- They have intensified their branding through giant billboards within the capital city.
- The two have increased their spending on outdoor advertising and have erected billboards at strategic locations around Nairobi.
Image: RAILA ODINGA/TWITTER
Main presidential candidates Raila Odinga and William Ruto have intensified their branding through giant billboards within the capital city.
The two have increased their spending on outdoor advertising and have erected billboards at strategic locations around Nairobi ahead of Tuesday's general election.
Notably, the two have also crafted appealing messages on the billboards targeting carefully segmented voters in last-minute campaigns to counter each other.
This is besides the troves of online and electronic advertisements that both camps have funded to reach as many voters as possible before campaigns close on Saturday evening.
They have also designed targeted audience messages to appeal to specific regions and certain demographics.
In one such scenario, Raila's Azimio la Umoja One Kenya coalition have erected a giant billboard along Thika Road with a big image of the running mage, Martha Karua.
“The Daughter of the Mountain, vote Azimo blue,” read the words on the billboard seen as targeting the Mt Kenya population.
On the other hand, Ruto's Kenya Kwanza has not been left behind.
They have also erected billboards across the city to counter Azimio's campaign messaging.
“Freedom is coming,” shouts one of the billboards along Thika Road by Ruto's camp.
At the Thika Road mall is another billboard on the opposite side by Raila's Azimio saying, “ Freedom is here”.
Raila and Ruto have also intensified television, radio and online advertisements costing millions of shillings.
In the latest TV ad by Ruto, the Kenyan Kwanza camp accuses opponents of not having information about basic items like even bread.
The song combined with images and video by the DP's camp also presents Ruto as a man who understands the daily hustles of ordinary people.
“They even don't know the price of bread but they have united to fight the poor, our hustler understands our problems because he sold eggs,” the advertisement plays.
Last week, Kenya Kwanza, released another TV advert with a message of a man determined to end what he termed an “economic malfunction”.
Through the advert that has been running on the main television channels before prime newscasts, Ruto tears into his main rivals and presents himself as the saviour of the downtrodden.
“In their eyes, I may be the son of a nobody but I promise to make Kenya the country of everybody,” Ruto says.
He goes on, “...it is about them, not you. This is what we must change. I am not promising you perfection, I am promising you and your children equal opportunity.