Political marketing is experiencing a fundamental reset, just as data analytics, artificial intelligence, and digital platforms are changing how candidates understand voters, shape narratives, and compete for attention. Mike Dada, a lawyer, Marketing and Public Relations expert and CEO/ Managing Director of PRM Africa Marketing and Communications Ltd, with close to three decades of experience across strategic public relations, advertising, brand communication and political campaigns, insists the change goes beyond technology. Raheem Akingbolu brings the excerpts.
Though you wear many caps, you have built a career in brand development and corporate communications for close to three decades. How would you describe the growth of the industry, considering where it is coming from?
Let me say, brand development and management, yes, but more than corporate communications. Perhaps you meant Marketing and Public Relations, which are broader disciplines and careers. It is a pleasure to share my perspectives on these developments. Having transitioned from traditional brand building to the high-stakes arena of political marketing, I’ve witnessed a profound transformation in how we communicate value, whether it’s for a product or a presidential candidate. Obviously, the industry has moved from a rudimentary stage of “mere publicity” to a sophisticated era of strategic brand management. In the early days, corporate communications were largely reactive—putting out fires. Today, it is a proactive, data-driven discipline. We have seen a shift from purely traditional media (billboards, television, and print) to a holistic ecosystem where the brand is emotional, experiential, and digital. The industry has grown to become a cornerstone of corporate governance and business sustainability in Nigeria and around the world. It is also important to note the evolution of the strategic and historic role of the body of knowledge of Marketing that birthed other disciplines and legs of communications, with its attendant technological leveraging and impact. There is more precision and exactness these days. Overall, there is a significant leap in improvement and advancement, especially with technology and science.
Since the Abiola 1993 era, the impact of professionals in political campaigns has not been very pronounced until you and some others emerged as key players in the political marketing scene. What informed this development?
The “Hope ’93” campaign was a masterclass in political communication for its time, but for nearly two decades afterwards, political campaigns in Nigeria returned to largely “organic” or “thuggish” methods where professional political marketing strategy was sidelined. The political candidates were used to, and many still rely on, the crude and unstructured push strategy that depends on fellow politicians and volunteered relatives as campaign committee members to communicate their intentions and manifestoes to potential electorates. What informed our organisation’s, in this case PRM Africa’s, emergence and the current professionalisation is the realisation that the voter has evolved and become more discerning and critical. You can no longer win solely by “stomach infrastructure” and/or deliberate voter suppression. You need a story or narrative, a compelling, convincing, and distinct one, for that matter. We saw a gap where politicians had great manifestos and genuine intentions but zero brand identity and emotional resonance, so we stepped in to provide solutions that treat the candidate as a “brand” that must promise and deliver enduring value.
Having been involved in the campaigns of a few political candidates and achieved success in them, would you say our political environment is ripe for modern political marketing?
Absolutely. Our environment is more than ripe; it is demanding it. In fact, after managing sixteen elections end-to-end over the years and winning all, I am more than convinced that political marketing and communications make a lot of difference in determining who becomes victorious in a democratic election or else the candidate will be winking in the dark. The days of addressing the same crowd at different political rally locations are gone. With a younger (because the median age in Nigeria is 18), more sceptical, and more exposed electorate, “politics or electioneering as usual” is falling apart and becoming boringly unfashionable. Modern political marketing—which involves deep and honest situation assessment, demographic and psychographic analysis, voter segmentation, and targeted messaging—is now the only way to reach a fragmented and distracting audience that no longer sits in one place watching the same television channel.
Is the impact of political marketing measurable?
Yes, it is highly measurable. We no longer guess. We need to count the numbers for it to count. In any case, democracy is a game of numbers. Through sentiment analysis, digital footprint tracking, evaluation, consistent control and periodic polling, we can measure the “conversion rate” of a campaign. We can see how a specific message moved a specific demographic in a specific geopolitical zone. If your marketing isn’t moving the needle in the polls or social sentiment, you know you need to pivot. It is important I point out that political marketing needs to be married with push strategy, OTG- on-the-ground work- for success or for the campaign objective to be achieved.
If you were asked to mention one of the most striking campaigns you have handled, which would you mention?
We have many campaigns that stand out. While it is fashionable to have a stand-out campaign, I think it is better to achieve the objective of the campaign in this case, winning an election. I remember a story that I have used many times as a case study whenever I have the opportunity to lecture or teach brand communication, and many of my university mates, friends, or comrades at Ife will remember this student union election story.
I was the campaign manager with no professional training, and our ideological group lost the student union presidency because our poster looked very expensive (a full-colour poster, not black and white), and our candidate was overdressed. The campaign stood out, but we lost.
The students even had a song for us, ‘e ma tele won oo, awon to te poster olowo nla, e ma tele won.’ (Don’t follow them; those who printed expensive posters, don’t follow them.)
