This study analyzed political marketing micro-targeting effectiveness based on mobility and digital consumption data during the 2021 municipal elections in El Hatillo, Venezuela. Using data from 3,450 participants across five socioeconomic strata, the research employed difference-in-differences analysis, spatial econometric models, and Bayesian hierarchical modeling to assess marketing impacts. Results showed that targeted messaging increased voter participation by 5.9 percentage points overall, with an inverted U-shaped relationship across socioeconomic levels—middle and lower-middle classes showed strongest effects (7.4–9.2 percentage points), while impacts were minimal in highest and lowest strata. Location-based strategies outperformed social media and SMS approaches in the political marketing mix, with multi-channel integration yielding optimal results (6.7 percentage points). Digital consumption patterns showed greater predictive power in areas with higher internet penetration. The findings extend political marketing theory by documenting how local economic, social, and technological factors shape campaign effectiveness in polarized settings, challenging assumptions about linear relationships between socioeconomic status and marketing responsiveness.

The article aims to investigate determinant factors of resilient voter toward deviant information during the election process in Indonesia. This empirical study also examines the essential role of deviant information as moderating variable on the relationship between voter resilience and political brand advocacy. The study uses a quantitative method with purposive sampling, the data was collected from Indonesian citizens who were eligible to vote and analyzed using the structural equation modeling. Findings suggest that voters who have already attached to the politician they preferred, not necessarily have resilience toward deviant information, they must join political brand community to become a resilient voter. This research highlights that a resilient voter toward deviant information not only influenced by political brand experience and political brand attachment, but also political brand community, a resilient voter cannot be attenuated by deviant information, they still become a political brand advocate.

This study investigates how voters derive pleasure and meaning from political advertisements by conducting a 3 (sponsorship) × 2 (issue) factorial experiment. It examines the impact of the interaction of issue involvement and congruence between sponsorship and voters’ party affiliation on enjoyment and appreciation of the advertisement. Voters’ real-time emotions (determined by their facial expression) and their attention to the screen (captured via eye-tracking sensor) were measured. Voters’ responses to advertisement were examined in association with their subsequent candidate preference. Advertisements by congruent sponsors are enjoyed and appreciated more than those by incongruent sponsors. Negative and mixed emotions and time spent on the screen are more pronounced among those with higher issue involvement when viewing congruent advertisements. Only enjoyment, appreciation, and expression of positive emotions during advertisement exposure are positively associated with voting decision.

Past experience in elective office has always been the best predictor of congressional candidate success in elections. These “quality” candidates come into elections with experience fundraising, name recognition, and general knowledge about how to run a successful campaign. Yet, recent congressional elections have seen an increase in the electoral success of inexperienced candidates. As past experience in office may no longer be valued as it once was, how are these experienced candidates marketing themselves to voters? Are they still leaning into their past experience in elected office or are they more likely to emphasize other occupations and experiences? We expect candidates brand themselves, emphasizing different experiences, based on the type of election they are in and who they are running against. In order to test these expectations, this paper examines all available biography pages of experienced candidates who ran in congressional primaries in 2022. We find clear partisan differences in what candidates past occupational backgrounds they highlight. We find mixed evidence that decisions about what occupations to emphasize vary based on electoral dynamics.

Commercial marketing is a business philosophy that places the needs of the consumer at the beginning of the sales process rather than at the end, and its practises include the development, pricing, promotion, and distribution of goods and services. The decades following the 1960s were characterized by the intrusion of marketing into politics around the world, with Western liberal democracies being early adopters of this mode. Political marketing is the adaptation of the philosophy, principles, concepts, and techniques of commercial marketing to the political world. Research shows that citizens living in democratic regimes are critical and skeptical of democratic practices. Political marketing raises ethical questions, which has led researchers to pose the hypothesis of a “marketing malaise,” connecting political marketing with citizens’ malaise about political representation. Building on these concerns and relying on the existing literature, this article proposes the first theoretical conceptualization for the marketing malaise hypothesis. As citizens’ perceptions and understanding of politics go through the media, we propose a conceptualization of marketing malaise by mobilizing an intermediate variable: the media coverage of politics. The theoretical conceptualization includes the integration of political marketing by political organizations and the media and its impacts on citizens and democracy.

