Four Letter Words consists of four units, each capable of displaying all 26 letters of the alphabet with an arrangement of fluorescent lights.
The piece displays an algorithmically generated word sequence, derived from a word association database developed by the University of South Florida between 1976 and 1998. The algorithms take into account word meaning, rhyme, letter sequencing, and association.
Last week Gordon Brown announced the UK General election is to be held on May 6th. It’s battle stations for all the political parties.
We at glue are handling the Green Party’s 2010 offering with the aim of getting their first ever MP elected to the UK Parliament. This article gives insight to our approach.
To gain maximum cut through our campaign focuses on two main objectives:
a) Position the party as a credible alternative to Labour, Conservative and the Liberal Democrats
b) Convey their range of policies (i.e. more than just the environment)
We observed that although all three parties are talking about “change”, the vast majority of voters we spoke to told us they saw the parties as indecipherable from one another.
Our communications strategy positions the Green Party as the only real alternative to the cosy political establishment. After all, one more Tory, Labour or Lib Dem MP really isn’t going to make much difference.
We also realised that without the financial clout and media coverage of the main parties, it’s essential the Green Party campaign is noticed by both the electorate and the media, and stands out among the cacophony of news stories and political advertising between now and May 6th.
In order to stretch this limited budget, and with an awareness that some minds can’t be won, we identified and focussed in on 2 audience segments which we feel we stand the best chance of swinging votes:
Disillusioned Labour are the 2.4 million key-workers who feel they’ve been let down over the years by the current government.
What we found was although this audience aren’t Stephen Fry, they are digitally active, especially using the web and email, and they are using the phone for beyond just calls.
Disillusioned Labour are complemented by the Green Party Heartland segment, made up by the more affluent who’s opinions are shared with the Green Party, but whose votes are needed. This segment differs to the last in that they’re much more digitally active. They’re high users of the web, their mobile use is sophisticated, they’re socially active and interestingly can be seen to create and share content.
These 2 sets of insight in combination were used to plan out the core campaign elements, where they exist, how people find them and how they’re shared.
However, simply talking to the electorate in a different way to the other parties isn’t enough. It’s imperative we behave in a very different way too.
Rather than only rely on the usual media channels, we’re putting politics in the pocket of the electorate and allowing the public to decide when, where and how they interact with the Green Party, be it via TV, web or mobile:
Before we go through each of those campaign elements individually, it’s worth first mentioning the visual treatment. At a time when the electorate is being bombarded by personal attacks and political mudslinging, we wanted to take a fresh approach. We used the colours associated with the different parties to create a striking graphic campaign that focused solely on Green Party policies. This treatment is carried across the campaign:
The new 3 minute Party Election Broadcast and Billboard Posters are the antithesis of the usual political advertising – no airbrushed faces, no politicians kissing babies, no fist pumping or hysterics – just differentiated policies, simply put.
It will go out on TV 10 times over the duration of the campaign and was created by Duck Eye.
The Election Broadcast is supported by 6 Billboard Posters, each messaging a core policy. They go out across 50 sites, 10 in each of the core constituencies and the rest nationally.
Banks / bonuses:
Housing:
NHS:
Pensions:
Living wage:
Each poster contains a text short code linking to mobile internet site where other policies can be viewed. Each policy also contains the ability to view the associated policy video.
The Election Broadcast, posters and mobile site all push people towards the campaign hub OnlyGreen.org.uk, where a range of functionality exists including the ability to view the Election Broadcast:
The site also offers the ability for supporters to create and send a Personalised Election Broadcast to a friend - a world-first for a political party.
By filling in a few simple details about a friend or relative this tool will send them a bespoke personal video from you, tailored to the issues most concerning them and highlighting the Green Party policies that are relevant.
Along with the ability to read all policies in detail, people can take a Policy Matchmaker test. This interactive quiz helps potential voters see how closely their views match with those of the Green Party. This is done by answering 10 simple questions on a range of issues. Once completed you receive a score that tells you how closely your views match with the Green Party.
Most people are surprised to find they think like The Green Party on a wide range of issues. People are encouraged to share this surprise with friends by posting their result to their Facebook news feed, to a friend as an email or via SMS.
Sending it by SMS links to a mobile version of the Policy Matchmaker which allows people to take the test on the move. It’s been created using some pretty unique technology from Grapple where technically speaking you build once and publish across devices (around 400 handsets including iPhone, Android, Blackberry, Nokia etc.)
If you text ‘green’ to 83040 you’ll get a link to it.
The Obama campaign in the US, and Green success in Local and European elections, taught us that the web is as much a battleground as the high street, and managing and responding to conversations will be key for all parties. We’ll be working closely with the Green Party to ensure this happens, and we’ll kick start activities by encouraging the existing 50,000 people on the Green Party’s email list, the 12,000 members of their Facebook pages, the 8,000 Twitter followers and the 600 YouTube followers to get involved with the cause and send it to friends.
Other campaign elements include:
It would be false to think everybody will see all elements of this campaign. What we’ve attempted to do is, based on the values the Green Party want to communicate and where their audience live their digital lives, create a campaign mix that has gives the best chance of changing minds.
We strongly feel the Green Party are not only bringing a fresh approach to political advertising, but are also fundamentally changing the terms on which political parties engage with the electorate. By allowing the public to dictate when and where they interact with the party, empowering enthusiasts to send personalised video content to friends, and helping curious voters easily see if they match Green values, the Green Party stand their best ever chance of sending their first MP to Westminster.
It’s been a huge effort for the whole team here and the many partners who’ve helped along the way. Lets hope we contribute towards the first elected Green Party MP.
Americhip is a 2.4″ LCD screen that can hold up to 45 minutes of footage.
The footage doesn’t have to be linear, it can be accompanied by an simple interface that enables clicking to relevant bits of content.
It’s been produced to be cheap enough and small enough to go into magazines, PR invites and the like.
Will be interesting to watch the convergence between traditional media getting digitised (this), and digitised media like e-readers adopting ad formats from their traditional forefathers (eg banner formats on mobile. WTF? (they’re there because web people only knew banner formats)).
Installation visualising apps as they’re purchased through iTunes:
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