SDA spent the most on advertising, Bakir's posters everywhere

Transparency International Bosnia and Herzegovina (TIBiH) monitored and analyzed the first week of the election campaign for selected 10 political parties, considering advertising in electronic and print media, reports the BH News Agency Patria.

The monitoring results showed that the Party of Democratic Action (SDA) booked by far the most media space in the first days of the campaign, and therefore, as stated by TIBiH, spent the most money on advertising.

"It is also interesting that this party had more ads in the first seven days of the campaign than all other parties included in the research combined. In the same way, when comparing ads promoting candidates, the most publications were recorded for the SDA candidate for the Presidency member Bakir Izetbegović – 66 publications, or 18 percent of the total number of publications," stated TIBiH.

After SDA, the second largest advertiser, according to them, is the Alliance for Change (around KM 59,000), which does not include separate advertising by parties within this coalition. 

Interestingly, the People's Party Work for Betterment and the Democratic Front did not have ads on TV stations and in newspapers covered by the monitoring.

For renting space in electronic and print media alone, without estimating campaign preparation costs which will be included in weekly reports later, parties spent around KM 267,000. 

Regarding the costs of ad preparation, amounts were estimated based on marketing agency assessments, and the highest ad creation cost was incurred by the Alliance for Change – around KM 135,000, followed by SNSD-DNS around KM 106,000, SDP KM 36,000, SDA around KM 30,000, DNS individually around KM 18,000, PDP around KM 11,000. Costs for SBB and SDS individually were not calculated, as rented programs and recordings of forums were broadcast, also through rented space. 

Due to the unavailability of data, radio stations and outdoor advertising were not covered, so these figures represent only a small portion of the total money spent, especially considering the parties' tendency to advertise on billboards, which are by far the most popular form of advertising during campaigns. 

"It is interesting to look at the choice of media for party advertising, where Hayat TV had by far the most advertisements from political parties and candidates – a total of 91 ads with a commercial value of KM 43,145, while the highest commercial value of ads was recorded on RTV BN (KM 54,778.23)," states TIBiH.

"Not surprisingly, SNSD advertises only on RTRS among television stations, while SNSD-DNS coalition ads are advertised on RTRS and ATV. On the other hand, the Alliance for Change predominantly advertises on BNTV and ATV. Also, SNSD and SNSD-DNS advertise in Nezavisne Novine, Glas Srpske, Blic, and Press RS, while the Alliance for Change, nor the parties forming this coalition, do not advertise at all in these media. For parties that are more dominant in FBiH, no differences were observed in media selection," the statement reads.

Given that the data relates to the very beginning of the campaign, it can be expected, they state, that as the campaign progresses, the amounts of money spent on advertising will be incomparably higher.

CONDUCT TRANSPARENT CAMPAIGNS

TIBiH once again urges political parties to conduct more transparent election campaigns and to provide citizens with insight into the amount of funds spent, and more importantly, the sources from which these funds originate. TIBiH will certainly continue to inform the public about funds spent on the campaign and the level of responsibility of parties in conducting election campaigns, and at the very end of the campaign, it will publish information regarding other segments of the campaign, such as pre-election rallies and billboards.