Municipal and Regional Elections Peru 2018

Some Advices

To Consider In An Electoral Campaign

THE STRATEGY IS THE MOST IMPORTANT INDIVIDUAL FACTOR IN A POLITICAL CAMPAIGN
A correct strategy can survive a mediocre campaign, but even a brilliant campaign can fail if the strategy is wrong.
THE EFFECT OF “VOTE TO THE WINNER” DOESN’T EXIST
The theory, mainly accepted, that many people vote the presumptive winner of an election, because they are with whom wins, is false. Many campaigns are dedicated to proving that the winning candidate is yours. They filter polls too the press showing that their candidate is ahead of the others, waiting for the voters to mobilize to be with the winner. In fact, the opposite occurs. The followers of a candidate who does not have the assured victory tend to work more, while the followers of the candidate who has won the elections tend to trust and mobilize less.
THE AMOUNT OF ASSITANTS TO THE ELECTORAL ACTS HAS LITTLE TO DO WITH THE VOTE
No one who mobilizes his followers better is guaranteed to get more votes.
THE SURVEYS ARE ESSENTIAL BUT DON’T LET THEMSELVES DECEIVE THEMSELVES.
The only practical reason to do a survey is to obtain information that helps win the elections. If the survey is not going to do it, it is better to spend money on something else. Perhaps the least important information in a survey is that of who is ahead of a given moment. You can not run a campaign without adequate surveys, but you can’t depend exclusively on them. Nor should we make them public unless there is a rare and extremely good reason to do so.
A DIVIDED PARTY LOSES FORCE THERE IS NEVER TO FEAR THE INCORPORATION OF TRUE EXPERTS
You must use the best experts you can get, without worrying about hurting someone’s feelings.
MOST CAMPAIGNS DON’T KNOW HOW TO USE THEIR ADVISERS CORRECTLY
Most candidates and campaign managers don’t know what an adviser does or should do. You must clarify at the beginning so that your expectations are not exaggerated or unreal.
TELEVISION SPOTS THAT SHOW GREAT MULTITUDES HAVE SCARCEREAL VALUE, ONLY THE WANT THAT THE CANDIDATE FEELS GOOD
It is always better to teach the candidate, explaining to the people what they will do for it if he will be elected.
THE “TIMING” IS ESSENTIAL
Timing is an essential part of a global strategy. Using a topic too early- or too late- can cancel its impact. Each situation is different. For an unknown candidate, it could be a waste of meaninglessness. If an opponent makes an easily rebuttable accusation, sometimes it is better to let him repeat it several times, so that he looks like a fool when he is answered. But sometimes it is essential to respond to the accusations immediately. It is difficult to get the “timing”. It is often instinctive. And in its area of computerized campaigns is good to know that human judgment still plays an important role in campaigns.
THE AMOUNT OF MONEY TO SPEND IS LESS IMPORTANT THAN HOW IT IS SPENT
While no one can deny that is better to have all the money that is needed to make a campaign, not always the candidate with more money wins the elections. There are many factors to consider, but surely one of them how effectively the money available is spent. It’s easy to waste money on political campaigns- and many candidates do it. And occasionally it is possible to drown an opponent in an ocean of money. But in most campaigns, considering that each candidate has at least the minimum amount of money to organize a normal campaign, the likely winner is the one who spends the best money.
IF ANYTHING WORKS, YO MUST CONTINUE USING IT UNTIL YOU STOP DOING IT
The new is not necessarily better.
MAKE SURE THAT THE MESSAGE IS CLEAR AND COMPREHENSIBLE
The definition of a global strategy implies defining the correct message or messages to be communicated to the social groups that are our objective or to society as a whole. Whatever the message, it must be clear and comprehensible to everyone.
NUNCA HAY QUE SUBESTIMAR A LA INTELIGENCIA DE LOS VOTANTES NI SOBREESTIMAR LA CANTIDAD DE INFORMACIÓN A SU DISPOSICIÓN
The electorate is not stupid. But often you don’t have enough information at your disposal to take the right decision, that is to support our candidate. It’s not your responsibility to seek and obtain that information; it is our responsibility to offer it, on a silver plate if it is necessary. If, at the end of a campaign, voters still don’t understand what the candidate is trying to tell them, that is the fault of the candidate, not the voters.
IN THE PAIDPUBLICITY, THE THIRD PARTY MUST BE ATTACKED TO THE OPPONENT
This is not a place to discuss the merit or demerit, morality or immorality of attacking an opponent. I follow a personal rule: the public trajectory of a candidate is susceptible to attack; his private life is not. But attacks are a fact of political life, and if you have to use them, it’s better to do it in the most effective way. It is preferable that the candidate doesn’t attack his opponent on radio or television spots; it is preferable to present it as a sympathetic type. When an attack is justified, the negative message must be transmitted by a voice-over, or the text of an advertisement, or by a person who is not the candidate.
DO NOT UNDERESTIMATE THE POWER AND THE PENETRATION OF RADIO
It is true that television can be the most emotional and persuasive of all media, but radio follows closely and has several advantages over television: it is less expensive to produce, it can be produced quickly, it can be directed more effectively to groups concrete, has a lower purchase cost. The effectiveness of the radio demands a great attention to creativity- different from that of TV.
THE IMPACT OF AN UNFAIR ADMINISTRATION SHOULD NOT BE UNDERESTIMATED
