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At last there is a whiff of genuine excitement about the General Election.
The Tories' decision to hire M&C Saatchi to work alongside their main agency Euro RSCG is a clear admission by David Cameron that he must raise his game after his much derided, airbrushed posters fell flat.
The fact that Labour is using rivals Saatchi & Saatchi — the original agency founded by Margaret Thatcher's ad men Maurice and Charles Saatchi, who broke away to found M&C Saatchi in 1995 — adds a further twist.
Those close to M&C make it clear they feel the Cameron team has not been tough enough on Gordon Brown.
New Conservative posters, unveiled yesterday, already have a harder, personal edge.
M&C, which last worked on a Tory campaign in 1997 with the “Demon Eyes” portrayal of Tony Blair, wants to “tear lumps out of the Prime Minister”.
Experts have been forecasting that
this will be the UK's first internet election.
But the campaign, like the final result, still looks hard to call. Here are the key issues:
Political posters
It is tempting to dismiss the value of billboards after Cameron's “We can't go on like this” campaign, launched on 1000 sites in January at a cost of £400,000.
The posters failed to impress and were spoofed endlessly online.
No wonder Labour spin doctor Alastair Campbell delighted in asking last month: “Has the political poster virtually had its day?”
Campbell pointed out the public's growing interest in the internet and “resistance to heavy messaging” but he added: “It is too early to proclaim the death of traditional poster advertising.”
Experts say Cameron's poster didn't work because his airbrushed image and “I'll cut the deficit, not the NHS” strapline lacked clarity.
Yet a simple, well-chosen message, such as Labour's 2001 fusion of William Hague's face with Margaret Thatcher's hair, can be brutally effective.
“Outdoor is still a broadcast medium,” says a senior Tory campaign source.
“In terms of setting the agenda, it is still very important. It gets picked up by other media such as TV and newspapers. In terms of the way outdoor is bought, it is a wonderfully flexible medium.”
Labour, which has an election war chest of only around £8 million compared with the Tories' £18 million, has so far spent little cash.
But a carefully judged PR stunt — a few posters unveiled in front of the media or a quick-response “electronic” version on an outdoor digital site — can arguably make as much impact with minimal cost.
A top outdoor advertising firm says: “The Tories have a heavy presence booked for April on a national basis.
"They have clearly decided that the focus on marginal constituencies has not been paying off and need to capture national attention. Labour will be using outdoor in April too.”
TV matters
Political veterans say no medium is more effective than TV.
Indeed, even though Barack Obama raised millions via the internet, he spent the cash on traditional TV adverts.
Britain has strict rules which limit political TV advertising, so it's editorial coverage on news bulletins that matters.
The three inaugural TV debates with the party leaders are likely to be pivotal as they should draw large audiences.
Newspapers do have an important role — the fact that Britain's two biggest sellers, The Sun and the News of the World, have endorsed Cameron should not be underestimated — but parties do not tend to use them to advertise because papers already carry political messages in their editorial.
An internet election?
It will be fascinating to see how parties use the internet, particularly in the fallout of the TV debates.
Voters will react on Twitter and blogs in “real time” and videoclips will go “viral” as they are shared via email or social media.
But the digital space is also hard to manage. Remember how Gordon Brown's video messages on YouTube backfired?
Despite the spoofing of the Cameron posters, the Tories have a savvy web operation. As a fascinating article in Wired magazine revealed, the Conservatives have been buying up key search words on Google so that users are directed to the Tories' own websites.
What appears to be lacking is much enthusiasm on the part of voters.
Obama generated a remarkable groundswell of support with 7.9 million fans on his official Facebook page.
In contrast, Cameron has 18,000 and Brown and Clegg each have 4000.
An integrated campaign
WPP's Sir Martin Sorrell says the key to Obama's success was he ran an “integrated campaign”, with the same messages online, on TV and outdoor.
Tom Morton, executive planning director at Labour's former ad agency TBWA, says some of the politicians who have embraced this “multi-channel” approach best are the younger generation of candidates.
He cites two Tories, Chris Philip in Hampstead & Kilburn and Nick Yarker in Bristol West, who are using social media and email at a local level along with targeted poster campaigns around the constituency.
A clear strategy
There were signs, even before the Tories turned to M&C Saatchi, that the party was struggling to present a coherent case.
It is understood that the Conservatives filmed three adverts which were subsequently axed, amid rumours of tension between marketing guru Steve Hilton and spin doctor Andy Coulson.
Morton at TBWA says: “Before the 1997 election, Labour had been campaigning as a government-in-waiting and had crystallised the argument.
Right now the Tories haven't done that.” Or as a top public relations expert says, looking at how Labour has closed the poll gap: “People know what Gordon Brown stands for even if they don't like him.”
Peter Mandelson is thought to be playing a key role and, although Saatchi & Saatchi is Labour's agency, there is talk that the party's former ad chief Trevor Beattie is giving advice (Campbell repeatedly name-checked him when speaking at a dinner both attended in Mayfair two weeks ago).
Over at M&C Saatchi, the company's mantra is “brutal simplicity”. That just might be the key to winning — or, in Labour's case, not losing — on 6 May.
Reader views (1)
The nation has waited 13 years to realise beyond any doubt, Brown, Balls, Mandleson and Campbell wouldn't know the truth if it his themn in the face.
e are now at least entertained by their deluded thinking and warped sense of perspective.
Less is note and the message on Labour is profound and factual.
Bullet points that will resonate for years after they have been put not just to pasture but to sea, with no land on the horizon for generations.
- Robert Marshall, London, 29/03/2010 16:56
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