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| Michael Howard on the campaign trail |
| A New Era in Election Campaigning |
The 2005 General Election campaign in the UK saw the emergence of new trends in political communications. Contrary to historic trends, the 2005 campaign saw an unprecedented effort put into grassroots campaigning in key marginal seats, rather than a "presidential" national media campaign.
There were a number of reasons for this shift in campaign strategy. The Labour Party knew that Tony Blair was no longer the show-stopping asset that he was in 1997 and to a lesser extent in 2001, and its research showed that individual Members of Parliament had a considerable incumbency bonus where they had worked hard.
Reduced turn-out also meant that more effort had to be put into persuading voters to come out and vote, and relaxed rules on postal voting meant the main parties were very keen to get people signed up to postal votes as this increased their likelihood of voting.
Finally, recent research shows that voters are increasingly sceptical and turned-off by national media messages, while direct mail and personal contact have a proven impact on the electorate's likelihood of voting and which party gets their vote.
In response, the three main parties had disciplined key seat strategies, and focused their efforts on the limited number of marginal seats that could change from one party to another. They deployed national telephone banks, direct mail shots, full-time organisers and key-campaigner visits in these battleground seats.
In Labour's case, the list of key seats leaked to the press numbered 107, but this number was winnowed down considerably for the month of the campaign as it became clear that some were either "written off" or "in the bag".
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| Recent research shows that voters are increasingly sceptical and turned-off by national media messages. |
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The Conservatives had an internal dispute early in the campaign about whether to target a limited number of seats, or a more ambitious list predicated on winning an overall majority. The former turned out to be the more realistic call. Lord Ashcroft donated up to £21,000 each for 23 of the top 100 marginals, massively outspending Labour in those seats.
The Liberal Democrats were extremely ruthless about their targeting, pouring resources into the small number of seats they were after. Their strategy of "decapitating" seats held by senior Conservatives, however, did not bear fruit - or heads! They did well in Labour/Liberal Democrat seats but not so well in Liberal Democrat/Conservative seats due to national positioning.
Since 2001, and as is usual in British politics, new ideas have been imported from the most recent election campaigns in the US and to a lesser extent Australia. In particular, permission marketing, long used by commercial companies, has crossed over into the political arena, with political parties using surveys and response devices on leaflets and letters to get "permission" from individual voters to enter into a dialogue with them through letters and face-to-face contact about the issues the individual voter cares most about.
For the 2005 campaign, Labour and the Conservatives also invested heavily in software to target voters according to their socio-economic characteristics, so direct mail shots and phone calls could be pointed towards those voters most susceptible to a particular message. For example, homeowners can be targeted with messages about mortgages or stamp-duty. This supplemented direct mail based on canvass returns and enabled canvassing to be focused on the most likely supporters.
The Conservatives imported an American system called VoterVault, while Labour used the Mosaic package.
In the national media, the parties did not inspire voters with positive messages. Labour hit early flak with accusations that it had personalised its attacks on Conservative leader Michael Howard in proposed posters which the Conservatives labelled "anti-Semitic". Internal divisions in Labour's ranks meant that Chancellor Gordon Brown's supporters were quick to blame campaign chief Alan Milburn for this own-goal.
The Conservatives hired Lynton Crosby, an Australian campaign consultant with a formidable reputation, to give their campaign an edge. Despite early worries that Crosby would have trouble translating his techniques from a country with only a dozen marginal seats to one with over 100, he succeeded in seriously rattling Labour when the media had predicted the result was a foregone conclusion.
| Since 2001, and as is usual in British politics, new ideas have been imported fron the recent election campaigns in the US and to a lesser extent Australia. | |
Crosby did this through uncompromising attack tactics designed to mobilise the core Conservative vote and win the turn-out war against Labour, as well as appealing to key groups of skilled working class and lower middle-class voters who had defected to Labour in 1997. This method is known in Australia as employing "a dog whistle", highlighting policies such as a tough line on immigrants and gypsies that do not resonate with people who were never going to vote Conservative anyway, but enthuse core Conservative voters. In the event, however, it wasn't enough.
The Liberal Democrats gained from the anti-Iraq war backlash in a manner unlikely to be repeated, but ultimately found themselves squeezed as the battle between the two main parties became increasingly close and partisan.
The 2005 UK General Election campaign will be remembered not just for Tony Blair winning the first ever third term for the Labour Party, but for the significant changes in political campaigning. Ultimately, however, the tried and trusted techniques were the ones that worked: it seems there is just no substitute for pounding the streets and knocking on doors.
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Jon McLeod, managing director, Weber Shandwick I Public Affairs, London.
Weber Shandwick l Public Affairs has produced a map of the General Election results showing where the parties were successful - click here to view. To order hard copies in A1 format, please contact Susan Adams at sadams@webershandwick.com
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