Gaining Name Recognition
When November rolls around, and Donald Trump faces off against Joe Biden, the people of this country will, in mass, know who the candidates are. Commercial ads will be more than plentiful, they’ll be crammed down our throats. Nationally televised debates will take place several times. The two will have already been household names. Their policies will be out there. What they stand for will be clear. We will have a decisive idea of who we’re going to vote for. But what if you’re a local candidate looking to earn a seat on the city council? Your advertising dollars may be few. Your name is not well recognized. And, you might even have just decided to enter the political arena for the first time – you’ve been a lawyer or a small business owner, and no one has ever even heard of you. How do you effectively get your name out there?
Yard Signs and Exposure:
One fantastically effective way to do it, and on a tight budget, is buying cheap political yard signs. They can be had for just a few bucks each. These election signs generate significant amounts of exposure, especially when strategically placed in high-traffic areas. If you affix political yard signs somewhere by a red light where hundreds or thousands of people commute to work on a daily basis…nice job! Purchasing campaign signs cheap draws the eyes of people driving in their cars every day. With all those viewings of your corrugated plastic yard sign, your vote totals increase dramatically. Research has shown that each one of those political yard signs earns anywhere from six to 10 more votes. If you purchase 100 lawn signs, that gets you upwards of 1,000 more votes that you wouldn’t have had before. And on the local level, a thousand extra votes can be the deciding factor as to whether you end up in office. Remember in 2000, when George W. Bush won the presidency in large part due to the minuscule amount of 537 votes in Florida? Let that number marinate in your mind for a minute, then think about the ramifications of what 1,000 more votes can do for you.
The Impact of Recognizing You:
The ability of voters to recognize the name of a person running for office can impact the effect of voting behavior. Subsequently, that impact of name recognition might translate into which candidate gets selected when people cast their ballots. Exposure to a candidate’s name through signage can lead to an increase in the office-seeker’s perceived likability. The ability to recognize a political figure’s name often leads voters to believe they should support that specific contender. That name recognition can occur consciously or subconsciously through various forms of subliminal messages and advertising, specifically the trusty yard sign.
Listen unknown candidates, political yard signs can potentially lead to voters looking you up online, researching you, learning what your platform is, and then they’ll tell everyone they know to cast a vote for you.