By Felicia Nwosu

Israel Opayemi, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Chain Reactions Limited, has said that every winning political campaign strategy must be data and research-driven to enable it to accomplish its goal in touching the electorate’s pain points and need points. He stated this on Brands and You with Benjamin Okoh.

The Chain Reactions boss said thorough research into electorate’s insights will help in delivering the right thrust for the campaign messages and that this will impact significantly in the life of the voters. He reaffirmed that propaganda has no place in winning elections.

“The starting point of winning  political strategy is through research.  Propaganda has no place in winning elections. If it takes you there, it cannot keep you there. Research reveals or tells you the top priorities of issues that matter to the electorates, what are the pain points of the electorates, and how to develop your policies. It takes into account all of the things that we think about in the world of strategic communication. Who are we talking to, what is our message, how do we reach these people with our message? It takes into account even the most rudimentary theory of communication which is the  RACE formula that talks about research, action, communication and evaluation,” he said.

The PRCAN president suggested that, for political parties not to short-change the electorates, and also to help them make informed decisions, they need to engage professionals who have skillfully honed their craft in the field of political marketing communications under the rudiments of political campaign.

“A campaign should have experts and specialists that their opinions carry weight. You must be a professional who understands that  the electorate must be involved, the political party, political candidate and then the media. It is a distinct strategic marketing communications. It is a nuanced discipline of strategic communication; so the earlier those on the agency side and the practitioners understand this, the better for the nation and the electorate. They need to understand that this is a speciality; political communications has emerged as a special branch of strategic communication itself,” he said.

Mr. Opayemi noted that as the 2023 general elections gather momentum, the people-centric political parties ought to have commenced their campaign research processes for deeper understanding of the electorate and mutual connection, while adding that the procedure is not a one-size-fits-all.

“This is why I will be embarrassed if by now any of the political parties has not commissioned research, because that is the fundamental strategy development of everything. If you are running in this election, by now, you should have a demographic and psychographic breakdown of your registered voters, because media buying is now a scientific process. It is not all about slogans. There is a difference between slogan and message,” he stated.