Let me be honest with you: I’m a huge fan of spending money on billboards and any type of Out-of-Home (OOH) media for political campaigns which has got nothing to do with my professional inclination. Apparently, I’ve seen them used in effective ways and not so effective ways in a few campaigns for the national elections over the years. Perhaps, all the Politicians are well informed by those coordinating their campaigns that to reach more voters and enhance their political campaign they need out of home media that allows you to GO BIG and GO ANYWHERE!
GO BIG with Out-of-Home media format like billboards that greatly increase the visibility of your message in a given area, and GO AYWHERE with Out-of-Home media format like mobile billboards that put your message on wheels and give you the flexibility of going wherever you want. Out-of-Home media also offers so many other types of media formats like the Lamppost that are currently in high usage within major cities by Politicians. The Lamppost provides frequency to the political campaign and ensures message delivery through frequency (repetitiveness).
However, the unhealthy use of state resources and office by incumbents to muscle out opposition candidates by using up all available billboards and street light poles in their various states to splash their faces across their district ahead of the 2027 elections need to be studied specially. As much as it seems a pointer to the awareness of the power of Out-of-Home media and how billboards work such that every candidate wants dominate the environment with visibility and presence it is indeed a condemnable act.
Every Political candidate now knows that he or she needs to get his or her name and face on as many billboards as possible, and there’s not much you can do to convince him otherwise because no other medium can deliver the audience that out of home delivers. Interestingly, purchasing political billboards is not as easy as many would assume, it is actually not a task for a lazy campaign coordinator. To ensure you put the face of the Political candidate in front of millions of voters you need to acquire enough out of home media formats that would deliver the audience. Billboards, obviously, make a candidate feel good by ensuring that he is getting his message and his name out there. In addition, they make the candidate feel important, because his name and face are right there, fifty feet in the air, for everyone who drives and commutes to see.
Why should you consider Out-of-Home media as part of your Political campaign media mix? Because outdoor will simultaneously amplify your message and increase your penetration in the specific areas that you choose with dramatically increased message size and repeated viewings by electorates over a long period of time depending on the campaign window allowed by electoral act. It can also be used very effectively over short periods of time like your campaign’s final, last-minute push or last-minute campaign periods, out of home media would put them together all the time.
Out of home surely stands out from the plethora of your competitors’ campaign on TV, radio, in newspaper – and online. They will also give your other media increased punch by complementing them in a BIG way and completing your branding mix. Out of home media may also be the one media that your competitors are not buying enough or can’t buy enough due to non availability and budget thus allowing you to further distinguish the message that you have crafted from the clutter of competing voices. Obviously the incumbents and ruling parties are seriously exploiting by preventing other candidates from accessing out of home media within districts, states and regions under their control.
The common trends by incumbents and ruling parties include announcement of sudden draconian laws through State Signage Agencies to limit opposition candidates access to out of home media visibility. Recently Anambra State Government unveiled permit fees for political campaigns ahead of the 2027 general elections. A presidential candidate will pay N50m, while senatorial candidate is charged N20m for out of home media campaigns (@nigeriastories on X) and similar permit fees have been reportedly issued by many other states.
Unfortunately, most draconian and barbaric outlook of intolerance, and yet politically motivated would be to literally tear down oppostion candidate billboards. Our tolerance level is frighteningly low and to think in this instance that it revolves around the usage of OOH media (my beloved profession) has driven me to pen it down for posterity. It is instructive to add at this point that people cannot build a future nation on bitterness, on the politics of destruction, on the belief that to win, the opposition must be crushed. The ugly battle for dominance on OOH media formats is so intense that both incumbents and opposition employs political thugs and social miscreants to deface rival campaigns at the hight of crisis era.
But if we must remain objective and reflect on the theme of this piece then we must take learning from successful case studies of appropriate and decent usage of OOH media for political campaigns. The Barack Obama presidential campaign’s final push to the White House included Out-of-Home media: Out of home was tapped by Obama for America to help with their final message push to get voters to the polls in key battleground states. Obama’s marketing team turned to the out-of-home media palette at crunch time —recognizing that out of media offers some of the best ways to take a message to the streets of America, and quick!
The 11th hour leading up to Election Day, out of home media worked for The Obama for America from late October 2008 through election night with the use of mobile OOH media formats across 13 must-win states. Out of the 13 states with a mobile outdoor media message for Obama, 12 were won!
The Obama team used 50 mobile billboards in 28 cities and 13 states, and the ever-hip mobile projection—capable of displaying a very cool video on walls throughout crucial, crowded urban areas.
OOH was integrated with the fuller campaign: The Obama for America team very wisely tied their SMS / text messaging and online campaign in with their mobile billboards and projections. The creative on each vehicle referenced where citizens could log on or text to get voting info. We all know the result; Obama won the election and became first black president of USA.
Hopefully, the Nigerian politicians can take some learning from the case study shared above that clearly answers the poser question of this piece; Do They Win Elections?