The research examines political advertising on Facebook during the 2019 European and local election campaigns in Hungary. Previously, political advertising had been difficult to study due to a lack of publicly available data. However, since spring of 2019, information on political advertising on Facebook has been publicly accessible in European countries. The study collected all political ads during the two nationwide election campaigns in Hungary to map the political advertising sphere based on spending. The research tests theories regarding the political restructuring potential of social media, including the oppositional/democratizing role of social media, and the theses of normalization versus equalization. Additionally, the ad-specific thesis of ‘stealth media’ is tested, which argues that Facebook’s ad platform can be employed to circumvent campaign-related regulations. Our findings suggest that the opposition remarkably dominates the political Facebook advertising sphere in the present illiberal context. Beyond this fact, the normalization theory seems to prevail, and there is no evidence that ads are used to increase the personalization of politics. In Hungary, Facebook’s advertising platform is not a type of ‘stealth media’ as it is dominated by official political actors, but a few partisan media outlets were strongly involved in the advertising campaign.

In recent years, celebrity populism has become increasingly prevalent in politics worldwide. However, the relationship between populism and celebrity politics is not straightforward, and more research is needed to understand how these two concepts intersect. The authors of this paper argue that a more nuanced understanding of celebrity populism is necessary to identify and analyze its various forms. By analyzing the communication strategies of the three populist candidates in the 2019–2020 Croatian presidential election, this paper empirically investigates how celebrity populism manifests in practice. The authors use their proposed conceptualization to classify the candidates based on their use of populist and celebrity strategies. This allows for a more granular understanding of the different ways in which celebrity and populism can be combined in politics. The findings suggest that celebrity populism can take on different forms depending on the specific context and characteristics of the candidates. Moreover, the authors argue that celebrity populism is a strategy that can be effective in gaining popularity and mobilizing voters, particularly in countries where trust in political institutions is low.

This research attempts to develop the reformist dimensions based on the case of successful political outsiders. Literature suggest that reformers are those perceived to be successful in serving the citizens through their capabilities on making changes. To achieve this goal, this study explores the brand images of Indonesia’s political outsiders who have strong image of reformers which are Jokowi, Ahok and Risma and investigate how they are being perceived to be successful in serving the citizens. The present research, which consist of three studies, conduct exploratory factor analysis using sequential mixed methods. The first two studies utilize qualitative paradigms with interview and document analysis to determine reformist dimensions using thematic analysis. Following this, a survey was launched (n = 453) for a reliability and validity test. The qualitative studies have delineated the reformist characteristics into three dimensions: perceived qualities (three items), implemented programs (four items) and engagement style with citizens (three items). The dimensions have adequate factor analysis values and high reliability scores. Findings suggest that reformist attributes have several traits such as ‘anti-corruption’, ‘innovativeness’ and a high rate and unique voter engagement style. This research contributes to the development of political marketing theories on candidates’ reformist branding attributable to the phenomenon of the rise of political outsiders. It explores the interplay of leadership and political brand image from the cases of successful rise of political outsiders. The leadership aspects relevant to shape the brand image of a reformist from voters’ perspective are discussed based on findings.

U.S. presidential candidates aspire to have a “presidential image.” Political communication researchers, media pundits, political scientists, pollsters, campaign consultants, and other political marketers speculate about who is “presidential” and “unpresidential.” No prior research, however, has empirically measured and validated a presidential image construct. Based on data collected prior to the 2020 U.S. presidential election (N = 618 registered likely voters), we tested congeneric models of presidentiality. Results indicated (1) a six-item, single-factor model fit well when single group confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) were performed separately on ratings of Donald Trump (Study 1) and Joe Biden (Study 2), (2) multiple-group CFA indicated configural and metric invariance (generalizability across candidates) of the model, and (3) presidential image factor scores were strongly associated with the candidate participants planned to vote for in the election. The resultant indicators also advance theorizing that a U.S. president is expected to serve as both “head of state” through components of personability and as “head of government” through components of capability. Theoretical implications for political marketing are discussed.

The rise of negative partisanship raises the possibility that perceptions of what the partisan out-group believes on a factual matter could serve as a cue for one’s own factual beliefs. In the current paper, we present the results of an online experiment using a sample of self-identified conservatives and liberals on Amazon’s Mechanical Turk platform. Across several statements on various political issues, participants were randomly assigned to receive a corrective message, polling information about the factual beliefs of members from the partisan out-group, or both. We find that while the corrective message improved belief accuracy, information about the out-group did not influence belief accuracy either directly or by moderating the influence of corrections – even among those with the strongest antipathy toward the out-party. We discuss the implications of the results for the role of negative partisanship for misinformation and corrective messages.