Positioning a Personal Political Brand on YouTube with Points of Different Visual Storytelling

Abstract

Developing a personal brand in the world of social media is a new trend. Existing literature examines how professionals, actors, athletes, influencers can utilize social media platforms to build strong personal brands. However, the phenomenon of positioning brand for politicians, online, in a race to gain the middle voter with limited ideological differences between the two main political parties is rarely studied, despite its growing importance, especially during the election period. This research seeks to fulfill this gap and tries to understand what kind of personal branding can be formed successfully on YouTube for politicians’ campaigns. The analysis explores visual storytelling of brand-building of the two political leaders in Greece in the 2019 European Parliament pre-election period. The results revealed that a visual storytelling with emotional symbols, authentic appearances and universal slogans were the main points of difference for politicians to position effectively. The results could help the growth of political-personal branding theory and practitioners for political marketing strategies on YouTube. Directions for future research are discussed as well.