Why your TikTok feed matters as much as town halls in Election 2026

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1. 0:05Speaker 1: Kia ora, I'm Chelsea Daniels and this is The Front Page, a daily podcast presented by the New Zealand Herald. It
2. 0:16Speaker 1: was a weekend of big political theatre as both National and Labor officially launched their election campaigns. Christopher Luxon and
3. 0:25Speaker 1: his national crew pushed the message of no new taxes. Meanwhile, Labor and Chris Hipkins unveiled a new policy to wipe 10%
4. 0:34Speaker 1: of student loan debt. But in the lead up to election 2026, it's not just the big parties fighting for our attention. So what actually makes a political campaign work?
5. 0:45Speaker 1: What makes a slogan, a speech, an image or a campaign ad stick in voters' minds? And what can make a campaign fall completely flat? Today on the front page,
6. 0:56Speaker 1: University of Auckland Marketing Professor Bodo Lange is with us to break down the campaign launches, the strategies behind them and what the parties are getting right and getting wrong.
7. 1:09Speaker 1: So Bodo, let's start with the two big campaign launches over the weekend. From a marketing perspective, what did you make of, let's start with Nationals launch?
8. 1:20Speaker 2: So I think really interesting, quite different approaches, I think.
9. 1:24Speaker 2: You know, their big slogan is fixing the basics, building the future. And so there's this really big drive on
10. 1:33Speaker 2: basically getting things right. And it's very much in line with what the party would normally do. But they're also trying to say, look, you know, we're trying to give you hope. You know, we're building the future of the country.
11. 1:43Speaker 2: And so there's definitely an emotional appeal in there. And I think they've done well in combining something that's very complicated and voters don't really want to get dragged down
12. 1:55Speaker 2: by details, but saying, look, we're trying to fix the basics.
13. 1:58Speaker 2: These are the basics that need to be taken care of.
14. 2:00Speaker 2: And this is how it's going to build our future.
15. 2:02Speaker 2: And I think And that's a nice way to encapsulate a whole amount of work that needs to occur to push New Zealand forward. So I think it's been good,
16. 2:11Speaker 2: quite useful, quite a good slogan. I think the biggest thing that stood out for me so far, and that wasn't really a factor of this weekend's announcements, but was
17. 2:22Speaker 2: the negative campaigning. And so in politics, we can often say, OK, well, give me a reason to vote for you. Or alternatively, you can do negative campaigning. So give me a reason
18. 2:31Speaker 2: to not vote for the others. And that's obviously partially what they've done. And I think my sense is that that was quite effective. Although many people complained about the
19. 2:41Speaker 2: billboards and to the Advertising Standards Authority, none of those complaints were upheld because they weren't meant to be taken literal.
20. 2:49Speaker 2: They won't triple your taxes. And so I think that was a very effective way of just tapping into uncertainty and a little bit of fear and just making voters
21. 2:59Speaker 2: who are maybe swinging a little bit in the middle to say, look, don't go with these people. This is likely what you're going to get. So I think that negative campaigning by itself is not that effective. But I think if you use a little bit of it, I
22. 3:11Speaker 2: think that can be really powerful. And I think that was a good move.
23. 3:13Speaker 1: What do you make of them rolling out Sir John Key?
24. 3:16Speaker 2: I think, again, really good move. I think Sir John Key is quite a well-liked ex-prime minister, just like Helen Clark would be. And I think to the base, it
25. 3:27Speaker 2: will really appeal. Even people who are maybe on the fringes, who might be flirting with voting for ACT or flirting with voting for opportunities. So, you know, to the left
26. 3:38Speaker 2: and to the right of the National Party, I think rolling him out is useful. because I think he is well liked and we mustn't underestimate the power of likability
27. 3:49Speaker 2: of characters and I think this is possibly one of the weaknesses of Christopher Luxon that he may not appear as likable to a broad range of people And so
28. 3:59Speaker 2: I think Sir John Key, I think, is possibly more likeable.
29. 4:03Speaker 2: And I think bringing likeability out is really important.
30. 4:06Speaker 1: So what about Labor's launch? What were they trying to communicate about themselves and I suppose their campaign?
