If any of the parties were astute enough, could the election be swayed or even fixed through the use of technology?
If you were going to use new media to win power how would you do it and would it constitute a significant advantage?
Jamie who runs accountancy business sales across the north and midlands is sceptical. Being an avid politics man he wanted to see the methodology shared.
You decide…
There are 3 points which would have made this election “fixable”.
Initially there is our first past the post system, secondly our inbuilt tribal mentality and thirdly the psychology of how people are motivated to action.
To follow the thought you will have to understand that this is an interesting election because;
• The election will boil down to a few key marginal seats.
• The majority of voters (up to 85%) are tribal voters and highly unlikely to change their mind.
• A large number of the voters who have the majority of the power will not cast a vote.
All of these factors have resulted in an election where just circa 100,000 key active voters will decide the election. These are the people who can be motivated to vote, live in the right seat and are not already voting for their political party from a tribal or die-hard type of ideology.
Because the result is controlled in just a few key marginal seats it is possible to target people specifically in those areas with new media. PPC and social feed insertions are only charged when voters click the advert, it is possible to achieve huge numbers of impressions and relentless repetition with something the size of a political party campaign budget.
Segment 1
Of those geographically relevant you would initially dissect the population further, using existing socio economic classifications based on postcode housing type such as Experians “mosaic”. A clear segment of “empty nest adventures” or “rural isolation” would enable clear and pertinent targeting.
Message
Each socio-economic group has “hot buttons”. Hot buttons being the political topics which they care deeply enough about to vote for or against. For example “cash starved families” would possibly respond well to policies around free or subsidised child care. The actual hot buttons for each socio-economic group are probably unknown in this election but you can bet that they will be well known in closed circles at the next election.
Segment 2
Another angle of attack would be to segment the target 100,000 on likely occupation or type of occupation. Social media listening, similar audience building, matching IP addresses to emails as well as other advanced profiling could well be used to target these key voters and stratify them into professions and occupational groups.
Message
When you cross reference profession or industry you are able to tailor specific messages which show the voter how they would be specifically better off financially through voting for you.
Which advisory owner wouldn’t be tempted by a clear policy to end the lack of a long stop on liability for advice? Which accountancy partner would not be interested in tax policies which benefit the profession?
Positive and Negative Campaigning
You would also be able to actively target voters supporting other parties with negative messages or persuade those only thinking of voting into not bothering. Many key voters would be dissuaded if there was a perceived certainty that their time would be wasted anyway. For example; a mining family will never vote tory yet, in the future, securing a failure to vote will become a very powerful tool.
Material could also be designed to swing voters from one party to another in order to keep a certain party from winning a specific seat. Essentially one campaign would aim to alter the vote whilst another campaign would prevent the vote. A final distinction would be needed for historic “non-voters” in each segment.
Interactive Political Broadcasting
Add into all of this the possibilities thrown up by altering the questionnaire type games which are prolific on social media and are usually about “what type of dragon are you?” or other such nonsense. For example, imagine a 10 question game as a social share which guided you on how you should vote if you want to put more money in your own pocket. Perhaps even how much better off you will be versus the other parties?
Democracy will deteriorate into an arms war between marketers. Voters are people and as such we are influenced by the volume, relevance and quality of message we receive. The most effective wielders of influence will dominate our future politics- they always have.
Suddenly, the current spectacle of 3 middle aged Oxbridge graduates running around the country cuddling babies begins to look like a target for disruption. Maybe that’s why the fascists have more likes on Facebook than the SNP, Tories and Labour put together and why nobody is laughing at Russell Brand anymore.