Who won the online election?
By ITV News Trainee Fred Dimbleby
On polling day, the official Conservative twitter account posted a slogan reading ‘Get Berxit Done’. In one moment, they summed up the thrust of their digital campaign.
While Labour on polling day opted for a well-crafted and clever campaign focussing on memes that online users would understand, the Conservatives posted a deliberate spelling mistake and attracted thousands of interactions
This mirrored the story of the online election in 2019. Labour used similar principles that had put themselves so far ahead online in 2017, while the Conservatives transformed their strategy and broke the rules of online campaigning.
Labour created videos with actors warning about the future under a Conservative government.
Meanwhile, the Tories used their actual leader in a viral video mimicking that scene from Love Actually where Andrew Lincoln professes his love for his best mate’s partner, Keira Knightley.
While Labour tried complex methods of targeting people, the Tories spent thousands of pounds on YouTube ads that were broadcast to every YouTube user in the UK.
The campaigns had a lot in common - both parties spent on Snapchat, Facebook and Google and targeted ads – but the Tories broke the rules while Labour followed the script.
Distracting with social media
Another key point of the Tory campaign was using social media to distract from potentially negative stories.
Labour achieved this through major reveals of policy or documentation in their ground campaign. Their reveal of the leaked US trade deal documents shifted the conversation to ground where they were more comfortable.
The Tories took a less sophisticated approach.
When the ITV debates were taking place, the Tory Press Twitter account changed its name to ‘FactCheckUK’.
Social media streams were suddenly filled with shock about the move, urging Twitter to take action.
The platform gave the Tories a slap on the wrist, but the Conservatives succeeded in limiting mentions of the actual debate online.
It was another sign of a campaign that took risks and was happy to take attacks from outraged users online.
Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said after the incident that “no one gives a toss about the social media cut and thrust” and maybe he was right.
But the Tories clearly "gave a toss" about their social media and used it to cover their backs and spread their message.
Who spent the most?
In the last seven days of the campaign, Labour and the Conservatives were neck-and-neck in their Facebook spending - Labour spent nearly £434,000 while the Tories spent just over £464,000.
But throughout the campaign, Labour far exceeded the Conservatives spend on Facebook. From the 13 November to the 12 December, Labour spent £861,806 while the Tories spent £597,636.
In fact, the Lib Dems spent the most in those days with over £870,000 spent on Facebook ads – a sign that spend does not translate into success.
In 2017, the Tories outspent Labour on social media, but Labour had the more successful online campaign.
In 2019, Labour’s increased spend was a sign that their organic content was having less pickup and the Tory’s lower spend showed an emphasis on other parts of the online campaign.
A winning formula?
Every election redefines the orthodoxies about what makes a good campaign and with a relatively new campaigning format, like digital, that is even more true.
After the Cambridge Analytica scandal and the political results of 2016 and 2017, targeted ad campaigns were seen to be the secret to success online.
But the Tory campaign in 2019 has redefined that. They won, not through especially intelligent localised targeting, but through mass broadcast and through creating watchable content that led the headlines and created waves throughout the online space.
Fact-checking website, FullFact, designated 88% of the claims in Conservative ads as being misleading but those online ads and posts helped the Tories take their biggest victory since Thatcher.
The question for parties now is who can most accurately predict what the next successful strategy online will be. Because it is clear from this election that following orthodoxies will not bring you success at the polls.