Analysis of the "Desak Anies" Political Marketing Strategy in Building Candidate Image and Mobilizing Young Voters

Abstract

Unscripted dialogic campaign programs remain underexplored as integrated political marketing strategies for candidate positioning and youth engagement. This study analyzes the political marketing mix of “Desak Anies” during the 2024 Indonesian presidential election, examining its role in candidate image construction and young voter mobilization. A descriptive qualitative approach employed an embedded single-case study design. Purposively selected sources included key informants comprising Ubah Bareng movement initiators and campaign strategists, livestream event recordings, media monitoring reports, and digital interaction metrics. Data were collected through systematic documentation and analyzed using Miles, Huberman, and Saldaña’s interactive model, with coding organized around Kotler and Kotler’s 4P political marketing framework. The analysis characterizes the program as a platform for two-way deliberative dialogue and unscripted public questioning. It identifies the integration of face-to-face “retail politics” with “wholesale politics” through social media livestreaming and micro-content amplification as central to the campaign’s communication strategy. This integration positioned the candidate as an authentic, responsive technocrat willing to undergo public scrutiny. The findings suggest that authenticity, interactive dialogue, and media convergence offer potential mechanisms for building political trust and encouraging voluntary youth engagement. The study contributes a contextual account of how dialogic campaigning connects candidate positioning, public participation, and digital amplification within an integrated political marketing mix. Further quantitative and econometric research is needed to examine relationships between digital earned media metrics and actual vote shares at polling stations.