The Effects of Political Socialization in Event Marketing on the Youth: —The Three Little Pigs and Good Luck Charms Campaigns in Taiwan's 2012 Presidential Election

Abstract

Event marketing allows a brand to target an audience by creating or enhancing an image through association with a particular event. In the political arena, a party is also a brand, and a campaign can be considered a series of event marketing activities. This study explores if the two major event marketing activities of the 2012 Taiwan presidential election campaign, Three Little Pigs and Good Luck Charms, might have impacted on young voters’ preference for the respective parties and their perception of the parties’ images via political socialization. An online survey was applied with a random sample of 815 drawn from InsightXplorer’s Cyber Panel database. The results demonstrated the significant effects of political socialization by media, family, and peers in that when people encountered the campaign events more often in the media and had more discussions with their families and peers, they were more likely to have a positive attitude towards the party and perceive the party image positively. Additionally, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) supporters and non-Kuomintang (KMT) supporters were more likely to perceive Three Little Pigs as positive for the DPP, while KMT supporters and non-DPP supporters tended to believe that Good Luck Charms had positive impacts for KMT.