Pollies told to listen as podcasters muscle mass media

[Pelican Press 0]

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Pollies told to listen as podcasters muscle mass media

The influence of influencers is being combed over after an election fought as much online as in person, with politicians looking for fresh ways to reach younger voters.

Content creators were able to reach a large audience that wasn’t typically engaged with traditional media, Cheek Media CEO and host of the Big Small Talk podcast Hannah Ferguson said.

Labor had utilised podcasters and influencers to reach young people, including women who are the largest growing audience, Ms Ferguson told AAP.

“The Liberal Party’s refusal to engage eliminated them, largely, from speaking to women,” she said.

Criticisms from Liberals about the campaign included not having a coherent communication strategy and failing to sell their message early enough, with few major policies in the field before the election was called.

Labor spent consistently on advertising throughout the campaign while the coalition saved its large spend for the final weeks, according to video tracking company Adgile.

Labor spent more than $3 million on

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election ads while the Liberals spent $1.4 million, according to Meta’s ad library.

Clive Palmer’s Trumpet of Patriots party, known for its blanket advertising campaigns, spent about $1.5 million in comparison.

TV ads still made up the bulk of the federal election video spend with more than $54 million spent – $24.1 million by Trumpet of Patriots, $24 million by Labor and $21 million for the coalition, according to Adgile.

The scale of Labor’s social media spend was surprising, political communication expert Andrew Hughes said.

It enabled them to continue their momentum while also denying the coalition airtime, he said.

Labor was more effective in its digital media strategy while the coalition was severely lacking, Dr Hughes said.

“I was surprised the coalition didn’t utilise it more,” he said.

There was also a significant surge in spending on

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where minor parties focused their ad spend as commercial TV can fail to reach the same volume of viewers or target the right demographics.

The Liberals needed to spread their focus and “engage where voters are”, Liberal senator Maria Kovacic said.

“It’s unrealistic to expect they’ll come to where we are,” she told AAP.

Finance Minister Katy Gallagher has been an early adopter of using podcasters and content creators to sell the government’s message, especially in her women’s portfolio.

Influencers were invited to the federal budget lockup at Parliament House for the first time in 2025.

This helped the government get its message out to people who otherwise wouldn’t have paid attention, Senator Gallagher told AAP.

“I think we’ll never go back to the way it was before,” she said.

“It’s really clear that new media are going to feature in politics … and they have a legitimate place at the table.”

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