A report by Compliance and Content Monitoring Limited (CCM) a technology player in media monitoring in Nigeria, has shown that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) outspent the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the 2015 presidential elections as regards media advertising nationwide, with a ratio of 3:1 yet still lost the elections.
The media organisation valued 2015 presidential elections media advertising spend by PDP and APC on Above the Line communication platforms at N3.23 billion, with PDP spending N2.5 billion and APC N728 million, which showed that PDP outspent APC by N1.8 billion.
The body which monitored the two prominent parties’ presidential election campaigns between December 2014 and March 2015 based its report on campaigns on radio, television, press and billboard across the country.
It said the PDP campaign, including third party adverts accounted for about N2.5 billion or 77 percent, with APC spending about N728million or 23 percent. The report highlighted that gross media rates were used in CCM’s calculations and the data across the monitored stations accounted for about 85 percent national coverage.
CCM’s calculations also excluded special media such as news mentions, live coverage of political rallies and Satellite (Pay TV) media and all Below-The-Line promotional spend. Out of the total of N1.62 billion spent on television, the report said PDP spent 83 percent and APC 17 percent. Of N243.4 million spent on radio, PDP spent 61 percent and APC 39 percent. Total spent on press was N1.16 billion with PDP spending 75 percent and APC spending 25 percent of the figure, while Out of Home media platform had a share of N206 million, with PDP spending 65 percent and APC spending 35 percent.
According to the report, CCM analysed over 260 broadcast media (radio and television), 48 print (newspapers and magazines) and over 1,000 outdoor bill boards across the country. It further explained that the media report which focused only on the two main parties – PDP and APC, took into cognisance the different geographical zones within the country, as well as the advertising campaigns of the different political parties, individuals and groups in support of the presidential candidates.
In a statement,Tunde Onadele, managing director of CCM Limited, revealed that about 253 creative materials were deployed across Radio and TV channels in all the 260+ stations monitored by CCM, with PDP utilizing 145 materials while APC deployed 107 materials. The split across media platforms showed TV and Press were the media platforms mostly utilised by the two parties at over 85 percent of total campaign spend.
Speaking about the significance of media monitoring in politics, Onadele said political parties need to measure compliance to media or campaign plans, as set out by their campaign organisations, anticipate the opposition’s media strategies, especially across regions and appropriate and match regional spending with potential for electoral votes and for quality decision making in sharpening campaign strategies.
Bayo Odeyinde, chief technical officer of CCM, affirmed that the organisation has deployed advanced detection and logging technology that has the capability to provide reliable media intelligence reports and services to its clients and prospects across various industries such as Advertising, PR and Music.
The firm said it is “committed to revolutionizing media compliance and post-campaign analysis through innovative products as exemplified in the launch of this report, thus raising the stakes in the industry, also showing our capability to deliver media intelligence products across industries.”