Later in life, during my professional journey, I realised that we were communicating over the heads of the target audience in that students’ union election. The students were wondering and interrogating where we got the money to print over 2000 full-colour A2 posters, buy expensive jackets, and tie and shoes for our candidate to do photoshoots, without realising that the clothes were borrowed from a relative and the posters were donated by a student and comrade whose family business, up to the 3rd generation, are big-time printers. Many times we handle difficult political marketing projects. Personally, I love challenges. We have had instances where we had to campaign against the tide. We had to take a candidate with a long history of mixed image and reintroduce his core essence—the “Manifesto Chronicles”—to a digital generation that was largely fed on social media narratives. Seeing that strategy translate into a win was incredibly rewarding.
In a world filled with evolving technological solutions, what is the role of digital marketing in political marketing?
Digital marketing is no longer an “alternative” channel; it is the primary battlefield. In a world of evolving tech, digital marketing allows for micro-targeting, precision, and measurement. We can send one message to a farmer in the North and a different, tailored message to a tech enthusiast in Lagos, all while maintaining the core brand essence. It provides the feedback loop that traditional media lacks. It is not the future; it is now.
Beyond political campaigns, governments at various levels in Nigeria have been criticised for not engaging professionals to communicate their programmes. What is your take on this?
This is a major challenge in Africa, not only in Nigeria. Governments often treat public affairs communication as “propaganda” rather than “engagement.” They use civil servants or “information officers” to do the job of brand specialists. The result is a disconnect and confusion you see everywhere: a government is performing, but citizens feel neglected and distant. Governments must learn that selling a policy is just as important as implementing it. Governments at all levels need to understand the necessity of investing heavily and building intangible assets such as reputation, perception, mutual understanding, and trust for the purpose of legitimacy and policy support from citizens.
With the 2027 election approaching, what advice would you give to aspiring politicians or candidates?
Start early. Branding is not a coat of paint you slap on four months before an election. It is a reputation built over time. Define your “Brand Essence” early. What do you stand for? If you wait until 2027 to tell us who you are, the opposition will tell us who you are first. More importantly, engage the services of a professional firm or agency. What effect will political activities have on advertising spending and budgets for the year? Election cycles always trigger a massive surge in ad spending. To be honest, media planning and buying for political campaigns are always on the higher side when you compare them with brand campaigns, and it is not the fault of the consultants or the agencies. Media houses sometimes charge 100% or 200% of the regular brand campaign for political campaigns, and the allowable duration for the campaign by the Independent National Electoral Commission does not help matters. However, this time, I expect to see a shift in where that money goes. We will see less being spent on generic “goodwill” posters and more on high-production digital content, influencer partnerships, audio space, OOH, experiential marketing, and data mining.*
Do you see the electioneering campaign opening up the industry this year?
Yes, the electioneering year traditionally “reinvigorates” the marketing communications industry. It provides a lifeline for agencies, printers, media houses, culture and creative industry and digital strategists. It forces the industry to innovate because the competition for “share of mind” during an election year is the fiercest there is.
What do you think 2026/2027 will look like for marketing communications practitioners, especially those involved in political marketing?
2026 and 2027 will be the years of “Data and Narrative.”Practitioners who rely on old-school methods will find themselves obsolete. Those who understand how to marry Artificial Intelligence (AI) with local insights—translating complex data into grassroots messaging—will dominate the field. It will be a period of high pressure but even higher rewards for those who can navigate the intersection of technology, neuroscience, creativity and human psychology. For instance, according to the report by PWC and commissioned by ARCON, Nigeria’s total marketing communications and advertising expenditure reached N605.2 billion in 2023. Spending grew at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 18.7% between 2018 (₦216 billion) and 2023 and Ad spend is projected to climb to N893 billion by 2028. The sectoral contribution to Nigeria’s GDP is expected to rise from 0.7% in 2023 to 1.08% by 2028.
Expectedly so, the 2027 Nigerian elections are projected to trigger a massive financial surge in the marketing communication industry, driven by a proposed government election budget of approximately ₦873.78 billion. This represents a staggering increase of nearly three times the ₦305 billion allocated for the 2023 cycle. This enormous capital injection, supplemented by private candidate from sub-regional to national,spending from , will flow heavily into traditional media and Out-of-Home (OOH) advertising, turning the election year into a primary revenue driver for MARCOM agencies nationwide.
Parallel to this, I know that a significant portion of the budget will shift toward digital-led strategies, emphasizing data-driven micro-targeting and social media influencer engagement to reach Nigeria’s large youth demographic.No doubt, this professionalization will increase the revenue of integrated marketing communication (IMC) agencies tasked with high-level reputation management and sentiment analysis. While this provides an economic stimulus for the creative sector, it will also necessitate higher compliance costs as the Advertising Regulatory Council of Nigeria (ARCON) increases scrutiny over the record-breaking volume of political messaging.