The study of public opinion is the main tool for checking people’s moods and tendencies before the elections. Aram Navasardyan, director of MPG LLC, a full member of the GALLUP International Association in Armenia, says that the purpose of their inquiries is not to direct people to this or that force.

According to him, studying the moods and views of the given period, it is important to support the political forces first of all. For example, the polls in this election have shown that the representatives of the healthcare system have not decided which political force they will vote for, because there have not been good program proposals yet.

According to Navasardyan, this is a good indicator of what to change in the program, how to work with the target groups, how to deliver the programs to the audience, process the messages and conduct the campaign in general.

In the post-war period, when people have many fears and traumas, it is difficult to talk about politics.

Either we have to make inquiries or we do not have a big choice. It is true that in the case of such volumes of emotion, hatred, aggression, there is a great possibility of deviations. But if we do not make inquiries, we can not look broadly and imagine what we have.

It is a difficult period for the elections, the tension is great, the political forces have had little time to prepare for the extraordinary elections. And even if there are no such inquiries, the case will be really complicated. It is important for all parties to understand the situation and the change of trends over time.

In our country, unfortunately, the political forces do not have much confidence in such polls, but in developed countries, a lot depends on such studies.

Including campaign messages?

Many parties order surveys themselves to find out what exactly people expect from them or to understand what chances they have if they nominate this or that program.

We can say that we do not have such a practice. And there are always complaints about the available poll, because the political force that receives fewer votes considers the poll inaccurate, as it has greater expectations from the elections.

If we return to our reality, we can say that even without a survey, it is clear for the main players who their electorate is and how to talk to it. That is why we now have such words containing violence, swearing, and hatred.

Mostly the political texts are mixed with swears and calls for violence, do you think this time it was not possible otherwise?

Not only are the words aggressive, but also the technical and technological tricks that are being used. The main opposing forces, the “Armenia” Alliance and the Civil Contract are taking every step and using every possible means of disseminating information in this election.

According to our polls, Nikol Pashinyan’s main constituency is in rural communities, Robert Kocharyan is in Yerevan and other big cities. The words of these two politicians addressed to their audience are drastically different from each other.

In the middle of these two is “I have honor,” which at first was not so harsh in its public messages, but in the last days of the campaign it became aggressive and rude.

The voices of other political forces are not heard in the created political noise. It is also conditioned by less financial and human resources.

Our polls show that before the actual campaign, the rating of small parties was growing. After the start of the campaign, only does it not increase, but it slows down or decreases.

Is it right to use all the advertising platforms, can’t such an amount of advertising have the opposite effect?

The advertising campaign of the “Armenia” alliance is well planned. “I have honor” is the most active in advertising platforms. Both outdoor advertising and social network advertising are heavily planned. It can be said that this is an aggressive advertising campaign. Civil Contract shares the second level of advertising activity with “I have honor.”

“Bright Armenia” carries out a classic advertising campaign, knows where its electorate is and works as a target.

Although the small parties are doing creative advertising experiments, it is not clear whether their voice reaches the audience in this noise or not.

It is also important what goal the political forces pursue through advertising. It is clear to many of them that they have almost no chances to enter the National Assembly. For them, advertising is a way to become recognizable.

For example, the “5165” movement in its video tells more about its name, as if wanting to inform people about its existence. Which I think is an anachronism for the rhythm of this campaign.

In other words, will these elections have a predetermined end for unknown political forces? Why spend resources then?

Elections may be a direct opportunity for many forces to develop their political capital.

If a political force has money and wants to be seriously involved in politics in the future, it uses this chance.

The purpose of our polls is to support such forces to find their voters. Therefore, knowing who their potential supporters are, they can have targeted advertising, because, unlike the big powers, they have more limited financial opportunities.

The connection with the potential electorate will also help to find the ideological core around which the new political force can formulate its policy.

Apart from aggressive words, what is special about this campaign?

Many of the respondents want to be informed about political programs on social media, and backyard meetings are less preferable. People want to be informed about the party’s programs at their convenient times and conditions, for example, while drinking a cup of coffee.

People are becoming more passive, it may also be due to the epidemic factor.

Outdoor advertising works very well. The case of Tigran Arzakantsyan showed that banners work very effectively.

Interview by Gayane Asryan