Campaign honours to Nats

The election campaign curtain comes down tomorrow as party faithful dismantle hoardings and remove billboards across the country.

The Electoral Act prescribes a few hours free of political advertising so the electorate can ponder its options in peace.

But before then, the advertising industry cast its votes on who has won the battle of the campaign.

The general consensus appears to be that - of the two major parties - National has run a slicker advertising campaign, making more effective use of an all-important tool: humour.

"It's been quite a bitchy campaign," was one marketing academic's assessment. "There have been some really good ads but I'm not sure if they've swayed my opinions."

Anna Chitty, media director at advertising agency FCB, said National's telethon take-off television adverts had made them appear "not so starchy and straight as they may have in the past".

"It's been clever and it's all about recognising that the people they are talking to are smart."

Chitty said the telethon theme was effective at grabbing viewer attention, something that was notoriously difficult to achieve in political marketing where people were either highly apathetic or extremely opinionated.

Labour's campaign had been more traditional and, therefore, less effective at engaging through humour.

Mike Cunnington, managing director of AIM Proximity's Auckland office, said the early executions of National's red and blue billboards had been particularly effective, although he thought the later versions had been a bit weaker.

"Good political advertising needs to be really simple," said Cunnington, who was head of marketing and fundraising for Britain's Labour Party in the lead-up to Tony Blair's rise to power in 1997.

"The real trick is to find the simple messages that tap on the underlying views of the party rather than trying to get into the details of the policies."

He said Labour's billboards had been too reliant on quoting Don Brash, a strategy which required a relatively high level of political knowledge and processing compared with National's "in your face messages".

Cunnington found the National telethon ads "a little bit silly" and questioned whether they portrayed the party as it would want to be seen in government. He said as the incumbent, Labour was right to push a "don't go back" message.

"Possibly they haven't quite got on the front foot, despite the fact there have been some quite hairy media things for National to manage."

Whybin TBWA managing director Dave Walden said both parties campaigns had been "presidential" with advertising playing only a secondary role.

He was encouraged that both had used humour to connect with voters.

"A lot of political advertising has traditionally been someone talking at you, whereas this time, both parties have tried to be a little more entertaining, which is a good thing."

Walden said the billboards had been important to National because they had effectively crystallised the party's key messages in simple statements.

Two strange elements to the campaign were the billboard image of Winston Peters standing on the shore and the "highly retouched" images of Helen Clark "although you can't blame her for wanting to put her best foot forward".

Professor Peter Thirkell, a marketing specialist who is acting pro vice-chancellor and dean of commerce at Victoria University, said National's telethon campaign had been effective at gaining attention and reinforcing the party's central message around tax issues.

The party's billboard campaign had also been highly effective at getting across key messages, although the narrow focus of the campaign might have left them exposed. "I think a more proactive stance on two or three issues may have bolstered their position."

Labour's strong play on its experienced leadership team was a sensible position for it to have adopted.

The party's continued use of its pledge card was a useful tool, although the idea was "probably a bit passé now".

Labour had also lacked an element of excitement in its campaign.

Thirkell said: "Experience and credibility is a good platform but it has a tendency to be a bit backward looking."