Mobilising the electorate

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Paul Berney, MD EMEA of the Mobile Marketing Association says that unlike Obama, the British political parties failed to harness the power of mobile.

When President Obama was elected in 2008, many hailed the role of new media in mobilising the electorate to vote. So much so that US website mobilemarketer.com named him mobile marketer of the year.

The Obama campaign used SMS, mobile internet sites, mobile applications, mobile video, mobile advertising and Interactive Voice Response (IVR) to get its message through to a previously disinterested, disaffected or disenfranchised electorate; to great effect. It was presumed that the Democrats’ use of mobile would change modern political campaigning forever.

However, UK parties failed to use mobile effectively.  Each party created an iPhone app, although surprisingly, all were very different. The Conservatives’ app showed their views on a wide range of issues, but the responses were text heavy with no other available media content. The app also featured a ‘latest news’ section, which seemed to only consist of a daily press release.

Two additional functions allowed you to phone a friend and register their voting intentions with the Conservative HQ and a ‘swingometer’, which showed the effect on the number of seats by changes in voting. Rather amusingly this only swung one way and didn’t show what would happen if voters turned to any other party but the Conservatives.

Finally the app contained links to social media like Twitter and Facebook. The main website also allowed supporters to sign up for daily text alerts from David Cameron and the Conservatives was the only party to do this. The entire Conservative approach to new media has been brilliantly covered in an article by Wired magazine http://www.wired.co.uk/wired-magazine/archive/2010/04/features/david-cameron’s-battle-to-connect

The Liberal Democrats’ app focused only on their manifesto, with short videos featuring Nick Clegg explaining the key points. And that was it. No information on my local candidates, no further depth on policies, no real attempt to direct me to do anything.

Labour’s iCampaign app was much more comprehensive in breadth, depth and functionality with strong emphasis on local news and activism. Using location-based functionality, the app served up local news and events. Or rather it should, but it appeared to think I live 40 miles and several constituencies away.

The manifesto is explained through several ‘Purple Ronnie’-style cartoons, which were amusing for about 30 seconds, but I wonder who they are aimed at and whether the party really thinks its manifesto needs to be dumbed down? There was also a section on Labour’s achievements in 13 years of government, but this turned out to be a very long scroll with a graphic that didn’t work. I make no judgement on whether that was a fair reflection of their tenure.

I could go on. Each party fell into the same trap that many brands have when it comes to mobile – throwing all their efforts into creating an iPhone app. Yet there’s no real thought in any detail where mobile could be used to extend, enhance or replace existing communications. They don’t appear to have analysed the full range of mobile marketing capabilities, as the Obama team did, and worked out how to deploy each.

Instead, they have fixated on a handset owned by 3% of the population rather than the near 100% who can be reached through messaging. Each of the iPhone apps was flawed both in terms of functionality and, more importantly, in deciding who their audience was. Where was the app to empower my arguments with mates down the pub comparing policies or providing me with facts to back my argument?

Perhaps the best app available this time around was, “The Dummies Guide to Elections”, which let me answer 10 or so multiple choice questions and then matched my views with the political parties I most closely matched. That’s more useful functionality. I used it and then had my wife and eldest son (a first-time voter) use it to either validate our current position or question where we stood. This app then gave me better, more succinct summaries of each party’s major policies, than they did themselves.

Conversely, I received nine different direct mailers from the Conservatives, three from Labour and just one from the Lib Dems, which had a grammatical error in the opening line. In an election where change was perhaps the most overused word, it seems that no party is yet ready for change, which embraces the mobile era.

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Posted: June 1st, 2010 | Author: stuart.treasure | Filed under: Digital | Tags: , , , | Leave a Comment »

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