31. 4:12Speaker 2: Again, really good start for Labor. I think their campaign slogan is very strong. Better starts now. And I think what it taps into is very cleverly, I think, is
32. 4:23Speaker 2: the sense of we've been hearing a lot about things are going to get better any moment and for a variety of reasons they have not. And so they're saying, look, we're going to put an end to this. And we're
33. 4:34Speaker 2: going to make things better. And I think using the word now is really important because I think some Kiwis will be exactly at the end of the tether and will look for, look, I need to have that actual
34. 4:46Speaker 2: increase in disposable income or lower tax rate or whatever it might be. And so I think that's quite a
35. 4:53Speaker 2: strong focus. They focus also with slightly less abstract things.
36. 4:59Speaker 2: So they're talking about jobs, health and economy. So I think those are things that will resonate really well with voters.
37. 5:06Speaker 2: So I think a strong start from the Labor Party as well.
38. 5:12Speaker 1: How important are the visuals of a campaign launch? I'm thinking the stage, the branding, the crowd, the leader's speech kind of thing. It's tapping into this Americanisation thing.
39. 5:24Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely. I think the short answer is for the people who watch it, very important because the worst thing that could happen to you as a brand, and let's
40. 5:34Speaker 2: be clear, these are brands. So National Labor, these are brands and they are particularly salient right now. just a few weeks out from the general election. And really, if
41. 5:43Speaker 2: you think about politics, it is essentially marketing. You're trying to see what do people want and how can I deliver that better than another party while holding true to
42. 5:54Speaker 2: my own ideological beliefs. So it's very much marketing. And so the worst thing that can happen to a brand is for their campaign promises or their slogan to be
43. 6:04Speaker 2: completely interchangeable. So if I took your logo away and put somebody else's logo on, would that still be recognized as actually this is from that party? And so therefore,
44. 6:16Speaker 2: having really clear visuals, having colours, having voices, having the whole design speak the language of the party is very,
45. 6:27Speaker 2: very important because you want that message to be identifiable to the brand and you want it to be likeable.
46. 6:34Speaker 1: The minor parties obviously don't have the same kind of budgets, resources or I suppose even media attention anymore. sometimes as
47. 6:42Speaker 1: national and labor. How do you market yourself when you are the smaller player?
48. 6:47Speaker 2: So that's a great question. And I think this is maybe where you could partially criticize the media, present company excluded.
49. 6:56Speaker 2: You know, in an ideal world, minor parties would get a bigger share of voice and so that people would become informed about them. So, you know, there's maybe a little bit of homework to do there. But I think
50. 7:08Speaker 2: if you're lacking big budgets, just like a small brand, like a small business, what you need to do is you need to think of two things. Who is my target market? So who is the most likely base? Who
51. 7:19Speaker 2: is most likely to vote for me? Where are they geographically or in terms of media consumption? And then you need to really hit those channels. And so that means
52. 7:29Speaker 2: very different things for different parties. So for the Greens party, for Tea Party Mardi, it means completely different things compared to, say,
53. 7:38Speaker 2: ACT or the Opportunities Party. And so very different approaches are necessary. And I think what the amazing thing that really the Internet has done and social media is, It
54. 7:50Speaker 2: has leveled the playing field in such a substantial way that even minor parties can pack a really big punch if they have really good online digital marketing. They might
55. 8:00Speaker 2: not have the ability to rent out very large venues across the whole country, but they can do really slick productions online. And so in a way, that's where social
56. 8:10Speaker 2: media and digital marketing is really a godsend for smaller parties.
57. 8:14Speaker 1: Well, you've actually led me completely into my next question, which was going to be how has social media fundamentally changed the campaign playbook in recent years? And I suppose
58. 8:25Speaker 1: that how important are those memes, those viral clips, those kind of social media moments compared now with that traditional campaign marketing?
59. 8:37Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a great question. And so social media is incredibly powerful. I mean, we see this not just in politics, but in all sorts of things. If you talk to health practitioners, they will tear their hair out from people
60. 8:48Speaker 2: who are influenced by influencers about all sorts of fads.
