Barack Obama’s Presidential campaign made history for many reasons. One reason is obvious but another, possibly overlooked, is the way in which the political campaign embraced the digital age. This importance has not been lost on political strategists, and one way that a resource-strapped, but forward-thinking, political party can improve its visibility is through digital technology.
Talking to my kids, Susie and Bill, about the Green Party posting videos on YouTube causes immediate excitement. ‘Will it be as fun as the kids with eyebrows?’ a reference to Cadbury’s latest TV and online ad (the eyebrows of two children move in improbable ways in time to a catchy tune). The Green Party has a vibrant online community – with many Green bloggers achieving good rates of traffic, The Daily Maybe (http://jimjay.blogspot.com), for example.
In the European campaign, we intend to engage online with potential supporters and galvanise the vote in a number of ways:
• Scott Redding who some of you may know from his blog (http://coventrygreenparty.blogspot.com) has been employed as online communications assistant.
• Press office is sending messages and comment pieces to the green bloggers e-list.
• Green Bulletin, our e-newsletter which has both an internal party audience and an external one, including supporters and journalists will be given a make-over, relaunched and distributed once or twice a week throughout the campaign. A key focus will be to direct readers to interesting parts of the website e.g. Peter Cranie’s hair-on-the-back-of-the-neck raising speech to Spring Conference about the threat of Nick Griffin taking a seat in the North West.
• We will undertake outreach to non-Green Party bloggers - an audit is nearing completion and we are linking with new sites and people.
• We will also aim to raise some much needed funding.
Short films featuring candidates and spokespersons will be released throughout the campaign on the Green Party’s YouTube channel. The timing to be linked with media work, references in Green Bulletin, Twitter (1175 followers) and on Facebook (2469 members) encouraging members and supporters to take a look and pass on to family and friends. If our volunteer resources hold up, we’ll have Jean Lambert vlogging (video blogging) from the campaign trail.
On this fertile bed of digital activity, the European party election broadcast sets out not only to wow TV viewers in the first 3 seconds, so they don’t switch to another channel, but also to reward repeat viewings on YouTube. In addition, the broadcast will be segmented into 30-40 second pieces which will be used to seed an online viral campaign. Some interesting stills and a PR teaser campaign should build interest in the broadcast beforehand. We will tie this into a landing page with a bespoke web address where people will be able to register for updates via Green Bulletin, Twitter or join our Facebook group.
Will we meet Susie and Bill’s challenge of being more fun than the Cadbury’s kids’ unfeasibly mobile eyebrows? That remains to be seen. But with the help of party members I am confident that we can raise the party’s visibility and have a strong impact on our vote on June 4.
Tracy Dighton-Brown, external communications co-ordinator, Green Party Executive.
Scott Redding, online communications assistant, Green Party press office.
