Monday, December 19, 2011

Election lesson no 1 - don’t hide inside a digital bubble

The election has taught MPs a lesson in common sense about effective communication.

From the endlessly amusing ‘scandal of the teapot conversation’, to nationwide billboard tampering in the name of tradition, this election was a fascinating study in communication.

As is customary, many MPs across the country were ousted from their seats amidst a debate about their lack of insight into the voter mindset and ability to communicate their own policies.

But for the first time, candidates were competing in an online election. They had a glut of communication channels to choose from to reach voters, such as vlogs, blogs, Twitter, Facebook, microsites – if Machiavelli were alive, you can bet he would have signed up to each and every one of them.

In recent years, these technological leaps have allowed many public figures to communicate more effectively and reach a wider audience than before. An example is John Key’s video blog, which is regularly updated and addresses relevant issues.
Unfortunately, the flip side of this revolution is that it has also allowed many candidates to remain behind a glass wall of social media, carefully created and monitored by marketeers.

Ironically, although digital media was invented to increase communication between people across the globe, it is in reality another way of presenting a constructed digital image of a person or business; which the public can see through.

In the case of the recent election, add this digital image to the polished TV appearances, and voters have a right to feel they never see the real person behind the public figure.

Consequently, in an age when digital communications are fashionably considered the most important tool to reach the general public, we are in danger of further alienating audiences by forgetting that communication is always a two way process.

And sometimes, simply having a good old face-to-face chat is the most effective way to get to know your audience. But more importantly, it’s an opportunity for them to know you.

The traditional promotional mix has always been defined by five core activities; advertising; direct marketing; sales promotion; publicity; and most importantly in this case, personal selling.

Putting a person in front of a brand is a simple yet crucial rule, which is in danger of being forgotten by candidates keen to try out the latest online technique.

The most obvious example of the importance of personifying a brand is Labour’s decision to omit Phil Goff from billboards. The Labour Party argued that this was to focus on the policies, not the person, but it instilled a sense of unease in the general public and ultimately contributed to Labour’s defeat.

Another example, is National cabinet minister Paula Bennett, who recently won a recount after losing her Waitakere seat by only 11 votes to Labour's Carmel Sepuloni.
Although Bennett won the recount, it was a close call and she has to ask herself why she nearly lost the seat in the first place.

It could be argued that Sepuloni was more active in engaging with her constituents by carrying out a campaign of aggressively door-stepping them, allowing residents an opportunity to discuss her policies.

The Labour MP reportedly door-stepped her constituents at their home, visited the malls where they shopped and the supermarkets where they bought their food - basically spending hours speaking to potential voters to find out what they wanted and what was important in their lives.

Sepuloni later claimed that voters were tired of struggling to buy the bare necessities and were against Bennett’s apparent ‘beneficiary bashing’, perceiving her as having a hardline stance on welfare.

It’s debatable whether Sepuloni would have been aware of this feedback unless she had spoken to the constituents themselves.

This gave Sepuloni the opportunity to actively engage with the general public, by listening and then telling them how she would address their concerns.

This highlights the danger of relying on either a digital or an old-school campaign. To be successful in an online election, it is important to implement a fully integrated marketing campaign. There is a place for old school tactics where the general public can see the whites of candidates’ eyes, while remembering to reach out to the online community as well.