Brexit taught us a lot about the British public. One thing being, young people aren’t engaged in politics. With just 36% of 18-24-year-olds turning out to vote, Brexit saw an ageing population taking to the polls, which was sure to sway results. The recent call of a snap election by Theresa May has seen vast amounts of support from MPs, with The House of Commons voting in favour of the poll by 522 votes to just 13 as the Prime Minister urged them to “trust the people”. However, with recent stats revealing young people simply don’t turn out to vote, ‘trusting the people’ does not give a fair representation of what the country wants.
Until now, party campaigns have favoured an ageing population, with door to door canvassing and traditional media still playing a major role in gaining support amongst the public. Is this technique favouring the younger voter, and if not, how long will it be sustainable? If political parties want to see a younger generation taking to the polls and also voting in their favour – which as we know can influence and overturn the outcome of a vote – they should begin thinking now about how to most effectively use digital marketing and personalisation to ensure they capture their audience. We believe that the political party to get it right will win the election in 2020 and if they act fast, could, in fact, win June’s election, making 2017 our last ever offline election.
Using the Brexit poll as a recent case study, we can see that just over a third of under 25’s voted. This is, arguably in large, due to a lack of effective digital strategy put into place by both the leave and remain camps. The traditional methods did not capture the eye, or imagination, of generation X and potentially, more importantly, did not inform them of the outcomes of not voting. Of those young people that did vote, 75% elected to remain within the EU, contrary to the final result, showing just how important it makes targeting this demographic a priority. This leaves a large potential audience open to targeted digital marketing from the first party willing to bring its campaigns into the 21st century.
Whilst political parties do try and incorporate social media content into their campaigns, with Corbyn stating: “We need to get a strong, positive message across and we do that better on social media”, tweeting, snapchatting and posting on Instagram is useless unless it is done with authenticity and as part of an integrated digital campaign. Using Facebook Live to relay party broadcasts to the masses, Instagram to pique the interest of the 18-24 demographic and tailored digital ads to ensure users make a correlation between lifestyle choices and the chosen party will result in a higher turnout of the under-30 vote, which could turn predicted outcomes on their head.
If done correctly, we believe 2017 could be the last general election where digital isn’t front of mind; in another five years’ time the entire election process will be digitalised with the public even casting votes online and not in the polling stations. Now is the time for political parties to start defining user objectives, tracking journeys and using personalisation to grab attention, converting the user into a supporter, and ultimately, a voter.
By Craig Johnson, director at Kagool
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