IRELAND’S THREE PRESIDENTIAL hopefuls have spent thousands of Euro on social media ads in recent weeks, with their spending giving an insight into how each of them are looking to position themselves as the campaign gets into full swing.

Online advertising has become a feature that’s provided interesting insight into the strategies of political campaigns, particularly as candidates can use social media to tailor their messages to specific groups in a bid to get an edge over their rivals.

Here’s how each of the three candidates have pushed their messages online so far.

Catherine Connolly

Independent TD Catherine Connolly, who is backed by a coalition of left-wing parties and groups, emerged as the first presidential candidate in the middle of the summer.

Her campaign has spent approximately €873 since her candidacy was announced – all of it on Facebook and Instagram ads that have been paid for in the past month.

Connolly’s ads have highlighted her backing from a wide range of parties and sought to portray her campaign as a grassroots effort that will herald a “new type of Ireland” if she is successful.

Her campaign has also focused on individual groups, such as Irish language speakers (Connolly is the only fluent candidate running in the election), or tailored messages about her support for Irish neutrality and criticism of Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

She has posted ads in both Irish and English, and since early September has solicited donations by positioning herself against Jim Gavin and Heather Humphreys by claiming that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael will spend over half a million Euro on their campaigns. 

Jim Gavin

Former Dublin GAA manager Jim Gavin’s online campaign has been more ad hoc, with ads running since the middle of this month that have comprised a variety of messages on different topics.

The Fianna Fáil candidate’s campaign has spent just over €1,700 on social media ads – like Connolly, all of it going on 155 sponsored posts on Facebook and Instagram to date.

Some of these have been one-off ads aimed at people in certain areas, like a videos of his visit to a sports club in Drogheda and a school in Donegal that ran this week.

However, the majority of ads have sought to portray Gavin’s vision for the presidency as someone who listens and is travelling around the country to meet people, as well as ads which have highlighted his record with the Dublin GAA team.

Most of the ads posted by Gavin so far came last week, when videos showed him at the National Ploughing Championships, including a set of ads where he said he had listened to “each person’s vision for the presidency and the country”.

Another video and text template was used in 24 ads that ran later last week, in which Gavin said he had met children from across Ireland to ask them about the presidency (the ads claimed he was told that children want “to shape a better island”).

And yet another set of ads that ran in the middle of last week showed Gavin celebrating 30 years since winning an All Ireland football final as a player with Dublin, in which he said “I’ll always advocate for the power of sport”.

Unlike Connolly, he has not pushed specific viewpoints or played to different groups, but has eschewed politics by seeking to position himself as a candidate for all citizens. 

Heather Humphreys

Humphreys has had the highest online spend of the three candidates, despite a deceptively straightforward social media campaign.

At the time of writing, the Fine Gael candidate has spent more than €11,000 so far, the vast majority of it on nearly 40 ads that ran on Facebook and Instagram last week.

The ads were targeted at users living around the country, and featured a video of Humphreys around her house and socialising with her family.

The ad primarily portrays Humphreys as a family woman – the video starts with her playing a piano before seguing to a voiceover from her daughter, then showing her playing with her grandchildren before she talks about her pitch for the presidency.

It says her “core values” are belief in Ireland’s communities, “shared strength”, and “the opportunity that exists in every corner of this island”.

Like Gavin, she has not put forward any political viewpoints or targeted specific groups and instead sought to appeal to a broad base as a unity candidate.

However, her message is distinct from Gavin’s in the way it references different communities and all corners of Ireland, which is a nod by Humphreys – who is of an Ulster Presbyterian background – to cross-community unity.

EU ban

The days of political ads on social media may be numbered, however, as tech giants are pushing back on EU rules around advertising transparency by stopping ads by politicians and political parties.

In July, Meta announced that it would ban political advertising on its platforms in Europe from October after it claimed that the EU’s rules are “unworkable”.

The EU has said its rules around online advertising are aimed at increasing transparency following the Cambridge Analytica scandal, which came to light in 2018.

Google also announced last year that it would prevent political advertising in the EU from October due to “significant new operational challenges and legal uncertainties”.

It remains to be seen how these advertising bans – which are due to come into effect from next Wednesday – will work in practice, and whether those campaigning for the Áras this year will no longer use the platforms to push their messaging.