In this general election, 'data is king'

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

A digital paper from the Hansard Society has said that for a political party to succeed, it must have vast amounts of data on its target voters.

"It is important for all the parties to identify and engage supporters and to do this they need to capture as much information about as many people as possible ahead of and during the campaign," the paper said.

"A lesson clearly learned from the US is targeted marketing to potential – and particularly swing – voters."

The paper noted that all of the major parties have already invested in technology to capture all the contacts that they have to support the campaign. Although the mass storage of data is not new, with Labour having had a voter database for over 20 years, the paper said with new internet tools parties have far greater abilities to create more targeted campaigns and to analyse intentions and demographics.

Looking at the chances of the first, true "internet election", the paper said it does not believe it will reach the same level as the US Presidential elections in 2008. But the paper does believe the internet will play a key support role, providing fast and reliable communications between central and local offices and officials.

For this, email remains the "killer application", the paper said, but this election will see more effective use of social networking tools like Facebook and Twitter for communication and the coordination of volunteers.

"So, perhaps in an appropriately British way, we will not see the digital razzmatazz witnessed in the US – the party-based political landscape is too different and the budgets much smaller. But we are going to see digital media quietly cementing its place as an invaluable tool to support effective on-the-ground communication and campaigning," the paper said.

"In the long run, the internet is going to become an increasingly important democratic tool, but for the moment it will remain secondary."

Dr Andy Williamson, director of the Hansard Society's Digital Democracy Programme and author of the report, said: "In terms of online campaigns, Britain is a follower and not a leader, and has far less in common with the United States than it does with Canada, New Zealand, and Australia. What will be important is how the election winners handle the transformation to online campaigning to online government."