Prague - Regional elections are coming up soon and political parties are launching their campaigns. While Social Democrats will give out one million roses, communists are counting on a more modest campaign.
Half of their campaign costs will be given to a single company - the Czech railways, according to Věra Žežulková, deputy leader of the party who is in charge of the campaign.
The party strategists have analyzed their potential voters and decided to approach them in places where the prospective voters come often - the railway stations, trains and train platforms.
Our voters take the train
"Many people use trains. People in Prague use trams and the metro, people outside of Prague take trains. Voters of the communist party are likely to use train transportation. Given this, the decision was clear," Jiří Dolejš, another deputy leader of the party explains.
The communist party does not invest as much money in the election campaign as do other parties. So it is highly important for the party to use their resources in the most efficient way possible.
"We went with this form of advertisement because it is a billboard campaign, targeting people that use public transport. Besides that, it is a portable form of advertisement. We do not invest that much money in the election campaign as other parties and that is why we were trying to find the most effective form," says Jiří Dolejš.
Two months for five million
The communists are getting 1,000 billboards inside trains, 150 citylights and poster spaces on the sides of trains for CZK 5 million. All of this advertisement will be displayed for almost two months until the election.
"Because they used a lot of their money on one company, they were able to negotiate under better condition. We will never know, though, if that was really the case or the railways offered a friendly price," says Roman Němec, vice president of the Association of Czech Advertising Agencies and Marketing Communication.
According to him, the market price can reach CZK 6 million.
Leaders on the trains
What is it that the communists want to stress, criticize or brag about? They glorify their party leaders, while criticizing government reforms. "We want people to know the faces of our candidates and remember them," says Věra Žežulková. "But we also have posters that say Stop Bad Reforms."
Advertising expert Roman Němec told Aktuálně.cz that a campaign of such extent could have been done more effectively, even with the same budget. "One way to do a more effective campaign would be to use various methods of presentation and reach more segments of the population," Roman Němec explains.
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