General Elections in the UK used to be so simple. It was a party political broadcast, poster sites and leaflets. Not any more.
In 2024, there will be no defining ‘Labour isn’t working’ ad poster on every roadside poster site.
What’s happening instead is 14,000 tailored social media ads in the six weeks before the first three days. Each of those will be delivered to you based on your age, habits and beliefs as you scroll.
Much of what will drop through your timeline will be video. That’s certainly the message of an analysis of Labour and Conservative ad spend so far.
As a communicator, elections are rather like the World Cup for football fans. Stories are told and new heroes and villains are made. But most of all I love that they are a petri dish for new communications tools.
In 2008, it was a creative use of email that gave the edge to Obama and social media that took him back to the White House.
But what will 2024 bring?
It’s absolutely not all about the posters
In 1979, analysts pointed to one single comms tool that made the difference for Margaret Thatcher. It was a roadside poster. Saatchi & Saatchi’s clever play on words ‘Labour Isn’t Working’ poster captured a national mood.
Even in 2010, the poster was still a vital part of the election armoury. Strategists of the governing party would book key poster sites to get a headstart and squeeze out the opposition.
The poster ‘We can’t go on like this. I’ll cut the deficit not the NHS’ was the defining image as Labour lost power. In the image, there is the fresh faced David Cameron. The Brexit vote was still ahead of him and everything seemed possible.
But in 2024, where are the posters?
Have you seen any?
It’s all about the troll
Social media has democratised the information process.
When Rishi Sunak called the snap General Election 2024 in Downing Street he did so in a downpour. Umbrella-less his words were drowned out by a soundsystem playing the 1997 Labour anthem ‘Things Can Only Get Better.’
Of course, the footage of the Prime Minister being drowned out went truly global and truly viral. It’s noticeable that none of the main leaders have gone anywhere near members of the public. There have been no walkabouts through home countries shopping precincts. No wonder, with smartphones everywhere a heckler can command the news headlines.
This audio trolling only reflects the trolling and noises off that are posted across the broader internet. Sometimes this is good natured heckling. Sometimes it is abuse.
It’s absolutely all about the meme
Bleeding in from the Rishi Sunak announcement it’s clear that the internet meme has become a key way to shape opinion.
There were many memes marking the damp Downing Street moment.
This one inspired by the cult British classic ‘Withnail & I’ caught my eye.
In the film, a bedraggled Withnail, the unemployed actor flags down a passing farmer on tractor. “We’ve gone on holiday by mistake,” he says before begging for fuel and wood. He is the piteous city dweller out of his comfort zone and suffering from his lack of planning.
In the meme, it pokes fun at the Prime Minister’s rained on appearance.
It’s fascinating to think that in 1979, it was ad execs who were capturing the mood visually. Now, its being done for free by a battalion of people armed with smartphones.
Indeed, it’s not just people who are looking to tap into this instant and ephemeral way of communicating. They are not built to last. They are built to click.
But, wait. The main parties are at it too.
Here’s a piece of content from the Conservative Party that steals from the Scoobedoo meme where someone is unmasked as the real culprit.
I’d say it saves on the bill for creatives. However, I’d expect that the sentiment captured in the meme will have been shaped by focus group feedback. Then the feedback will have gone through the creative process. The answer is different because we as media consumers consume differently.
But stopping to think about it, this isn’t just a preserve of a political party. I’ve started to see this tactic used in other places online, too. TikTok is to blame. The platform is all about taking content and then remixing it. TikTok’s own editing tool Capcut allows you to do this easily by giving you a library of memes to work with. What may have taken hours now takes seconds.
It’s about the email to supporters
Each political party uses a variety of channels. For supporters, the parties are using email to motivate the troops and encourage them to get their credit cards out.
Every message has a call to action to donate. Which can be wearing.
It’s about the screen grab
This is bad news for the Prime Minister but the launch image of the wet politician in Downing Street feels like it has the makings to be epoch-defining. The screen shot taken from the armchair is out running round the world before the rebuttal team have got their boots on.
It’s not about the party political broadcast
Before the internet, the only way a political party could get a film in front of people was the party political broadcast.
The main channels were obliged to carry a short film from the main parties. Like this on in 1997 by the Liberal Democrats featuring John Cleese.
They were, looking back, almost universally loathed. The words from the channel announcer ‘there now follows a party political broadcast by…’ prompted mass channel switching. The themes of these films were more of interest to political correspondents than the average punter.
Ofcom still regulates them under the Communications Act 2003 but I’m struggling to see the point.
It’s absolutely about the social media ad
The battleground for political messaging has never been stronger than with the political ad.
However, Facebook’s ad library shows that this is not about one image to rule them all. This is about creating and posting multiple pieces if tailored content for different audiences.
I run a report of the Conservative Party’s ad library. In less than two months they have created a staggering 2,887 ads across Facebook, Instagram and interestingly WhatsApp. Each one has a tailored audience and a tailored message. Some were aimed at 18 to 24 while others were marked 65+.
Meanwhile, the Labour Party have posted five times as many ads in the same period with 10,405.
Annoyingly, there isn’t an easy way of seeing the level of spend as the data just gives upper and lower levels of ad spend. But a trawl through the data shows each ad is often supported by a few hundred pounds.
The construction of such an effort requires science, money, research, ad creation skills and more money.
It’s possibly about AI
The smart money talks about elections being especially vulnerable to bad actors who may use tools to create fake content that can derail a campaign. Fake audio will be the biggest threat. But with the pace tools are developing it will be interesting to see how they may arrive.
Conclusion
Things are changing and continue to change. That’s just how it is. Communicators would be well served to be watching how the political parties use the platforms. What was once experimental can quickly become the norm.
But while our eyes are taken by the new approaches and new tools there remains an army of foot soldiers who are out delivering leaflets and knocking on doors. The actual landscape of streets, houses and flats is mapped and logged into supporters, don’t knows and absolutely nots. This off-line battle will be taking place alongside the online one.