Two things stagger me about what I’m seeing for General Election digital comms.
Firstly, the number of memes.
I’m swimming in them. I bet you are too.
Secondly, the amount of targeted Facebook, Insta and WhatsApp ads. I had a look. Since the election was called Labour’s 77,632 ads are outscoring the Conservatives three to one. They are huge numbers.
I’ve read some pieces about this being the TikTok election. I’m on TikTok. I use it a lot. I’m going to pin my colours to the mast and say that this is wide of the mark.
Instead, I’d say this is the targeted sharable election.
Let’s take the ITV News interview with Rishi Sunak as a case in point.
Battleground: TV news clips
First, there was the TV interview.
Rishi Sunak sits down with an ITV reporter and one almost throwaway question was centred around what the Prime Minister missed out on as a child.
It’s a clever question designed to target Rishi’s middle class upbringing and public shool education.
There are 3.2 million viewers for the TV bulletin. But this is the start.
Almost four million people saw the ITV News clip on X, formerly Twitter where Rishi confessed he missed out on Sky TV.
A further three million saw the clip on TikTok while the same clip got 20,000 reactions and 500,000 views on the ITV Facebook page.
Then it got chopped up and remixed by individuals and turned into spin-off memes.
People are not watching TV news bulletins from start to finish but the news is finding them as clips with lines from them as an ad.
Battleground: Memes
That’s the thing about memes. They often plug into something in the popular culture.
They can make a quick point cheaply and effectively. All the more so because they are usually not branded.
The Rishi Sunak interview has seeped into the popular consciousness. While people across the country are going without food, heat and shoes the PM’s answer jars.
Here’s a meme I saw on Nextdoor.
‘Only Terrestrial’ and the ET character is a play on the Conservative leader’s Sky TV confession.
Party created sharable content
What’s interesting, is that the political parties are also switching into sharable content.
What would have once been branded and on message is often now more subtle.
Here is a Conservative-made official meme.
Yes, there is official messaging that apes the meme but you have to squint to see the fact that this has been published by a political party.
But what’s even more interesting is that political parties are creating sharable content that’s aimed at supporters to share.
Yes, supporters can like and share the Party’s page content. But more than that, they are being directly asked to download and then share content on their own profile, into Facebook groups, WhatsApp, Instagram and onto Nextdoor.
This election has been about the recruitment of digital foot soldiers who are actively going out into the communities they live in to spread a message. The simpler that message the better.
Given that trust in politicians is at a 40-year low its no wonder that politicians are not front and centre in delivering an election message. Just nine per cent in the Ipsos Mori Veracity Index 2023 trusted a politician. If you live in London, the figure is a third of that.
The Conservative Party have an app called Share2Win where you can log on with your social media account which then posts the images you select. Every time you post you score points. Your performance is then measured against others in a league table and as you wrack up more posts you unlock badges.
Labour have their own operation and I’d be surprised if the other political parties hadn’t cottoned on.
But does a Meme on its own win elections? No. You need to plug the meme into something that’s happened in the campaign. If there is a crack then an army of memes will exploit that.
Rishi and D-Day?
Historians may say his stumble on the beaches was turned into a rout by memes.
I entirely accept that there is no readily available data on memes in the way that there is for a Facebook ad.
But they have been everywhere capturing the mood.
Battleground: Meta ads
The eyebrows stay raised when you look at the number of ads created by the Labour and Conservative Parties on Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.
A visit to the ads library shows 77,632 different ads for Labour. Most have £99 put behind them. Many ads share the same text and images but with refined targeting.
Meanwhile, the Conservatives had 25,594 ads but often with more money added to each individual post. The Independent has reported that Labour are outspending the Tories which in its own way is astounding.
Yes, there are more than two political parties in this General Election. But often the digital communications approach rom the minor parties does not have the reach or brown of their far richer rivals.