The Digital Election
23rd Apr 2010
"Any marketing or communications professional worth their weight puts a huge amount of emphasis on getting 'under the skin' of the audience. Only when significant insights are established into belief, motivation and behaviour can an effective strategy be constructed.
Without this underpinning the strategy can be no more than 'gut feel' leading to, more often than not, failed objectives and missed opportunities.
Despite the pitfalls, there are many examples of this maxim being discarded of late - see www.netimperative.com/news/2010/march/uk-election-parties-failing-to-click-with-voters/view and www.euractiv.com/en/infosociety/uk-election-losing-battle-social-media-news-405663 for excellent commentary on the political parties efforts in the run up to the election.
The digital landscape with its dizzying whirlwind of new and endless possibilities has spellbound many into a complete 180 regarding their strategic planning methodology. Insight is no longer the lynchpin but has been substituted for Twitter, 4Square, Google Buzz, Chat Roulette.
At best these kinds of campaigns fail to cut through and hold little appeal for the target audience. At worst, a digital campaign lacking in rigour can fuel a stream of negative coverage and host of unintended consequences.
Facebook pages without fans, forums with no posts, and videos with no views can be a thing of the past if preliminary research is consistently applied. Developing an understanding of not only where the audience are engaging online (i.e. social networks, photo-sharing sites, micro-blogging platforms) but also how they're engaging (i.e. creating content, participating in discussion, reading only) can provide invaluable intelligence saving another social media ghost town from being developed.
A campaign based around the latest fad, for that is what many of them turn out to be, will no doubt generate trade publicity. Whether it meets wider objectives and is able to generate sufficient longevity is however questionable."