This is one of the hidden obstacles, how to try to measure the impact of a divided party. To determine the attitude of the voters, we must bear in mind that the merits of the candidates are very similar and that if one represents a party whose government has an unpopular image, it is very likely that it will lose.
PERCEPTION IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN REALITY
If voters believe that candidate X is an honest man, he can steal their wallets and get away with it; if they believe that the candidate Y is a thief, it will be useless for four cardinals and 16 bishops to testify in their favor.
LEADING A CAMPAIGN IS NOT A DEMOCRATIC PROCESS
It is more like a military operation, if done well. All voices shouldn’t be equal in the discussions and campaign decisions. A campaign should have experts in various areas. Your opinions should be valued. The last word must have the person in charge of the campaign. It’s good if you want to talk to the candidate. It is good if you accept the opinion of your collaborators. But surely you should not take your decisions based on one person, one vote.
YOU MUST ENSURE THAT THE CANDIDATE KNOWS YOUR PROPOSALS
It seems a lie, but it is not always like that. It is bad enough that the candidate does not know the positions of the adversary; but what is really bad is that he does not know yours. They are things that happen.
DO NOT COMPLICATE THE CAMPAIGN
There are three steps to win any election: deciding what to decide, how to say it. Everything should be clear and simple as possible, from the campaign flowchart to the heading of the letters.
NOT TO BE ENGAGED IN SLOGANS AND LOGOS
If something works in a specific spot, use it. If not, don’t do it. Some insist on putting the same slogan or logo on all campaign material. It’s a mistake. They should be used when they work, and if they don’t, you have to use something else. Or nothing.
FIRSTPROTECT THE OWN TERRAIN
If you have a solid base of support (e.g. popular neighborhoods), you must first protect it, then try to get other votes. It is also easier to increase the percentage of votes in a favorable environment than to obtain the same number of votes in a hostile environment. The vote of the closest sectors should not be taken for granted.
DO NOT HAVE TO FEAR INVADING THE TERRITORY OF THE OPPOSITION
It may seem that this point contradicts the previous one, but it does not: first, the base of support is protected, then the territory of the opposition is invaded.
YOU MUST LET THE CANDIDATE TO TALK TO PEOPLE
In this era of creative television ads, there is a tendency to make many spots in which the candidate never speaks directly to people. It is an error. People want to see and hear the candidate. Maybe he's not as handsome as Alain Delon or he does not speak as well as Felipe González; but still the voters want to see him, hear him, get an idea of him. The spots of the candidate looking at the camera and speaking directly to the voters remain one of the most effective weapons of our arsenal.
EACH CAMPAIGN IS DIFFERENT; EACH CAMPAIGN IS THE SAME
The goal of any political campaign is to persuade voters to choose one ballot among several. In any campaign, certain issues are similar if not identical. Every campaign contains the same essential ingredients: surveys, strategy, message, advertising, organization, funds. But every campaign has its specificities, and the approach and strategy must be defined and accepted according to the concrete conditions, adjusting the tactics to the needs of the moment.
YOU HAVE TO AVOID SELF-DESTROYING
It is surprising how often this simple rule is broken: defeat should not be accepted before the urban ones are closed, an increase in taxes should not be announced if elected, etc.
YOU SHOULD NOT LET THE OPONENT CAMP TO YOUR WIDTHS
Even if you do not agree with developing negative campaigns, you should not fall into the extreme of "offering the other cheek”.There are candidates who avoid responding to the attacks of their opponents by not wanting to go to their land or by preferring to disdain them. It is usually an error. If those candidates are far ahead of their opponents, and are convinced that their campaign is well designed to compensate for these attacks, or if such attacks are frequently investigated and found to have no impact, then perhaps, perhaps, the candidate he can get away with leaving his adversaries at his ease. But it is not recommended. A candidate is reluctant to answer an opponent's attacks because he thinks he has to answer them himself, and does not want to "go down to the same sewer." It is a noble sentiment that usually leads to the loss of elections. The candidate does not have to personally refute each of the attacks he receives, but his collaborators or his party should do so. Otherwise, there is a risk that the unanswered attack, repeated often, will be perceived as true, and then the problem will be serious.
YOU MUST START SOON
You never start preparing a campaign too soon. You can start the campaign too soon, but that is another thing. Starting soon you have time to make and analyze surveys, study opponents and their likely movements in depth, design and discuss several possible strategies, choose the best specialists to work on the campaign and prepare the candidate psychologically. When you start late, you do not have to do less things, you simply have less time to do them.
YOU CAN POLISH A CANDIDATE BUT DO NOT CHANGE IT REALLY
There are candidates who improve. Others get worse. But they hardly change radically. The appearance of a candidate can improve, his oratory also, but finally it is the campaign that has to adapt to the candidate, not the other way around.
Legado J. Napolitano
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