61. 8:52Speaker 2: And it's exactly the same for politics. And so social media is very important in driving particular types of people who spend a lot of time on social media. And
62. 9:00Speaker 2: so Having something that's recognizably you as the party, something that has virality built into it, so something that's unusual, novel,
63. 9:10Speaker 2: there's maybe suspense or humor, so you really need to tap into emotions. Those things are really, really important, and they allow those smaller parties to really reach the audience
64. 9:20Speaker 2: and reach also people who may not have naturally been exposed to that party. The downside of social media is, of course, that people can go down rabbit holes as well.
65. 9:30Speaker 2: And I wouldn't suggest that political parties start these rabbit holes. But, you know, COVID was a great example where all sorts of people went down all sorts of rabbit holes. And so social media, on one hand, is a fantastic mechanism
66. 9:42Speaker 2: to reach target markets with tailored messages and for small players to have really big voices. But on the other hand, it's also contributing to the increasing fragmentation of democracy. And that's not a good thing.
67. 9:54Speaker 1: I'm already personally sick of the hodgepodge approach, you know, the seeing kind of like this random MP from the middle of New Zealand somewhere doing a joke that we've
68. 10:04Speaker 1: seen on TikTok or doing a dance or something. And then the next slide being something quite curated. And I'm thinking of, in terms of the curation of your Instagram
69. 10:16Speaker 1: feed or the curation of your social media feed, I'm going to go back to Zoran Mamdani, who very clearly
70. 10:23Speaker 1: his social media team had a vision. It was not only just a vision in terms of the content, but how it looked, I think.
71. 10:34Speaker 2: There is a fine balance to be struck between maybe being very authentic and in the moment. So a politician may be on site somewhere in New Zealand and somebody's filming something. It might be a staff or it may
72. 10:46Speaker 2: be a member of the public. And so it's very authentic because it's not rehearsed. It's not curated at all.
73. 10:51Speaker 2: But that provides authenticity. And that's something that people crave as well. But ultimately, I think people also crave some sort of polished version. And I think from the brand's perspective,
74. 11:02Speaker 2: we need to make sure that we're getting the right messages across in the right manner. And so I think a little bit of a balance is probably useful, that there's some content that is maybe not scripted, but that
75. 11:14Speaker 2: obviously works for the party. And so I think having little bits that are non-scripted, that are ad hoc, that
76. 11:22Speaker 2: are spontaneous, and that are obviously positive. And so Chris Hipkins was confronted by some political activist on the ultra market, I think on the weekend. Well, that's obviously something that
77. 11:33Speaker 2: they don't want to have on their feed. So you want to pick the things that are positive and that portray the candidate and the party in a positive light.
78. 11:42Speaker 2: And I think that is also a really important point that For many New Zealanders, you know, you and I were talking about this in great detail, and it's fantastic.
79. 11:50Speaker 2: And I think that's really good. I think some New Zealanders are just not involved. I mean, not everybody votes, which to me always comes as a surprise. And so
80. 11:58Speaker 2: there is a segment of the population of voters. who look for very, very superficial cues that might just remind them that there's an election coming on and that, oh,
81. 12:09Speaker 2: I like that person's TikTok, I'm going to vote for them, which is, of course, not really in the spirit of democracy and being an informed voter. But those people exist, and so we have to, as a political party, we
82. 12:20Speaker 2: have to deal with it. A choice between no new taxes with National.
83. 12:30Speaker 1: and.
84. 12:30Speaker 2: Nine new taxes with Labour and their mates. A choice between careful economic management and a return to reckless spending.
85. 12:37Speaker 1: I have never felt more strongly in my life that the National Party is a risk to the future of this country.
86. 12:45Speaker 2: Their only answer is cuts. That's it. Oh, and lying about tax, which is bullshit, by the way.
87. 12:56Speaker 1: We're talking about obviously social media and how that has changed the game. But there is an obvious space for a lot of those old school traditional campaigning tactics. You know,
88. 13:05Speaker 1: New Zealand First obviously favours the community hall kind of visits in random towns. And then you've got ACT. sending Paul Henry out to all corners of the country to
89. 13:17Speaker 1: do like, you know, talks in bars and pubs and things like that. So, there is still a space for that traditional marketing, eh?
90. 13:24Speaker 2: Absolutely. And we call it in marketing, if you, again, if I'm just coming from a marketing perspective as a marketing professor, you know, we call this personal selling, basically.
91. 13:31Speaker 2: And so, again, you need to be target market appropriate.
