'Defend change': Macri launches social media blitz

President Mauricio Macri and leading members of the ruling PRO Party met Friday at the Olivos Presidential Palace to deliberate on the government's social media strategy for the 2019 election campaign.

Despite a slight rebound recently, Macri's poll numbers have shown little signs of improvement as October approaches. Most pollsters believe a neck-a-neck contest is likely to play out between Macri and Alberto Fernández, the presidential hopeful backed by former president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner as his running mate.

Macri would lose to the Fernández-Fernández ticket in a run-off vote, the Rouvier and Opinaia pollsters reported last week.

'PAST OR PRESENT?'

The meeting at Olivos was led by the government's unofficial communications guru Jaime Durán Barba, Perfil reported.

Also in attendance were Buenos Aires City Mayor Horacio Rodríguez Larreta and Governor of Buenos Aires María Eugenia Vidal, as well as campaign bosses like Cabinet Chief Marcos Peña.

The key message government candidates will push from here to October on social media is "defend change", attendees of the meeting learned.

Showing the agility of the government's communication strategy, President Macri on Saturday launched a series of posts on his social media accounts asking users if they preferred the past or the present. The questions were accompanied by before-and-after photos of areas of the country where his government has invested in public works projects.

"In each of these cases, a huge majority composed of thousands of people have chosen the photos of today. However, it's very strange that a small group (12 percent approximately) have chosen the past. Why did they choose the past?", Macri wrote in a separate post following the results one of his polls.

During Friday's meeting, Durán Barba focused on the need to create viral material across Facebook, Twitter and Snapchat, with particular emphasis on WhatsApp, Perfil reported.

In past elections, Macri's PRO Party has shown a particular savviness with social media in comparison to more traditional parties like the Peronists.

-TIMES/PERFIL