Palmer’s UAP leads multi-million-dollar cash splash

More than $57 million has been splashed out on federal election advertising, with Clive Palmer accounting for the vast majority.

Clive Palmer has dominated spending on advertising by political parties. Picture: Nikki Davis-Jones

More than $57 million has been splashed out on federal election advertising across commercial free-to-air television, radio and newspapers by the four main parties, with billionaire Clive Palmer accounting for the vast majority.

Palmer’s United Australia Party has spent $39.1m from September until last Sunday, according to data and analytics group Nielsen.

So far the Liberal and Labor parties have forked out $8.8m and $9m, respectively, while the Australian Greens have spent $80,000. In the most recent week to Sunday, Palmer’s UAP spent $2.9m, compared with the Liberals’ $1.65m and Labor’s $1.8m. The Greens spent $40,000.

The figures tracked by Nielsen capture spending across TV, print and radio but not social media, including YouTube and outdoor advertising such as billboards.

After taking into account total spending across all media platforms, the figure is likely to be much higher, according to advertising executives.

Ben Willee, general manager and media director of ad agency Spinach, says all media companies are benefiting from Palmer’s heavy spending.

“But it’s very, very hard to measure the digital component of what he is doing,” he adds.

Palmer has been by far the “most aggressive” with his ads in Melbourne, where Willee lives, compared with the other parties, he says.

“He brings new meaning to the word ubiquity,” Willee says.

“You watch a video on YouTube, he’s there. You watch breakfast TV, he’s there.

“I drive my car to work, there’s a billboard; while I’m listening to the radio there’s a message there.

“It’s a very, very heavy way, high-reaching multi-channel campaign, and it’s significant, and I think it’s probably changing the landscape for political campaigns in the future. We haven’t seen anyone spend this much before.”

YouTube, which is owned by Google, especially is benefiting from the election campaign, largely because of its big data library, Willee says.

“Political parties are getting more sophisticated about swinging voters and using location data as well.

“We all know that Google and YouTube have huge amounts of data about individuals so they can marry that up within their own databases and effectively target people that they think are at risk or an opportunity.”

Willee estimates there was a “huge amount” of ad spend with YouTube during the most recent state elections in Victoria and NSW, but he can’t provide any specific figures, saying it is all anecdotal.

During the 2016 election campaign, $15.8m was spent by three political parties on ads across TV, radio and newspapers. Of that, the Liberals splashed out $8.7m, Labor spent $6.3m and the Greens spent $800,000.