How a failed marketing campaign decimated the coalition’s election hopes

When your story doesn’t land, your policies don’t matter. The Coalition’s campaign was a case study in how not to market a political brand, anything for that matter.

I don’t spend much time analysing Australian federal politics, but as the campaign evolved, all I could think was about the coalition was, “this marketing is terrible”. And that turned out to be the case. The Coalition didn’t just lose the 2025 federal election; it collapsed.

With the Liberal–National alliance reduced to a mere 39 seats, and Opposition Leader Peter Dutton losing his electorate of Dickson, the defeat was historic. The real story isn’t just in the numbers — it’s in the message, or more accurately, the failure to craft one.

This wasn’t simply about bad policy. It was bad marketing. And in the media-saturated, hyper-distrustful, post-pandemic Australia, bad marketing is fatal.

The two-party preferred graph demonstrated them leading in the polls before the campaign. But once the campaign started, disaster struck.

So, what went wrong and what can we learn from this?

Great campaigns start with a keen sense of voter sentiment. The Coalition, by contrast, seemed to campaign in a different country.

Voters were concerned about the cost of living, housing and electricity. But the Coalition offered a “Let's get Australia back on track” and an over-reliance on the “Labor can’t manage money” trope. If we need to get Australia back on track, then you had better establish exactly why it is off track first. And that must be simple and succinct in message. They did not do this.

Peter Dutton’s image problem wasn’t just about policy. He lacked any charismatic appeal to the voter. Whether right or wrong, many voters cast their vote based on personality, and the emotional connection which this creates. Anthony Albanese doesn’t have much, but not much is better than no charisma.

Just who were they trying to get on board? Marketing 101, “You can't be all things to all people.” Yet I think this is precisely what the Liberals tried to do. They had an each-way bet on just about everything. And this effectively led to them saying nothing of value to anyone.

What was the difference between Labor and Liberal in this election? All the Liberals seemed to do was match any promise by Labor, without questioning it. If there is no real difference between the brand you are using now and the one being offered to you, then you are going to stick with the one you know. There needs to be a compelling reason to switch. The Liberal Party certainly did not have this.

Perhaps the only difference that the Coalition had to offer to Labor was the significant difference in electricity production. The Liberals were offering nuclear as an option. They had introduced this long ago, and to me, this was what they were going to hang their hat on as the clear difference. However, they seemed to abandon it. I am told it was not polling well.

Nuclear was always going to be a hard sell. But if you are going to hitch your wagon to the nuclear power bandwagon, then you had better sell the hell out of it. You cannot introduce it, see that there is some discontent about it with the voters and then not mention it again, hoping that people will forget about it. If you were going to introduce the explosive topic – pun intended - of nuclear energy, then you need to commit and you need to win the argument. If you don’t, then you end up with 39 seats.

Conclusion: Marketing is everything in politics

The Coalition didn’t lose because they were too right-wing or too centrist. They lost because they marketed themselves poorly — to the wrong people, with the wrong messages, without charisma and without a compelling offer or reason to switch.

So, what do we learn from this? Simple, do precisely the opposite of what the coalition, particularly the Liberals, did.

• Create a strong, clear, simple message.
• Create an emotional connection.
• Know your target market and focus on them specifically. You might pick up others but know who you are talking to primarily.
• Create a compelling reason to switch to you or your product.
• Sell, Sell, Sell. Particularly if it is a tough sell.