92. 13:35Speaker 2: You need to be They're where the target audience is.
93. 13:38Speaker 2: And also what those people, so New Zealand First probably has a slightly older demographic of voter compared to the Greens.
94. 13:46Speaker 2: And so what are those voters used to? Are they on digital media? Are they on TikTok and Instagram? And the chances are that they're less likely to be on those channels and that they're much more likely to remember
95. 13:57Speaker 2: times when town hall meetings were common and when public meetings And discussions were common. And so I think New Zealand First is doing exactly the right thing, doing those
96. 14:07Speaker 2: town hall meetings. It may seem antiquated, old, out of step with, you know, reality to some people. But if you think about who is the target market and what do those people value and what are they used to,
97. 14:19Speaker 2: I think it's exactly right. Going to ACT, I think...
98. 14:25Speaker 2: Getting Paul Henry on board, I think, was a strike of genius. I think he is clearly not loved by everybody in New Zealand, but he has what we call
99. 14:34Speaker 2: in marketing a very high Q score. So he has very high awareness. And the people that are of interest to the ACT Party, they would most likely like him
100. 14:44Speaker 2: because he's very outspoken. There's many people that disagree with what Paul Henry stands for and how he's conducted himself.
101. 14:51Speaker 2: But I think from an ACT-based party perspective, I think that was a strike of genius. And then if I was in charge of the ACT party, I would definitely roll them out as much as I can, but not
102. 15:03Speaker 2: to overshadow who the actual leader of the party is, and that is David Seymour. So there's a fine balance there that needs to be in place as well. So
103. 15:13Speaker 2: digital channels work really well for some smaller parties, but probably less well for other parties that might want to substitute it with more in-person events.
104. 15:21Speaker 1: What are some of the biggest mistakes that a political campaign can make from a marketing perspective?
105. 15:29Speaker 2: I think a really big mistake is to be too abstract and to be out of step with what voters are looking for right now. And so in behavioural economics,
106. 15:38Speaker 2: you know, there's this distinction between benefits or things that are happening that are immediate versus in the long distance and that are certain versus uncertain. And so... The worst
107. 15:49Speaker 2: thing that a political party can do is just to focus on the far future and things that are very uncertain because they can only partially control the economy. If
108. 15:58Speaker 2: oil prices go up, that really affects us. If milk prices go down globally, that really affects us. They have no control over either one of those things. And so the worst thing a political party can do is to
109. 16:10Speaker 2: be very esoteric, very abstract, and just focus on distant, uncertain events. You have to appeal to the here and
110. 16:20Speaker 2: now of the voter. And I think all parties are trying to do that in slightly different ways.
111. 16:25Speaker 1: And lastly, what can a party do now if a campaign isn't kind of landing as it hoped? Like, can you successfully change your messaging or your branding halfway through
112. 16:37Speaker 1: an election campaign in like three weeks? So it's about six weeks out from the election, aren't we? So in three weeks time, they say, This isn't really working. Can they actually change it?
113. 16:46Speaker 2: Absolutely, yeah. I mean, you're not going to double vote suddenly by changing one minor thing, but you can certainly change the baseline. And so what political parties would do, just as you would if you were launching a product,
114. 16:58Speaker 2: you're conducting market research. And so I think the major parties will be very busy doing qualitative research. looking at what people are saying online about them. What's the sentiment
115. 17:07Speaker 2: are people generally for, against? What are the things that are not landing? What's maybe, what are the question marks that are being raised? And then you basically have to just look at it in terms of what are the most important issues and where are we not landing the best?
116. 17:19Speaker 2: And then really address those hot buttons to hopefully drive votes and voting intention.
117. 17:25Speaker 1: Thanks for joining us, Bodo.
118. 17:27Speaker 2: My pleasure, as always.
119. 17:31Speaker 1: That's it for this episode of The Front Page. You can read more about today's stories and extensive news coverage
120. 17:38Speaker 1: at nzherald.co.nz. The Front Page is hosted and produced by me, Chelsea Daniels. Kane Dickey is our studio operator, Richard Martin,
121. 17:48Speaker 1: our producer and editor, and our executive producer is Jane Yee.
122. 17:53Speaker 1: Follow the front page on the iHeart app or wherever you get your podcasts and join us next time for another look beyond the headlines.