In my chapter of the new book, Political Marketing and Management in the 2024 UK Election, I spend some time decoding the Labour Party’s creative strategy.
The book is out next month (and is available to pre-order now) but given this time last year we were counting down the days to the UK general election, it felt timely to share some observations on the advertising Labour deployed.
The party’s overarching narrative made the case that it was time for a change because the Conservatives were chaotic, divided, had run out of ideas and were responsible for a period of national decline.
They distilled this argument into a single-word slogan – “Change” – that they repeated consistently throughout the campaign. Beneath that overarching narrative, there were several different approaches to creative execution.
One approach was to put Keir Starmer at the front and centre of the ad. As Labour was ahead in the polls as to having the leader who would make the “most capable Prime Minister”, regularly deploying Keir Starmer was a sensible decision.
A second approach was to use Shadow Cabinet members as policy message carriers for their given area of policy expertise. The party kept the number of policies they promoted very limited. They stuck to issues which had high salience amongst the electorate and were issues on which voters deemed Labour to be more credible than the Conservatives.
A third approach by Labour was to use “ordinary” voters to front attack ads. In any negative advertising, there is always an element of blowback on the sponsor of the attack. One way to help ensure that the impact of the attack is net positive for the sponsor is to use “independent” voices.
A fourth approach was to use people or themes which made the party feel attuned to pop culture. One party election broadcast featured Keir Starmer being interviewed by broadcaster and social media superstar Gary Neville. Another ad showed popular comedian Jon Richardson in a bath doing an explainer – aping Margot Robbie in the hit movie The Big Short – on the negative impact of Rishi Sunak’s hedge fund career on the British economy.
Pre-order on Amazon here or just search “Political Marketing and Management in the 2024 UK Election”.
politicaladvertising.co.uk 