CH+ we mainly concerned ourselves with marketing. I finally had the opportunity to share a question which had been on my mind for a while. The fact that the person sitting next to me was a UPC marketing expert, made this the perfect occasion to ask it.
Advertisements for the parliament elections?
What do you think of the idea to advertise political votes and elections as if they were a product?
So the product would be to go vote?
Yes, exactly. And communication wise, the advertisements would be in the same style as they are for consumable goods – such as smart phones. Or like advertisements for festivals.
Hah! Well, it would be important – but my first thought is: who would pay for that? Who has the responsibility to do this?
Officially that would be the Federal Chancellery. They have the commission to inform citizens on votes and elections.
It would be sensible to promote elections. However, not only through political institutions but also through private initiatives. At the moment, there is nothing except for the official sources of information or advertisements from specific parties. Right, digital and TV campaigns that elections are running don’t exist at all. Why not?
The Federal Chancellery provides good online material which explains political processes, but that is no advertisement… and people have to go look for that themselves.
Yes, and you only do that if you are interested in the first place. No, a campaign for voter motivation would be helpful for sure.
There are people who decide to buy things because of repeated encouragement through advertisements. Maybe that works for voting. Probably not for people who don’t care at all, but for people who would be interested and just have very busy lives. Campaigns could probably convince them to go vote.
An affirmation, to hear these words from somebody with longstanding experience in the marketing field. The theories which I encounter in my literature studies on motivation and behaviour say the same – but it is always reassuring when theory, experience and expert opinions align.
So it could really make sense to advertise neutral, political participation. But as stated, who would pay for such advertisements? Who would be bold enough to create advertisements, which actually speak to people, instead of being instructive?
Well, maybe we just have to give it a try…
