At the mention of campaign many ideas flow into the mind. The business man thinks of business campaign in order to grow his business but a lane man thinks otherwise. An ordinary person thinks of politics, yes politicians do but what exactly is campaign. Is it as the lane man understands it?, as lies told by politicians or corporate people to gain acceptance amongst the people; or does it go beyond that? Well then, what is campaign? Campaign is marketing activity or program that communications director undertakes in order to gain approval from the target audience. Mostly campaign is done in order to persuade or sway the decision of consumers or electorates to follow a particular cause. For instance, you might have a campaign to introduce a new product, retain existing users, or increase market share. But looking at campaign through the political spectacle, it can be said that campaign or political campaign is an organized effort which seeks to influence the decision making process within a specific group especially the group known as "floating" voters whether in politics or in the corporate world. In democracies, political campaigns often refer to electoral campaigns, wherein representatives are chosen or referendums are decided. In view of what campaign does or the power it has especially in the hands of a communications director there are some four elements in order to ensure a successful campaign. These elements are outlined and discussed below; First of all the communications director of the organization or political party handling the campaign must first of all consider the message to be relayed to the audience. The message mostly contains the theme upon which the candidate or organization is going to base on to garner support for themselves. It contains major or bullet points of the policy or policies of the candidate. This message is mostly and frequently repeated in order to create a lasting impression with the voters. Most times than not, the opposition try very hard to get the candidate "off message" by bringing up policy or personal questions that are not to the talking points. It's ideally advisable to keep the message broad in order to accommodate other smaller messages. Instead of keeping it narrow that would go a long way to hurt the candidate's message.
For example, in the 2008 American presidential election John McCain originally used a message that focused on his patriotism and political experience: "Country First"; later the message was changed to shift attention to his role as "The Original Maverick" within the political establishment. Barack Obama ran on a consistent, simple message of "change" throughout his campaign. Hence if the message is crafted carefully, victory would be assured, and it's usually refined to become the political agenda of who becomes victorious. The second element which is essential is the channel. After the message has being carefully structured, the next thing to do is to find a suitable channel for the message. In most case the communication director must identify if it's going to be a paid or earned media. If the communicator intends to use the paid media, the candidate must decide which media would be used and attempt to dominate it. The paid media includes radio, television, newspapers, direct mail, internet advertising and literature pieces. In many cases it's advisable to find a media house that's sympathetic to the course. This said, it does not mean that the candidate ignores the opposing media but also try and make them campaign as well for them. Taking the recent past elections in this country in 2012, President John Dramani Mahama used media houses that was well known to be strongly opposed to his course, something the opposition failed to do. In the end it pulled if not a significant number of voters pulled a little to his side. Then there's the earned media, this is a platform that has to be harnessed by the candidate to his or her advantage. The campaign needs to consider how to generate attention through press events, letters-to-the-editor, talk shows, editorial boards, blogs, the internet and many others. Now after the message has been constructed and has been put through the right channel, the message must make an impact on the audience.
Whatever the message is, there must be an impact amongst all and sundry. In Ghana for example the message that made most impact and even amongst children, during the 2012 election, was "idey bee k3k3" and onetouch. Sometimes the impact could be negative or positive depending on how the message is constructed and the channel through which it was communicated. There could be ways of knowing the impact of the message on the audience. One way could be through the reading of polls mostly carried out in Europe, in Ghana it's mostly the one who has many people especially children chanting their names or campaign message. This is the third element that makes a good and successful campaign. The other way of knowing the impact on the audience is the feedback that they give to the message. At this stage the audience have received, analyzed and digested the campaign message. Therefore the next thing is to expect feedback from the audience. It's very important for the communication director to put mechanisms in place in order to get feedback from the audience. This part of the element helps the candidate know how far he or she has come in his or her campaign. From the above the four elements of campaign has been fairly outlined. If observed one would realize that these elements give foundation to the need for campaign. Aside these, campaign is used for mobilization. It is used as a medium to bring together all persons with who believe in the same ideology as the organization. Campaign again is used to relay information especially about the theme of the campaign message. It is used as a platform to tell the electorates about any change in the campaign message as in the case of McCain. For instance through campaign, Paa Kwesi Nduom was able to mobilize members for his new found party. Even though he did not win, he was able to mobilize members within a short time prior to the elections. Campaign when done rightly puts the candidate on the global map. It raises the popularity rate of the candidate ensuring victory or success for the candidate. Campaign therefore in the sense matters, as it plays a major role in the success of a growing or existing organization or political party. In a nutshell, campaign matters, as has been established above, it involves some elements and has some importance as well. Hence, however way it is viewed, if campaign does not ensure a hundred percent(100%) win it does contribute a significant percentage to the results being aimed at.
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